Mary H.

I discovered my love and interest for psychology at age 16; positive experiences in my own therapy made me passionate to be able to provide similar services to others one day. I started to lean towards social work specifically when I realized that it was the only path that had so much emphasis on the relationship between societal issues and its impact on the individual.

I worked for a clinical pharmacy during my college years where I spoke with many Medicare patients with chronic illnesses. Over time, I began to see that many of them have emotional concerns that largely went unaddressed. When I was given the opportunity to complete an internship at CancerCare, I found that the reality of cancer is that a lot of people with cancer are coming face-to-face with their mortality for the first time. There’s a lot of self-discovery, and people begin to think about what’s truly important and what is not.

I am definitely a social worker who enjoys classic individual talk therapy, but I also like doing any kind of work that addresses gaps in care or assists people who are underserved. I particularly like working with caregivers, the unsung heroes of the cancer journey, since they experience the emotional aspects of cancer as much or sometimes even more than the person they’re caring for. Working within the scope of oncology often involves helping people make the best of a bad situation. Enabling clients find the light at the end of the tunnel, whatever that light looks like for them, is really fulfilling for me.