SF Unscripted
Host Mark Barley interviews Santa Fe College administrators, faculty and staff to share the latest news.
SF Unscripted
SF Unscripted - Naeema Britton
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In this episode of SF Unscripted, meet Naeema Britton, MS, LMHC, LMFT, NCC. She serves as Santa Fe College's Director of Counseling and Wellness at the Counseling and Wellness Center.
Welcome to Santa Fe Unscripted, the podcast that brings you the behind the scenes
stories of Santa Fe College.
00:00:12 Mark Barley
I'm your host, Mark Barley.
00:00:13 Mark Barley
Let's dive in.
00:00:15 Mark Barley
All right, welcome into Santa Fe Unscripted.
00:00:17 Mark Barley
I am here today with Director Naeema Britton, I'm sorry, Director Naeema Britton of the
Counseling and Wellness Center.
00:00:26 Mark Barley
Naeema, welcome in.
00:00:27 Naeema Britton
Thank you for having me.
00:00:28 Mark Barley
Absolutely.
00:00:30 Mark Barley
All right, so
00:00:31 Mark Barley
We start every episode in a form of your introduction.
00:00:36 Mark Barley
So tell us about your journey to Santa Fe, where you started, how you got into counseling
and what brought you to Santa Fe.00:00:47 Naeema Britton
So if I had to go back, I would probably start with moving to Florida.
00:00:53 Naeema Britton
So I'm originally from Brooklyn, New York, and I moved to Florida with family after 9-11.
00:01:02 Mark Barley
Oh, okay.
00:01:03 Naeema Britton
And so stayed in Miami
00:01:09 Naeema Britton
through high school graduated and came to UF.
00:01:12 Naeema Britton
So Gainesville, my first introduction to Gainesville was UF.
00:01:17 Naeema Britton
First generation college student from inner city Miami and honestly when I got here
00:01:26 Naeema Britton
I felt like a small fish in a big pond.
00:01:29 Naeema Britton
So being at UF, the adjustment was so difficult.
00:01:32 Naeema Britton
As a matter of fact, I almost failed out and lost all of my scholarships.
00:01:36 Naeema Britton
I had a full ride to UF, multiple, and I almost failed out.
00:01:41 Naeema Britton
And I think it's because I was where I was not supposed to be.
00:01:45 Naeema Britton
So when I started, I was a biochem major, pre-med track, African Studies minor.00:01:52 Naeema Britton
That's a.
00:01:55 Mark Barley
Right.
00:01:56 Mark Barley
And I couldn't.
00:02:00 Naeema Britton
Even get past Intro to Chem.
00:02:02 Naeema Britton
I took it three times.
00:02:04 Naeema Britton
I went to tutoring.
00:02:05 Naeema Britton
All the services that we tell students about, I used them all and still kept hitting a wall.
00:02:10 Naeema Britton
At that point, I was told, you need to change something because if you don't, you'll be
suspended from school for academic performance and lose your scholarships.
00:02:18 Naeema Britton
So at that point, first generation, my mom couldn't afford college.
00:02:22 Naeema Britton
At that point I wanted to give up.
00:02:23 Naeema Britton
And I remember calling my mom and saying, I can't do this anymore.
00:02:27 Naeema Britton
And so she said, okay.
00:02:29 Naeema BrittonShe was in New York, back in New York at that time.
00:02:31 Naeema Britton
She said, what do you want to do?
00:02:32 Naeema Britton
I said, I'm just going to come home and get a job.
00:02:34 Naeema Britton
I work at McDonald's or something, but I can't do this.
00:02:37 Naeema Britton
I'm not supposed to be here.
00:02:39 Naeema Britton
And she said, okay.
00:02:41 Naeema Britton
Obviously I didn't go back.
00:02:45 Naeema Britton
I stayed at UF and ended up
00:02:49 Naeema Britton
changing to exploratory sciences.
00:02:51 Naeema Britton
Eventually I found psychology and sociology, did some research, and that's where I fell in
love with psychology and sociology.
00:02:59 Naeema Britton
And so I was told in that process by an advisor, it doesn't matter what you do, you're not
going to graduate on time.
00:03:06 Naeema Britton
And as you can imagine, that was discouraging.
00:03:09 Naeema BrittonDuring that time, I actually had my first introduction to counseling.
00:03:12 Naeema Britton
So I had a counselor throughout my time at UF because of the transition and losing related
00:03:19 Naeema Britton
relationships, not knowing who I was and what I wanted to do.
00:03:23 Naeema Britton
And so I ended up graduating on time and with honors.
00:03:28 Naeema Britton
So I proved that advisor wrong.
00:03:31 Naeema Britton
And so after that, my plan didn't go as I wanted.
00:03:35 Naeema Britton
I wanted to go to graduate school.
00:03:36 Naeema Britton
And so that didn't work.
00:03:38 Naeema Britton
Ended up in Miami for nine years.
00:03:41 Naeema Britton
That's where I started working first in a court system as a court reporter, then
00:03:46 Naeema Britton
in higher ed in 2012.
00:03:47 Naeema Britton
So I've been in higher ed since 2012 and became a full-time caregiver to my mom.
00:03:52 Naeema Britton
We returned to Gainesville 2019.
00:03:55 Naeema BrittonI started working at UF as an academic coordinator and then I eventually transitioned here
to Santa Fe because the opportunity that presented itself aligned right in the field of
counseling.
00:04:06 Naeema Britton
I would say before that in the midst of the nine years I was in Miami, that's where I went for
my master's
00:04:13 Naeema Britton
in counseling, mental health and marriage and family at Barry.
00:04:16 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:04:17 Naeema Britton
Yeah.
00:04:17 Mark Barley
All right.
00:04:18 Mark Barley
So, and you started at Santa Fe as the director.
00:04:24 Mark Barley
No.
00:04:24 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:04:24 Naeema Britton
So I started at Santa Fe as a counselor.
00:04:27 Naeema Britton
I was actually recently licensed in mental health and still a registered intern in marriage
and family.
00:04:33 Naeema Britton
I was a counselor for two years before00:04:36 Naeema Britton
The opportunity presented itself for me to be director.
00:04:39 Naeema Britton
So I've been director for about two years now.
00:04:41 Mark Barley
Okay, all right.
00:04:41 Mark Barley
And it's going well.
00:04:42 Naeema Britton
It is.
00:04:43 Naeema Britton
It's hard work, but it's going well.
00:04:46 Mark Barley
Okay.
00:04:47 Mark Barley
So tell us about the Counseling and Wellness Center.
00:04:51 Mark Barley
And it recently, it hasn't always been the Counseling and Wellness Center.
00:04:55 Mark Barley
So tell us about your area.
00:05:00 Mark Barley
the faction of students and maybe employees that it does serve and why your department
is so necessary here at Santa Fe.
00:05:11 Naeema Britton
Yes, so
00:05:13 Naeema BrittonWhen I started as a counselor, we were the counseling center.
00:05:17 Naeema Britton
I would imagine from its creation, it was the counseling center.
00:05:21 Naeema Britton
But something I noticed and something we had conversations about was that the
counseling center was viewed as a crisis center.
00:05:28 Naeema Britton
We were treated as an emergency room.
00:05:30 Naeema Britton
And so anytime a student was in crisis, that's where you sent them.
00:05:34 Naeema Britton
I don't think we were viewed as a agent for preventative measures,
00:05:41 Naeema Britton
and just helping to support students even when they're not in crisis.
00:05:45 Naeema Britton
And so when I became director, I thought we should change the name because I think we
went beyond counseling.
00:05:52 Naeema Britton
I think we helped connect students to different elements of wellness.
00:05:56 Naeema Britton
And so at that point I thought we probably should change our name to the Counseling and
Wellness Center.
00:06:02 Naeema Britton
And so over time we've been attempting to kind of change the college's view of who we are
and what we do.
00:06:09 Naeema BrittonAnd so at its foundation we provide free counseling, mental health, academic, career
counseling to students.
00:06:15 Naeema Britton
But I think our reach goes beyond that.
00:06:18 Naeema Britton
We also support students through providing training.
00:06:22 Naeema Britton
So we do mental health first aid for students.
00:06:24 Naeema Britton
Students can take QPR, which is a suicide prevention training.
00:06:28 Naeema Britton
So not only are we treating them in a sense of that one-on-one counseling, we're
empowering them and educating them to be agents of change as it relates to mental
health.
00:06:39 Naeema Britton
And so even beyond that, even beyond working with students, our reach goes into
00:06:45 Naeema Britton
elements of Santa Fe.
00:06:47 Naeema Britton
So we're not just helping students, we're helping employees.
00:06:50 Naeema Britton
So whether it's getting a referral or consulting with an employee about a student or about
another employee and how to navigate resources or whether it is
00:07:02 Naeema Britton
us having a voice in those conversations on campus, whether it's through the behavioral
intervention team, petitions, whether it's the development and the changes to college
rules, policies and procedures, all of these different parts of the college have a mental
health piece to it.00:07:20 Naeema Britton
And so I love the fact that we're able to have those conversations, that we're able to bring
our expertise into those rooms and say, wait, I hear what you're saying, but have we
considered?
00:07:32 Naeema Britton
And so I would say we support every, pretty much every area of the college.
00:07:38 Naeema Britton
We also provide trainings to our faculty and staff.
00:07:40 Naeema Britton
So mental health, QPR, the suicide prevention training, but also we're looking at
developing and seeing what other options and trainings are available to empower our
employees to be able to work with our students too.
00:07:53 Mark Barley
Yeah, and so, and we had, we had JB Brown
00:08:00 Mark Barley
through Saints Care in here.
00:08:01 Mark Barley
We had Dr.
00:08:02 Mark Barley
Carlos Solis, who is the ombuds for the college.
00:08:06 Mark Barley
And can you talk how your area works kind of hand in hand with those two individuals and
the areas that they serve as well?
00:08:15 Naeema Britton
Sure.
00:08:16 Naeema Britton
So if I had to, I'll start with JB Brown and the Saints Care Center.00:08:21 Naeema Britton
I am so thankful for that area because prior to having the Saints Care Center,
00:08:27 Naeema Britton
I think we did a lot of the case management with the ombuds person.
00:08:30 Naeema Britton
So yes, we provided counseling, but we were doing a lot of case management, connecting
students to resources, basic needs, whether it was
00:08:39 Naeema Britton
Snap applications and how to navigate finding that.
00:08:42 Naeema Britton
We did a lot of that as well because we understood the population of our students and how
they didn't always have the resources or don't always have the resources they need to be
successful.
00:08:53 Naeema Britton
So yes, we provided counseling, but we also wanted them to be successful overall.
00:08:58 Naeema Britton
So having them has been heaven sent.
00:09:02 Naeema Britton
And the way in which we work with them is we refer a lot of students to the Saints Care
Center.
00:09:09 Naeema Britton
So when we think about mental health, oftentimes we think about counseling and your
emotional, social well-being.
00:09:15 Naeema Britton
But your wellness is more than that.
00:09:18 Naeema Britton
It's those basic needs.00:09:19 Naeema Britton
If I don't have shelter, if I don't have food to eat, if I don't have clean clothes, all of those
things, if I don't know where my next meal is
00:09:28 Naeema Britton
coming from, that affects my wellness.
00:09:31 Naeema Britton
And so in a lot of ways, when we're talking with students, we're not just asking about how
they're feeling emotionally, we're connecting emotions to what other areas or gaps are
existing.
00:09:41 Naeema Britton
And so it might be a student who struggling with classes, maybe has some mental health
things going on, but they're also saying, I don't have enough food to eat.
00:09:52 Naeema Britton
And so at that point, we're connecting them to Saints Care Center.
00:09:55 Naeema Britton
As a matter of fact, we keep bags in our office for students who may feel a little ashamed to
go to Saints Care Center.
00:10:02 Naeema Britton
We will connect them.
00:10:03 Naeema Britton
We have no problem messaging each other and say, hey, I have a student.
00:10:06 Naeema Britton
What do we need them to do?
00:10:07 Naeema Britton
How do we empower them to ask for help?
00:10:10 Naeema Britton
And so I would say there's a lot of transfers back and forth.00:10:13 Naeema Britton
We actually are a part of a care team.
00:10:15 Naeema Britton
And so we meet periodically to talk about students that we've been able to support or what
trends we're seeing.
00:10:22 Naeema Britton
And so we're trying to find ways to fill the gaps to meet the needs.
00:10:26 Naeema Britton
And when it comes to the ombudsperson, we also work as far as homelessness and
sometimes, our different areas don't know what a student is experiencing.
00:10:38 Naeema Britton
A student might report it to one area and not the other.
00:10:41 Naeema Britton
And so understanding that we have a great resource in our ombudsperson, we may listen
to a student's story and say, hey, I know someone who could help you.
00:10:50 Naeema Britton
And I'm still here to support you, but this is an area that is beyond the scope of what I can
provide.
00:10:56 Naeema Britton
But I know someone.
00:10:57 Naeema Britton
And so let me connect you to them and you get back to me.
00:11:00 Naeema Britton
And so we can work from both sides to support the student.
00:11:03 Naeema Britton
So whether it's something like that, whether there's a crisis on campus, whether it's a
student who has an accident, we're working with the ombudsperson to provide that
support to that student, to that family.00:11:15 Naeema Britton
So we work a lot together in a lot of different ways.
00:11:20 Mark Barley
So it's great the collaboration between all of these different areas is because it kind of
showcases that the college isn't working in silos, right?
00:11:36 Mark Barley
There is so much collaboration for student success.
00:11:40 Mark Barley
It's because you touched on it, if somebody doesn't have food, right?
00:11:44 Mark Barley
How does that impact them as a student?
00:11:46 Mark Barley
If somebody is having to worry about where they're going to lay their head at every night,
how does that impact their success here at the college?
00:11:54 Mark Barley
And so can you touch on the level of experience in your office?
00:12:04 Mark Barley
You have five different counselors.
00:12:07 Naeema Britton
So including myself, it's five, but we also have student interns.
00:12:13 Naeema Britton
So at this moment, we have 4 licensed individuals, including myself.
00:12:19 Naeema Britton
I'm also licensed as a marriage and family therapist.
00:12:22 Naeema Britton
We have one registered intern.00:12:23 Naeema Britton
So this is a
00:12:25 Naeema Britton
an employee, they're full-time.
00:12:27 Naeema Britton
They've gotten their master's degree and they are working towards licensure.
00:12:31 Naeema Britton
So they're supervised by us in our office.
00:12:35 Naeema Britton
And then we have what's called a graduate student intern.
00:12:39 Naeema Britton
So these are students all over the country who are pursuing their master's or doctoral
degree, usually in mental health counseling or counseling psychology or counseling
education.
00:12:51 Naeema Britton
and they are completing their clinical hours or their practicum and internship for
graduation with their master's or doctoral degrees.
00:12:58 Naeema Britton
And so we're also supervising them so they get the opportunity to work one-on-one with
students as required by their program.
00:13:05 Naeema Britton
They engage in case staffing, which is our opportunity to learn from one another.
00:13:11 Naeema Britton
And so they are invaluable because just as much as they can learn from us who are
licensed, we learn so much from them.
00:13:18 Naeema Britton
And so we have it where they are teaching us things, we're teaching them things, and we
have it embedded in the way in which we do things in our office.00:13:26 Naeema Britton
So yes, we have
00:13:28 Naeema Britton
licensed all the way down to graduate students.
00:13:30 Mark Barley
Yeah, and I think it's important for anybody listening to understand that, hey, I'm not just
going to talk to somebody that is just employed by the college, right?
00:13:41 Mark Barley
It's somebody that has spent years and years on their way to licensure and all this stuff, but
is also vastly experienced in different, I guess, motive comes of
00:13:57 Mark Barley
of counseling, right?
00:13:59 Mark Barley
So when we often hear counseling, right, the word, the term counseling, there's often this
stigma behind it that it's a negative thing, right?
00:14:10 Mark Barley
I only, I don't want to go to therapy is because it's a negative.
00:14:14 Mark Barley
And I understand that there is a difference in therapy and then kind of counseling, right?
00:14:19 Mark Barley
And so can you talk about why
00:14:24 Mark Barley
it's so hard to have folks understand that counseling isn't negative, right?
00:14:30 Mark Barley
And that stigma that used to be there isn't there anymore.
00:14:34 Mark Barley
And why counseling at the college level is such a necessary thing?00:14:39 Naeema Britton
So I'll say the stigma is still there.
00:14:42 Naeema Britton
I think we're working hard to get
00:14:44 Naeema Britton
past that and we're normalizing it in some ways.
00:14:48 Naeema Britton
We're seeing a lot more younger people who are actually in therapy or therapy is more
long-term, but they're in therapy.
00:14:56 Naeema Britton
They may be on medication to help treat them.
00:14:59 Naeema Britton
They're being monitored.
00:15:00 Naeema Britton
We're seeing that a lot more and they're willing to have conversations.
00:15:04 Naeema Britton
So I'm so happy to see the trend going in a positive direction.
00:15:08 Naeema Britton
I think there's a stigma and there has been one for a long time because
00:15:15 Naeema Britton
it's misunderstood.
00:15:17 Naeema Britton
I think that if you had to think back to your childhood or even up until present, whether
you've witnessed or engaged in conversations,
00:15:29 Naeema Britton
where there were negative conversations, negative beliefs brought up around mental
health and people who are struggling with their mental health.00:15:39 Naeema Britton
I think we label people, I mean, obviously in the field of psychology, we have the DSM
where we have diagnoses, but beyond that, we're labeling people by who we think they are,
perceive them to be, whether we're ostracizing them intentionally or unintentionally,
00:15:58 Naeema Britton
or using stigmatizing terms to talk about people, to talk about mental health, I think we're
reinforcing that stigma.
00:16:07 Naeema Britton
I think if we saw it from a different perspective, if we understood that we all have mental
health, right?
00:16:14 Naeema Britton
And so it takes work to maintain positive mental health.
00:16:18 Naeema Britton
And counseling is just a tool to help us
00:16:24 Naeema Britton
to help us manage positive mental health, to help us to gain greater mental health, I think
we will be better off.
00:16:32 Naeema Britton
And I'm not saying that everyone has to go to counseling all the time, but I think it's a great
tool to get an unbiased person who has to remain confidential legally and ethically.
00:16:44 Naeema Britton
We're held to confidentiality even as members of the college.
00:16:48 Naeema Britton
We're held to that.
00:16:49 Naeema Britton
We have some caveats to that.
00:16:52 Naeema Britton
But I think00:16:54 Naeema Britton
understanding that we all have mental health, and counseling is a way or a tool.
00:17:00 Mark Barley
Yeah.
00:17:02 Mark Barley
So when you talk about mental health, and it is, you said it's still a stigma.
00:17:11 Mark Barley
And understandably so, right?
00:17:14 Mark Barley
It's because like as a society, we're just not ready to really dive into our own
00:17:22 Mark Barley
our own mental health and how things that we see and that's around us in our peripheral
impacts our mental health, our day-to-day mental health and our overall mental health.
00:17:34 Mark Barley
Can you talk about why a student's mental health is so important to them in their college
journey?
00:17:42 Naeema Britton
Yes.
00:17:42 Naeema Britton
So when I think about mental health,
00:17:48 Naeema Britton
I think of it in a holistic way.
00:17:50 Naeema Britton
So what often comes to mind is wellness.
00:17:54 Naeema Britton
And I'm thinking about SAMHSA's dimensions of wellness.00:17:58 Naeema Britton
There's eight of them.
00:17:59 Naeema Britton
Anything from your emotional, your physical, your social, your spiritual, financial, all of
these are elements that make us us.
00:18:08 Naeema Britton
These are areas that we
00:18:11 Naeema Britton
that are important for us to work on.
00:18:13 Naeema Britton
And so when I think about college students, I think about just where they are in their lives.
00:18:22 Naeema Britton
So it's a really unique stage.
00:18:24 Naeema Britton
So on one side, you're navigating identity.
00:18:28 Naeema Britton
You're navigating your relationships, your academics, the challenges, the pressures.
00:18:32 Naeema Britton
and they don't know what they don't know.
00:18:34 Naeema Britton
So imagine as we've all been, we're trying to navigate these things.
00:18:39 Naeema Britton
Who do I want to be?
00:18:40 Naeema Britton
What do I want to be?
00:18:41 Naeema BrittonThose decisions are majors.
00:18:45 Naeema Britton
those different areas, they're trying to navigate that and figure it out.
00:18:49 Naeema Britton
And with that comes challenges, right?
00:18:52 Naeema Britton
With that, managing responsibilities.
00:18:55 Naeema Britton
Some of our college students are parents, caregivers.
00:19:00 Naeema Britton
They're carrying so many different weights, different bags, wearing different hats, right?
00:19:06 Naeema Britton
And then the exciting part of being a college student, they get to explore who they want to
be.
00:19:12 Naeema Britton
They get to talk about what matters to them, make
00:19:15 Naeema Britton
meaning and purpose for their lives, figure out where they want to fit in our society.
00:19:21 Naeema Britton
And so with that, I think prioritizing mental health is, this is where it's important.
00:19:27 Naeema Britton
This is where your foundation is.
00:19:31 Naeema Britton
Because in order to navigate this very unique stage of their lives,
00:19:39 Naeema Britton
prioritizing their mental health is important.00:19:41 Naeema Britton
And not just for them academically, not just for them as students here, but what does that
look like when they're citizens in the world?
00:19:49 Naeema Britton
Once they've graduated from Santa Fe, if they're transferring great, if they're going into the
workforce great, whatever they're deciding to do,
00:19:57 Naeema Britton
prioritizing their mental health now sets that foundation for what they want their life to look
like later.
00:20:03 Naeema Britton
Because if you can get the coping skills to deal with things, challenges as they come, if you
can get the tools to be able to navigate these very interesting times of their life, because
being a college student won't be the first and last time.
00:20:18 Naeema Britton
They'll have other times in their lives where they'll have to pivot.
00:20:21 Naeema Britton
And so if I have the tools and strategies to do that,
00:20:24 Naeema Britton
I'm most successful, not just as a college student, but beyond.
00:20:27 Naeema Britton
So we want to get them from just surviving day-to-day, those crisis situations, to thriving as
students, as citizens of this world.
00:20:40 Mark Barley
And it's amazing that
00:20:44 Mark Barley
A counseling center at a community college like Santa Fe isn't the norm, right?
00:20:51 Mark BarleyI mean, Santa Fe is one of, I actually don't know the number, but it's one of a few in the
state of Florida that have a full-fledged counseling center.
00:20:59 Mark Barley
Just talk a little briefly about why Santa Fe is in such a great position as an institution in that
regard.
00:21:11 Naeema Britton
You're correct.
00:21:12 Naeema Britton
Most institutions, especially what's considered the community's college, they do not have
necessarily a full-fledged counseling center.
00:21:21 Naeema Britton
And if they do, some that I've come into contact with, these are faculty without the
background or training as licensed counselors who are trying to provide mental and
emotional support, or they're referring out, or they're connecting students with more of a
00:21:40 Naeema Britton
online service, something like, we've seen.
00:21:45 Naeema Britton
And so I think we're in a great place and we have such a gem on our campus because we
get to, number one, students get to have the service for free.
00:21:56 Naeema Britton
Which if you're looking at the field and what people are being charged per hour, it's pretty
much up there.
00:22:04 Naeema Britton
And so students get to have something like this for free.
00:22:09 Naeema Britton
Not only that, but they're being set up in a lot of ways that maybe other college students
are.
00:22:16 Naeema BrittonLike I said, it's that foundation, is it providing the coping skills, the strategies.
00:22:24 Naeema Britton
to be able to be successful.
00:22:26 Naeema Britton
And so I think of it as an honor and a privilege to be able to work for a counseling center to
not only be able to provide counseling to students, provide trainings to support employees
and the well-being of employees as well, and empowering each group to be their best
selves.
00:22:45 Naeema Britton
Like ultimately that is our mission, our goal as counselors.
00:22:53 Mark Barley
I don't think people understand.
00:22:54 Mark Barley
Like we've had guests in the past from the zoo to the planetarium to JB Brown.
00:23:02 Mark Barley
I don't really think people understand the depths of how deep Santa Fe goes when we're
talking about how they impact students, right?
00:23:14 Mark Barley
Where do you see the counseling center in five years?
00:23:17 Naeema Britton
Good question.
00:23:20 Naeema Britton
I got to think about that a little bit.
00:23:22 Mark Barley
That wasn't one of the prepared ones.
00:23:25 Mark Barley
But when we talk about longevity, right?00:23:30 Mark Barley
And we talk about evolution, like you just described it two years ago, you're like, hey, we
got to make the focus on just
00:23:39 Mark Barley
kind of triaging the needs of the students, where wellness plays more of a factor, like
preventative.
00:23:46 Mark Barley
Correct.
00:23:47 Mark Barley
We call that preventative maintenance, right?
00:23:49 Mark Barley
Where we're trying to get at something before it becomes a crisis.
00:23:55 Mark Barley
So where is the evolution of the counseling center?
00:23:59 Mark Barley
Is it just strictly, hey, we got to figure out the next best thing?
00:24:04 Mark Barley
Or is it where we can incorporate more
00:24:07 Mark Barley
preventative maintenance around the college.
00:24:10 Naeema Britton
So I would say both.
00:24:12 Naeema Britton
I think it's important to pay attention to the trends in mental health.
00:24:17 Naeema Britton
And so we're seeing a lot around, of course, we talk about AI and other areas, but
oftentimes we don't talk about AI and mental health.00:24:25 Naeema Britton
And when you think about it, we have these AI
00:24:31 Naeema Britton
platforms that many students, a lot of our students don't have a lot of their social
connection.
00:24:37 Naeema Britton
I hear so much from students, they don't have any friends or it's hard to make friends and
they're leaning on AI for that.
00:24:45 Naeema Britton
And so
00:24:47 Naeema Britton
I think AI is a great thing.
00:24:49 Naeema Britton
I think we want to work in tandem as far as mental health with AI so that students aren't
becoming more, or young people, people in general aren't becoming more disconnected
from each other.
00:25:01 Naeema Britton
And so I think looking at what are the trends that are coming up, but also
00:25:10 Naeema Britton
engaging in that preventative care.
00:25:11 Naeema Britton
I feel like empowerment is important, that people feel like they have the tools to support
each other.
00:25:18 Naeema Britton
Like we mentioned, there's five counselors and three interns.
00:25:24 Naeema Britton
We have over 15,000 students.00:25:27 Naeema Britton
Obviously, we can't support each and every one in the way that we wish we could, but
having employees to feel like they're empowered.
00:25:36 Naeema Britton
So to me, empowerment looks like training, whether it means
00:25:39 Naeema Britton
bringing in and connecting with our community resources to bring in opportunities to grow
our employees around mental health, whether it means doing more preventative things,
whether it means connecting and having even more of a student presence.
00:25:55 Naeema Britton
Right now we have mental health peer ambassadors, which are current students, but
having a greater presence and beginning to normalize it even more amongst the student
population.
00:26:06 Naeema Britton
So, I mean, we can go in a lot of different directions in the next five years.
00:26:10 Naeema Britton
But to me, the biggest one is connection and empowerment.
00:26:14 Mark Barley
That's a good point.
00:26:18 Mark Barley
So you mentioned AI and because you mentioned I'm going to ask you about it.
00:26:23 Mark Barley
Does it worry you at all that maybe younger individuals, not just here at Santa Fe, but in the
broad sense, maybe leaning on this artificial emotional intelligence
00:26:39 Mark Barley
to maybe solve issues for them?
00:26:43 Mark Barley
And how do you combat?00:26:45 Mark Barley
How does a counselor, a real life person who also does this for a living, I guess counsel
somebody?
00:26:54 Mark Barley
When they're asking in an AI platform, hey, I'm feeling this way, what should I do about it?
00:27:02 Mark Barley
How do you weed through that?
00:27:04 Naeema Britton
So AI is not going anywhere, right?
00:27:07 Naeema Britton
So I don't think our jobs is to fight it because it's a losing battle.
00:27:14 Naeema Britton
I think it's how do we work in collaboration with it.
00:27:18 Naeema Britton
So I think AI can be a great tool.
00:27:21 Naeema Britton
And I think having someone who is trained, someone who can actually engage with you at
that emotional level, because AI has limits, right?
00:27:33 Naeema Britton
And so, yes, it's learning, but ultimately there's nothing like that human connection.
00:27:40 Naeema Britton
And I think I've had students who use AI and sometimes it can be used as a journaling
opportunity.
00:27:47 Naeema Britton
Great.
00:27:48 Naeema Britton
So if I do have a client, let's say, who says I'm using AI in between our sessions to try to,00:27:54 Naeema Britton
process my feelings.
00:27:55 Naeema Britton
Okay, so tell me, what the AI say.
00:27:58 Naeema Britton
And let's talk more about that.
00:28:01 Naeema Britton
Or how are you utilizing it?
00:28:03 Naeema Britton
So to me, it's not a matter of fighting it.
00:28:05 Naeema Britton
It's a matter of working with it, because that's what the student is utilizing.
00:28:10 Naeema Britton
And so how do we help them identify fact from fiction?
00:28:15 Naeema Britton
Or, you know, because we know
00:28:18 Naeema Britton
AI can kind of create those hallucinations and that sort of thing.
00:28:21 Naeema Britton
And it's not necessarily the truth.
00:28:24 Naeema Britton
And so helping them to determine fact from fiction, knowing when, okay, this is beyond.
00:28:31 Naeema Britton
this is beyond me just processing my feelings right now.
00:28:35 Naeema Britton
This is where I need to kind of actually talk to someone.00:28:37 Naeema Britton
So not looking to fight it, looking to see how we can work with it and help, again,
empowering any person who's using it as a tool to understand the limits of it and
understanding where other resources with people, with connections are important.
00:28:53 Mark Barley
Yeah,
00:28:55 Mark Barley
There's a lot of people at this institution that should heed the words of collaborate.
00:29:01 Mark Barley
Don't fight, collaborate when it comes to AI, because that's a big topic in higher ed.
00:29:06 Mark Barley
I know that.
00:29:07 Mark Barley
So as we wrap up, and we'll get to our last question here in a minute, but anything that we
haven't touched on about the counseling center that you think people should know?
00:29:17 Naeema Britton
If I had to say
00:29:21 Naeema Britton
I would want people to understand that we are here.
00:29:25 Naeema Britton
We are here to, of course, support our students, but we understand if our employees are
not well, our students can't be successful.
00:29:36 Naeema Britton
And so even though we don't offer services to employees,
00:29:42 Naeema Britton
If you're needing connection, if you're a connection as far as services, if you have
questions, I've had employees ask me, hey, I need help with something for my daughter.00:29:52 Naeema Britton
I need help with something for myself.
00:29:55 Naeema Britton
Can you tell me how to navigate this?
00:29:57 Naeema Britton
I think like we talked about,
00:30:00 Naeema Britton
Our Counseling and Wellness Center being on campus, yes, is a gem for our students, but
it can also benefit our employees.
00:30:08 Naeema Britton
And so we want to be able to support.
00:30:12 Naeema Britton
We want to be able to help.
00:30:14 Naeema Britton
We want our students to know that we exist and how we're here to help them.
00:30:18 Naeema Britton
And so what I would say is, something I say every time I do speak with faculty or
employees, use your relationships to connect students with us.
00:30:29 Naeema Britton
If you need our support, if you need our help, we'll help you.
00:30:32 Naeema Britton
But use your relationships.
00:30:33 Naeema Britton
You all see a lot of things that we don't and you hear things that we don't.
00:30:38 Naeema Britton
But our goal is to help.00:30:39 Naeema Britton
Our goal is to not fight any of the systems, but to make sure that we're constantly looking at
it from a wellness perspective, whether it's anything we do at the college, whether it's rules
and policies and procedures, whether it is even our services and trainings, we're
constantly
00:30:59 Naeema Britton
looking at it from the lens of how do we make sure that everything we do is positively
impacting the well-being of every person involved?
00:31:09 Mark Barley
Yeah, that's great advice.
00:31:11 Mark Barley
And I wish more people did utilize the Counseling and Wellness Center, because you're
right, your area is such a gem for this community.
00:31:22 Mark Barley
All right, so we end every episode with five quick questions.
00:31:27 Mark Barley
They don't have anything to do with counseling or wellness.
00:31:31 Mark Barley
But I want you to give me the first answer off the top of your head.
00:31:34 Mark Barley
Don't, I use this example every episode.
00:31:37 Mark Barley
Don't be James Allbury in here and take 5 minutes to think about what his favorite planet is,
right?
00:31:45 Mark Barley
Just off the, you know, right off the top of your head.
00:31:48 Mark Barley
All right.00:31:48 Naeema Britton
Yes.
00:31:49 Mark Barley
Are you ready?
00:31:50 Naeema Britton
Yep, I'm ready.
00:31:51 Mark Barley
Favorite genre of music?
00:31:53 Naeema Britton
I don't have one, actually.
00:31:54 Naeema Britton
I am open to listening to all music.
00:31:56 Naeema Britton
I like the storytelling that music provides, so I don't have one.
00:31:59 Mark Barley
Okay, favorite musical artist then.
00:32:02 Naeema Britton
I don't have one either.
00:32:05 Naeema Britton
I listen to multiple.
00:32:07 Naeema Britton
I think if a song resonates with me, I think music is like the soundtrack of our lives.
00:32:12 Naeema Britton
And so depending on where I am at a particular time in life, that person and their songs
might be my favorite.
00:32:18 Mark BarleyOkay, fair enough, fair enough.
00:32:20 Mark Barley
A music lover.
00:32:21 Mark Barley
All right,
00:32:22 Mark Barley
Yankees or Mets?
00:32:24 Naeema Britton
New York, Yankees.
00:32:25 Naeema Britton
Okay, Yankees, all right.
00:32:28 Mark Barley
Well, I didn't know you were from Brooklyn, so I had to ask that.
00:32:32 Mark Barley
All right, favorite vacation you've ever taken?
00:32:37 Naeema Britton
Okay, so I actually went to, it was my first out of the country trip.
00:32:43 Naeema Britton
Well, that's not true.
00:32:44 Naeema Britton
It was my first trip to Europe.
00:32:46 Naeema Britton
So I went to London and Paris.
00:32:48 Naeema Britton
It was amazing.
00:32:50 Naeema BrittonIt's so great to see the way other people live.
00:32:55 Naeema Britton
And so I would say that was probably one of my favorite trips ever.
00:32:59 Naeema Britton
Ate some good food, got to see the Buckingham Palace for the first time in person, and it
was just beautiful.
00:33:06 Naeema Britton
So I would say that would be awesome.
00:33:09 Mark Barley
All right, so London or Paris, which one?
00:33:13 Naeema Britton
London for sure.
00:33:16 Mark Barley
I don't know how many people would pick London over here.
00:33:18 Mark Barley
I just don't know.
00:33:19 Mark Barley
I've never been to either.
00:33:21 Naeema Britton
I mean, the Eiffel Tower was beautiful, but I enjoyed London so much more.
00:33:26 Mark Barley
All right, very cool.
00:33:28 Mark Barley
All right, last movie you watched.
00:33:30 Naeema Britton
Last movie I watched.00:33:32 Naeema Britton
Oh gosh, that's difficult.
00:33:34 Naeema Britton
So I have a.
00:33:36 Mark Barley
Or television show.
00:33:36 Mark Barley
It doesn't.
00:33:37 Naeema Britton
Okay.
00:33:37 Naeema Britton
So I have a thing about
00:33:39 Naeema Britton
I watch Christmas movies all year round, especially because sometimes days are tough,
and you need something that has the predictable ending.
00:33:49 Naeema Britton
And so there's a Christmas movie, it has three parts, they need to make a fourth one, but
it's about a family and every, you get to the main characters,
00:34:00 Naeema Britton
you get to experience them in different ways.
00:34:02 Naeema Britton
And so it was called Merry Little Christmas.
00:34:05 Mark Barley
Merry Little Christmas.
00:34:06 Naeema Britton
Yes, with DSLIDDLE because that was the last name of the family.00:34:13 Naeema Britton
But yes.
00:34:15 Mark Barley
All right, favorite Christmas movie?
00:34:17 Mark Barley
These are followers.
00:34:18 Mark Barley
These are all part of the five questions.
00:34:19 Naeema Britton
I would say that is my favorite one, all three parts.
00:34:22 Mark Barley
Okay, very cool.
00:34:23 Mark Barley
All right, last one.
00:34:25 Mark Barley
Favorite thing about Santa Fe?
00:34:26 Naeema Britton
My favorite thing about Santa Fe?
00:34:29 Naeema Britton
That's a hard question.
00:34:33 Naeema Britton
The people.
00:34:34 Naeema Britton
I have met, I've worked at larger institutions, but it's nothing like the people.
00:34:40 Naeema BrittonTo me, the fact that I know the vice president or vice presidents by name, but have sat in
meetings with them, the fact that I can speak or sit next to the president at a basketball
game and talk to them, to me, I have never experienced anything like it.
00:34:57 Naeema Britton
And so I love the idea
00:34:59 Naeema Britton
that they're accessible.
00:35:01 Naeema Britton
The people are great.
00:35:02 Naeema Britton
You meet, I've met amazing people here at Santa Fe.
00:35:08 Naeema Britton
So that is my favorite part.
00:35:09 Mark Barley
Yeah, we're gonna have a tally board behind me at some point for this podcast with all the
people that say the people of Santa Fe.
00:35:18 Mark Barley
You're not the first or the last person that's gonna say that the people are their favorite
thing.
00:35:22 Mark Barley
All right, Director Naeema Britton, how can people get a hold of you?
00:35:27 Mark Barley
Where is the counseling center and what are your hours?
00:35:30 Naeema Britton
Sure.
00:35:30 Naeema Britton
So we're located in R227, second floor of R.00:35:36 Naeema Britton
Our hours are 8 to 430.
00:35:40 Naeema Britton
We see our first students at 830 and our last at 3, just in case.
00:35:48 Naeema Britton
Our
00:35:49 Naeema Britton
Pretty much we are obviously our social media.
00:35:54 Naeema Britton
We don't have social media per se.
00:35:56 Naeema Britton
We're working on changing and developing our website, but
00:35:59 Naeema Britton
You can find us if you search counseling and wellness on Santa Fe's website.
00:36:04 Mark Barley
And you can make an appointment online or no?
00:36:06 Naeema Britton
Not right now.
00:36:07 Naeema Britton
I'm working on that.
00:36:08 Naeema Britton
You talk about five years.
00:36:09 Naeema Britton
That's one of my plans to make it so we can take appointments online.
00:36:14 Naeema Britton
I think students will really like that.00:36:15 Naeema Britton
Right now, you can walk in or you can give us a call.
00:36:20 Naeema Britton
We also provide counseling to the other locations.
00:36:23 Naeema Britton
So that's something I didn't say previously.
00:36:24 Naeema Britton
So we are connecting with students no matter what campus they're on.
00:36:29 Naeema Britton
But yeah, so right now call us 5508 or you can walk right in and we'll get you set up.
00:36:37 Mark Barley
That was 395-5508.
00:36:41 Mark Barley
Director Naeema Britton, Counseling Wellness Center.
00:36:43 Mark Barley
Thank you so much for coming in and sharing your journey and the department you
represent.
00:36:50 Mark Barley
Thank you so much.
00:36:51 Naeema Britton
Thank you for having me.
00:36:57 Mark Barley
If you found this podcast informative, there's more to discover on our website,
sfcollege.edu.
00:37:02 Mark Barley
You can also follow Santa Fe on all your favorite social media platforms, X, Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube.00:37:09 Mark Barley
We're there at Santa Fe College.
00:37:11 Mark Barley
Give us a like, follow, and a subscribe.
00:37:13 Mark Barley
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00:37:18 Mark Barley
send us an e-mail at communications@sfcollege.edu.
00:37:22 Mark Barley
Thanks for listening and Go Saints!