Listening to the Children
A Clinical Psychology Student Believes her Education, Experience and Empathy Will Help the Children and Adolescents She Will One Day Treat
For a long time, Casey Stillman wavered between wanting to teach children and teenagers and wanting to treat them. She seems to have found a way to do both.
She is a second-year student in the Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in Clinical Psychology program at Touro University School of Health Sciences. Remarkably, in her very first year, Stillman researched and co-authored an article designed to help teachers and school counselors spot, support and refer to specialists, students with eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The piece was published in the journal Communiqué, a widely read school psychology magazine.
“In Dr. Emily Winter’s lab, she encourages us to begin publishing, and she told me to tap into my areas of interest,” says Stillman.
“The program itself offers a great balance of re-search opportunities, coursework and clinical ex-perience with a health emphasis,” she continues. “That emphasis allows for many interdisciplinary opportunities for my future. I could work in a children’s hospital, or even in private practice.”
Real-Life Experience
The common thread for Stillman has always been around kids—working at a camp for children with cancer or interning in schools throughout college. Stillman describes herself in childhood as being “a different kind of kid. I worried more deeply than my peers and had some struggles in the classroom, which ultimately only motivated me more. My experiences have shaped the clinician I intend to become and the population I will work with.”After she graduated with a degree in psychology from Franklin & Marshall College, Stillman was accepted into Teach for America. She spent two years teaching math in an underserved middle school.
Learning About Herself By Teaching Others
While teaching full time, Stillman attended night classes and received a master’s in teaching. She decided the classroom wasn’t where she wanted to make her lasting imprint in the lives of children and teenagers.
“I’m in the right program and place to accomplish what I want to do in the future,” says Stillman, who is exploring the idea of working in a school setting, a children’s hospital or a mental health clinic. “I know that I want to work with children, adolescents and families to accomplish their social, emotional and mental health goals so that they can lead successful futures.”
