Editor’s Note: This article is part of a larger series called “Becoming Anchored” by Anchored Wellness. In each article, readers can get to know Anchored better, discover more about their mission and meet the team members that are making Georgetown more anchored in wellness.
At Anchored Wellness, learning abounds for everyone who walks through the doors.
Whether it’s an individual making a break through on a mental health challenge, or a person learning about their own nutrition, or a graduate student finalizing their education and experience while working as a licensed professional counselor graduate student.
For Vienna Michaelsen and Jerushah Nickell, both working on their graduate studies, working at Anchored is an opportunity to learn and teach all at the same time.
“I worked for 7 years in the coffee shop world and most of that was listening to customers, coworkers, even employers,” Jerushah Nickell, graduate level counseling intern, told Hello Georgetown. “It’s very hard to be a barista, if you don’t love people. I became an advocate for mental health counseling after it helped me through some difficult high school and college experiences and I always wanted to offer the people I interacted with the same care and treatment I had received from my counselor years ago.”
Vienna Michaelsen, a Licensed Professional Graduate student who graduated in mid-November, also pursued an education in counseling after her own experiences propelled her towards helping people through grief, loss and trauma.
“I’ve always wanted to help others, but didn’t know why,” Michaelsen said. “My adolescent years were filled with music and performing arts so I knew I could be effective in that area. Then I learned it wasn’t really about the music. Then I experienced loss and grief; I saw first responders (a hugely overlooked population as far as grief/trauma goes) experience painful traumatizing events and walk away like it was an everyday occurrence, never processing or unpacking it. I realized there are more people underserved in the area of grief/loss and trauma, and wanted to get right to that so less of society carries the burden of it and heals openly. Normalize not being OK and talk about it so things get better!”
As graduate level interns, both Michaelsen and Nickell have the opportunity to take their first steps in to the professional world by helping clients under the supervision of mentors. Working at Anchored is their final step before becoming professionals themselves, and in this final step, provide valuable help and insight to their clients.
“When I think of being Anchored, I think of having a good mental foundation to build on,” Nickell said. “Things happen that we can’t anticipate or prepare for, how do we respond when those things come up? When you picture an anchor, grounding a ship, the idea is that the ship is not going to be driven off course, even if there is a current, or a wind, or a storm that we did not anticipate. I am always seeking to have tools in place, so that if something happens, or things start to come apart, some things may get shaken loose, and that’s okay, because I will have a foundation that won’t move.”
As both students approach next steps in their careers, their time at Anchored has been valuable both for them and their future clients.
“Something that I have learned as I have entered into the professional counseling world is that issues like depression, anxiety, trauma, and developmental hang-ups can so often be expressed physically,” Nickell said. “In some cases, it can be obvious to an individual that what they are experiencing is hopelessness, or shame, or depressed thoughts. But other times mental distress can look more like a headache that won’t go away, or insomnia, digestive issues, muscle aches, etc. Of course, your first step when you aren’t feeling good is to call a doctor to make sure there is no physical cause of symptoms, but I think it would benefit a lot of people to know that symptoms like these may just be a sign that it’s time to ask for help and you don’t have to just tolerate the physical symptoms of mental distress.”
Becoming anchored, Michaelsen added, is a different journey for everyone, and she looks forward to helping people become anchored in hope.
“Being Anchored can mean a lot of things to different people,” Michaelsen said. “For me, the only thing worth being anchored in is hope. [As it says in Hebrews 6:19-20 TPT,] ‘I have this certain hope like a strong, unbreakable anchor holding my soul to God himself. My anchor of hope is fastened to the seat which sits in the heavenly realm beyond, where Jesus, our forerunner, has gone in before me.’”
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