By Christine Wu, staff writer
Growing up with a family member who had bipolar disorder paved the way for Chris to study and become a therapist. Watching his family members being manic and depressed was very stressful on him, but it also spurred him to find interest in learning more about mental health. He is currently one of the school therapists in the Wellness Center who is available for appointments and drop-ins.
Chris graduated in 3 years from USF with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and then took another 3 years to earn a masters degree in Marriage and Family therapy in graduate school. In college as an undergrad and graduate, he was a research assistant for his psychology professors, researching about Asian American psychology. He had also worked at a small Lutheran school, Zion Lutheran, in their after care program, and as a JCYC camp counselor for summer camp.
He also worked as a counselor at an in-patient treatment house called “Progress Foundation”, a non-profit mental health agency. There, he did group counseling and gave mental help support.
Chris has now worked at Galileo for about 3 years, previously working at Wallenberg. He sees a couple of students on a regular basis, and he talks to those who drop in. One thing that he wants students to know about the wellness Center is that it’s an accepting environment and students can always drop in. As for something he wants students to know about him is that he wants to help all his students to achieve, be their best selves and to live their best life.
He loves his job and likes to help people with their lives and to “be the person that he needed in high school.” He wants to make sure the wellness center is a known and welcoming place for all students. He also thinks that the Wellness Center can improve by hosting more school events and running more groups. For example, the only thing hosted by Wellness this year was Love fest.
One thing Chris doesn’t like about being a high school therapist is that eventually all of the people he works with move on. In the future, his plan is to move to either a clinic or hospital. There, he will have more adults than teenagers, and it won’t be as flexible, but he will be sad to leave the school. To him, as a high school student therapist, the hardest part of being one is saying goodbye to the seniors.
To the seniors that are leaving, Chris has one last piece of advice. He says, “Wherever you’re going after high school whether it’s college a gap year, work or something else and if you’re happy sad or whatever you’re feeling, it’s probably for a reason and probably will be a growing opportunity”
