Rebecca McDermott is a clinician at Glenhaven Academy, a therapeutic residential school in Marlborough, Massachusetts, affiliated with the Justice Resource Institute (JRI), one of the largest social service providers in the state. Working with students ages 12 to 21 with complex behavioral and mental health issues, McDermott provides trauma-informed individual therapy, as well as family and group therapy and case and IEP management.
Part of a multidisciplinary team, she also helps coordinate other areas of the students’ treatment objectives — medical, educational, and residential.
Above all, McDermott supports the students in identifying and achieving goals “to build readiness,” whether that’s preparing to return home, stepping down to outpatient care, or attending college or trade school.
“Our students stay anywhere from a couple of months to a couple of years,” she explains. “Support is integrated into our therapeutic environment, so we really get to see the students’ progress through treatment.”
On Choosing Simmons
A graduate of the University of New Haven with a degree in psychology/forensic psychology, McDermott chose Simmons for its established clinical focus. In particular, she hoped to gain the theoretical and practical knowledge to provide one-on-one therapy, as well as the flexibility to pursue other avenues of social work.
She appreciated that Simmons offered a “community-oriented” learning environment yet also a robust curriculum with many options for electives and field placements. This appealing balance, she believed, “would allow me to explore high-level work in different settings.”
Preparing for a Career in Social Work
Entering the program with an interest in working with children, McDermott enrolled in the Social Work + Trauma Practice Certificate program. In addition to this specialized coursework, she cites the Substance Use & Social Work and Advanced Clinical Practice courses as especially stimulating and valuable.
“I was learning interventions in class that I could practice with a client the next day,” she says.
For her first placement, McDermott interned for an innovative new program at the Boston Public Library. The initiative supports patrons — many of whom are unhoused — with needs beyond traditional librarianship, such as identifying social services, applying for jobs, and accessing housing assistance.
In her second placement, McDermott gained extensive experience in individual and group counseling at Children’s Charter, a specialty outpatient mental health clinic for young survivors of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and interfamilial/multigenerational trauma.
“It was the perfect fit for me and a great first step into the world of outpatient therapy,” she says.
Why Clinical Work is Meaningful
“What drew me to working with teens is their ability to do deeper clinical work,” says McDermott.
In the residential setting, she adds, “we get to see them grow up, have fun in less serious moments, and explore and form their identities. My hope is for students to see the benefits of the therapeutic treatments and family work and to reach their own goals as a teen.”