Around 2010 or so, I was walking along the pier on Seattle’s waterfront. This was before pot was legal. I forgot to remove my badge from work. I came across a very creative panhandler who was writing the word “LOVE” out in pennies on the sidewalk. He stopped me and asked if he could have some pennies to finish the word “LOVE.” I thought he was so creative that I gave him some pennies. Then his friend put a vial of weed in my face and said, “look at this, isn’t it beautiful?” The panhandler scolded his friend and pointed out my badge and said to his friend, “can’t you see she’s a social worker?”
And that, my friends, is how social workers are viewed in society. We are viewed as almost the same, if not worse, than the police. I remember being in high school and taking a class where a social worker from Child Protective Services was visiting. She said that it was a thankless job because you are either accused of not taking away kids who should’ve been taken away or taking away kids that shouldn’t have been taken away. She added that nobody sees or cares to see how much social workers help people. I remember thinking to myself back then, “who in the world would want to be a social worker?”
When I later worked for Child Protective Services one summer as a case aide, I saw how much the social workers did to help children, to help families. I saw how many services they provided to families struggling with generational abuse or trauma. They helped with daycare, parenting classes, in home therapy, and basic needs like vouchers for food and travel. Nobody ever hears about this side of social workers.
Upon graduating high school, I went to the University of Washington (UW) attempting to become a physical therapist because I wanted to be a healer in some capacity and back then, I was still under the social programming that you need a degree to do or be anything of value in this world or make substantial money. I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in psychology but could never get into the physical therapy program at UW (which only accepted 24 students per year) or any other PT program at that time. My grades were just not good enough in the sciences. I recall walking by the School of Social Work a lot as an undergraduate student because the building was next to Schmitz Hall which is where you paid your tuition, handled issues around student loans, enrollment, transcripts, etc. Anyway, the School of Social Work building was at a prominent location on campus and I walked by it often. As I would walk by it, I recall sometimes thinking, again, “who in their right mind would become a social worker?”
Because I couldn’t get into the PT program at UW, I knew I had to get a Master’s degree in something because a Bachelor’s in Psychology on its own was not likely to get me a job. I considered a Master’s in Education but didn’t have enough of the prerequisites to apply. Two Master’s programs reached out to me, The School of Law and The School of Social Work. Because I was intimated by the LSAT, I applied to The School of Social Work as well as the Marriage and Family Therapy program at a different college. I got into both and chose Social Work only because I knew it would give me more options.
It wasn’t until I started my graduate program that I discovered that social workers did much more than work for Child Protective Services. I learned that social workers are counselors and social justice warriors and worked in healthcare as medical social workers. When I took my first mental health class in the MSW program, I thought to myself, “I can do this.” I decided to go down the mental health track of social work. The other tracks at the time were multicultural, administrative, and child/youth/family. I’ve done work in CYF and mental health and medical social worker (it’s odd that there wasn’t a medical social work track at the time). While I enjoyed doing work within the CYF part of social work, I enjoyed mental health work much more. Medical social work was what I enjoyed the least.
My first job in social worker was working in people’s homes that were involved with CPS. I did Family Preservation Counseling and taught parenting skills to parents at the age of 22 with no kids and little experience in the field. Somehow, I was able to pull off getting positive feedback from the CPS social workers and the families I worked with. Probably, because I was and still am a people pleaser to some degree. I went from that job to working in community mental health. I ran into a lot of age discrimination because a lot of people were upset by my age, even into my 40’s, because I’ve always had a baby face. But I’ve always been an old soul and most people were willing to look past my chronological age and youthful appearance.
While working as a medical social worker, I found that people got angry if they were referred to my office for an intake or assessment. People would arrive to their first appointment with me by saying things like “I don’t beat my wife” even if this had nothing to do with why their doctor referred them to me. One woman said to me, “I might have cancer but I’m not depressed” as if depression was more stigmatizing than cancer. I guess, it is in some ways it is. Most people would say something like “I don’t know why my doctor referred me to a social worker.” When I would call people from the clinic, I would introduce myself and my credentials and it immediately put most people off. Most people would say, “why is a social worker calling me?” I got wiser and started introducing myself as, “I’m Nicole and I’m calling from Dr. So-and-So’s office.” People were much more receptive to the improved introduction.
While I never quite enjoyed my profession completely, due to the general societal hate and distrust towards social workers, I have grown to appreciate that while the job is very stressful and demanding and, at times, traumatic, it is also very rewarding. I’ve had people, for example, tell me that I saved their lives by talking them out of suicide. I’ve had many children draw me pictures to thank me for helping them to heal and/or for helping their parents or families to heal.
Becoming more aware of how vast the issue of child abuse and trafficking is, in 2019, was when my choice of graduate degree and career finally clicked for me. I realized, on a conscious level, that helping children or adult children, heal from trauma and informing the world about the truth of child trafficking and related Satanic Ritual Abuse and all the related issues, such as the survivors of the MK Ultra and Monarch mind control programs, was not only part of my job but my spiritual purpose for being here on this earth, especially at this time in history. I’m here, as many lightworkers are, to hold the light, to help people heal, to help people find their path and evolve, and to be a teacher in the sense of bringing the dark issues to the light. (BTW, if you have not watched the documentary, Trance, about Cathy O’Brien’s life, you are missing out. She is a survivor of the MK Ultra program. Here is the link to watch it: https://trance.movie/)
Getting back to my “adventures” in social work, I have been threatened in my professional life and in my personal life due to this spiritual purpose of helping to bring light to the issue of child trafficking and child abuse including Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA). I have lost friends due to this purpose. I have been mocked and ridiculed. I have been kicked off social media platforms, repeatedly and have seen other advocates for children have the same done to them. I have become unpopular, lost jobs, lost relationships, and have had people scold and chastise me because of my purpose. I have been smear-campaigned. I have had people threaten my livelihood, my personal safety and my life because of my need to be a child advocate and be a voice for the voiceless. And if I lose my life because of this purpose, then I can think of no better reason to die, on the spiritual battlefield doing what God wants me to do. So, to all of those who have threatened me or mocked me or smeared me, I say… BRING IT ON!!!