New CAPS Counselor Hired

By: Anna Kim, Safira Schiowitz, Clark Wu

With 18 years of experience in the mental health field, Licensed Clinician Kathy Simon joined the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) Department this spring. Simon hails from Boston and serves as the only Black woman counselor available in CAPS.

Simon received her bachelor’s degree in both psychology and sociology at Sacred Heart University, and subsequently joined a forensic unit working with people who required hospitalization for mental health concerns. Inspired by the experience, Simon took on roles at other state hospitals and mental health settings such as supportive housing, and short and long term residential and day treatment programs. She then decided to pursue a master’s degree in social work at Simmons College.

Drawn to the intersection between psychology and law, Simon worked at a correctional facility in Boston and a juvenile court clinic. “It was incredibly intense but rewarding work,” she said. “At the clinic, I would meet with the children’s families and essentially write reports about the person, their life, their experiences, all that was going on with them. This helps the court understand who's behind these issues that led to court involvement and why we needed to rally around them with support versus punishment.” 

Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Dr. Szu-Hui Lee explained the circumstances behind Simon’s joining the CAPS team. “This increase was due to PEA’s ongoing commitment to care for the mental health of our students,” she said. “And most importantly, it is important the desire to make sure it is important students have choices of counselors and the student body can see themselves reflected in the members of CAPS team.” 

Simon considers collaboration with CAPS to be a precious opportunity for growth. “Everybody has their own perspective and experiences and everyone is also willing to help the students, which is just amazing and fantastic. That’s not what I’ve had in other places. At this school, we all have our separate roles but we can still be on the same page. We really want to do our best for the student. You put that altogether and it’s beautiful,” Simon said.

Simon shared parts of her identity that students could potentially relate to. “People don’t know this, but I’m actually an introvert and quite quiet outside of work. I think it’s helpful for fellow introverts to know that it’s okay, that you don’t need to change that aspect of identity. You can live a fantastic life the way you are,” she said. “I am also from Boston, the Roxbury neighborhood, so students who share that part of experience growing up could certainly want to reach out to me.”

Simon also acknowledged her position as the only Black woman counselor working in the department. “As a Black woman on the CAPS team, I can certainly imagine that there would be people feeling a bit more comfortable talking to me,” Simon said.

“What do we do in the absence of representation?” Simon asked. “We still have to put ourselves in others’ shoes. I sometimes completely forget about myself. I think, ‘Who is this person?’, ‘What are they saying to me?’, ‘What have they been through?’, ‘How is this going for them?’ This can happen in the absence of perhaps an explicit connection. And it’s difficult, but it happens when I don’t impose any of my identity or my ways of thinking on that particular person, really just hearing from them. I get to learn so much in that way.” 

Self-care features prominently in Simon’s approach to her life and work. “Ask anyone who meets with me, they’ll tell you I talk about self-care,” she said. “It’s something I make sure I’m doing myself. At times, I put myself first to be able to do the things that I need to do in terms of helping other people and to withstand all the emotionally heavy things that I am exposed to.”

“I also don’t feel that I'm in control of fixing everything,” Simon added. “In my profession, if people start to feel that they're the ones who are going to solve everything and fix everything, and everything's going to be better, I think that's the setup that leads to stress and disappointment. I just know that I have my particular role to play, and that I should focus on doing my best with what is in my control.”

In addition to her work in the office, Simon enjoys cats and horror movies, among other hobbies. “I actually spent a couple of years racing obstacle courses like in the Spartan races. I learned so much about myself through that. I think there’s a life changing, almost spiritual component to doing those types of challenges,” she said.

Simon reflected on finding a  balance between her work and personal life. “I very much think in ways that are consistent with the work that I do, so it’s very hard for me to shut the analytic side off,” she said. “I just kind of accept that and roll with it. I don’t want to analyze my friends, but I also think I have the practical skills to help them. I think my role as a social worker enhances my life in many ways.”

Lee remembered her experience as part of the team who interviewed Simon, and noted that all members were very impressed with Simon’s experience and friendliness. “Ms. Simon is a solid clinician with extensive clinical experience working with young people,” Lee said. “Her energy and warmth is infectious! We knew when we interviewed her that she was someone our students would be drawn to and feel safe to lean on. So far in her short time here, I can say that we were right!”

“Her passion for this work was clear and I couldn’t wait to have her be part of the PEA community,” Lee said.

Associate Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Chris Thurber also expressed excitement for Simon's hire. “We were looking for someone who had outstanding professional credentials and who had experience working with adolescents who would add complementary expertise to the team,” Thurber said. “We also knew that students had given CAPS excellent feedback that they really liked the variety of different backgrounds [of counselors].” 

Thurber added on Simon's qualifications. “She's someone with a really good understanding of the ways in which mental health professionals work with a legal expert and a really good understanding of adolescent risk-taking and its consequences,” Thurber said.

“She is a remarkable and wonderful addition to the team and we couldn't be any happier,” Thurber said. “It's just fantastic to have her.”

Students expressed excitement for Simon to join the CAPS team. Upper Xavier Ross explained the impact having another Black counselor on the CAPS team had on him. “There are a lot of problems that POC face in America, and it's a lot easier to share my experiences with someone who I know has faced similar struggles in their life. This way I know my feelings would be heard,” Ross said. 

“Having POC staff at the academy is so important, especially with things like the Derek Chauvin trial and the murder of Adam Toledo and Daunte Wright circulating in the news right now. I've struggled to figure out how to grieve and handle the anger that comes with these events while also trying to manage my heavy academic workload,” Ross added.

Senior Hassane Fiteni affirmed the importance of representation within the CAPS team. “I think the idea of racism in healthcare is a serious issue. Black people get different forms of treatment and help in a lot of places. I’m not sure if that happens at Exeter. Representation is important because there are a lot of Black people who need to talk about being called the [n-word] when crossing the street or dealing with racism in a class,” he said.

Fiteni also shared his experience working with CAPS counselors he did not identify with. “I’ve been going to a white therapist ever since my dad passed away. She might not be able to talk to me about Black issues, but I find comfort in just having someone in general, regardless of their race,” he said. “When I’m talking to someone who doesn’t connect with me in that special way, I feel like they wouldn’t have any preconceived notions about me based on their own personal experience.”

Prep Amber Zou shared similar thoughts. “I think that it may be comforting to a lot of other BIPOC to have Ms. Simon as another resource, and I am glad that [CAPS] hired her. As far as I know, the staff was quite diverse already, but I am grateful there is even more representation of BIPOC now,” she said. 

In this time when some students have noted experiencing burnout, Simon reminded students to keep up with what she called the “basics.” 

“I think when we’re not stressed out we have things we do that we love, and we make sure to do it because it’s healthy for us. But in times of stress we actually don’t realize that we’ve stopped doing those things,” she said. “We stop eating well, stop doing physical activity, we don’t sleep as much as we should. It’s important to rebuild these habits.”

Simon also noted the impacts of COVID-19 on general mental health. “Depression and anxiety have worsened across the board. And that’s devastating to our sense of community. Our brains were not used to using Zoom as the primary mode of interaction. We’ve been conditioned for years and years to interact with people in different ways. I imagine we’re all experiencing some level of disruption.”

“It’s hard for us to jump right into what we call normal. We’re all in the transitioning period,” Simon said. “And that’s okay.”