Why I do what I do – Brittany Smith, WRAP Specialist

I have thought about the answer to this question for a while. As it has changed some over the years as I have adjusted into different roles within mental health. Before I began on a path to mental health, I was looking into a career in art and I happen to take a social psychology course in undergrad. Taking this course shifted a lot for me. I changed my career goals, school, and dove into studying psychology. From there I grasped every piece of knowledge to understanding the mind, human behavior, and everything else in the field of mental health.

I have had several different job experiences, from dairy farming and factory floor worker to graduate assistant and case manager. I am excited now being at Bert Nash where I can hone my counseling skills and dig deep into what makes empowers and regulates us. Coming from a small farming town in Ohio to the middle of Kansas was a big move and I do not regret it. While I miss my first family, my new family is growing and I love the memories we are creating together. My spouse and two sons, now 2 and 1 years old, have taught me so much and I learn more from them every day.

I do what I do because I believe everyone has a story to tell. Hearing people’s stories is rewarding in itself for me. Each story is so unique and valuable. Whether it is filled with pain, joy, loss, victory, or something else, stories are meant to be told. The story may not appear very pretty and marred with despair, but there is always a silver lining that once found can be a light moving forward. I believe in the resiliency and power to overcome in each of us.

A quote that I want to share with everyone, because it really resonates with me, was brought to me by Brené Brown in her Daring Greatly movement, who quoted part of Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."