Radical Empathy

True empathy, I’ve learned, is not just about understanding others—it is about being willing to feel with them, even when it’s uncomfortable. Whether supporting an autistic student who taught me the power of silence, or standing beside a close friend navigating Major Depressive Disorder, I’ve come to realize that compassion is not soft—it is fierce, disciplined, and non-negotiable. It means staying, even when you don’t have the right words. It means witnessing pain without immediately trying to fix it. It’s the bedrock of counseling, of community, and of real education.

Justice-based education taught me a painful but necessary truth: education is never neutral. In every lesson plan, every counseling session, and every structural reform, there are unspoken values being reinforced. My guiding principle here is to always ask: Whom does this serve? Whom does it exclude? Whether advocating for underserved youth or questioning the silence embedded in certain policies, I commit to being the kind of practitioner who doesn’t look away. Ethics, for me, is not abstract—it is embedded in daily decisions.

Mental health, I now see, is inseparable from structural and personal history. My own journey—through insomnia, emotional flashbacks, anger I couldn’t name, and a longing to be understood—taught me that healing is not linear. It takes introspection, patience, and the courage to unlearn what once kept you safe. Continuous education doesn’t just happen in classrooms; it happens in therapy, in quiet journals, in early morning reflections by the river. This principle reminds me: to care for others, I must first be willing to care for the fragile child still alive inside myself.