Her Story
About Elai
My journey in mental health began early on when I was in high school and undergrad, where my first few jobs were in mental health and I volunteered at different places. That exposure to the field sparked my interest in getting my master's degree. I graduated from Pepperdine in clinical psychology in April of this year, and I'm currently working on my doctorate in Applied Clinical Psychology at the Chicago School. My typical day involves working at Pepperdine in many different departments where I help the clinical team, working at two mental health clinics, and recently taking on a role with a private practice that specializes in working with diverse populations with personality disorders, mental health concerns, and homelessness. I start my clinical volunteer work for my doctorate program in a year. My professional values center on working with and developing evidence-based training and experience with in-depth approaches that help build my clinical skills and continuing ethical work to help populations. Embodying diversity and working with a different range of populations is very important to me because it helps me be ready day by day when working with different people and different presenting concerns. I'm mission-driven and purpose-focused, which is why I attended Pepperdine. I work very closely with nonprofits like Maple Counseling, which provides community mental health services, food, shelter, and resources for people in Los Angeles, and Opika, which works with people 65 and older with dementia care, activities, and health resources.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Elai
01What do you attribute your success to?
I owe a lot of my overcoming challenges to my good balance and connection with self. My training at Pepperdine has been crucial - I think if I went anywhere else, my lens would be different clinically, so I thank Pepperdine for that. I'm trained really well to know how to handle clinical settings and taking care of myself, boundaries with taking care of myself, and just working through things. I think my work ethic and my loyalty to my field are very helpful. You can't hold the evidence of helping someone - you can't hold it, it's kind of like love. You can't hold it, but you understand it, and working through that is what drives me.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Never give up. Pepperdine has taught me to just go through challenges and write through them, rather than experiencing hardships and giving up. That's the biggest advice that I've gotten, that I apply every day - to go through the problem or work through the problem rather than being stuck in it.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
To believe in yourself, and to be consistent, and stay true to your values.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges is when someone's experiencing conflict or hardships in their life, they kind of see the now and the stuckness of it. When you're working with someone to keep going through the problem or working through the problem, it's a huge challenge to see someone experiencing hardships and pain. I'm trained clinically, so I work through that, and that's a challenge, but the work is fruitful. It's lots of long hours, and you always have to keep your toolbox sharp and continue your education and training, so that's definitely not easy. But with those challenges, I think I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't experience those things.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Working with and developing evidence-based training and experience with in-depth approaches is very important to me, as it helps build my own clinical skills and continuing ethical work to help populations. Embodying diversity and working with a different range of populations is crucial because it helps me be ready day by day when working with different people and different presenting concerns. I'm mission-driven and purpose-focused - that's why I attended Pepperdine. What's really important to me is to help the community and be able to expose what my training and my contribution to mental health is, so that I can reach as many people and help, and use my skills as much as possible.
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