Bridget Naylor-Komyatte, Graduate Social Work Intern

(she/her/hers)

My Background:

For the past 5 years, I have worked in Hood River, Oregon. I completed a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps as a legal assistant and Spanish translator at Immigration Counseling Service in Hood River, Oregon. After setting roots in the community, I worked as the Station Manager for a regional Spanish language radio station, Radio Tierra. In this role, I led projects including COVID response and establishing and producing the region’s first Spanish language newscast. I was drawn to Social Work from my experience with the social workers in the community, some of whom I was lucky to call my friends and mentors. They worked towards a new culture within the field rooted in justice and challenging its oppressive history.

Why I’m a Therapist:

I believe in the transformative power of therapy, but also in the need to reform the field and its colonial past. I believe that people, embracing their intersectional backgrounds, should have access to care that is culturally responsive and in-line with efforts to decolonize the field. Therapy aligns with work to transform oppressive political and medical policy. It as an essential piece in the valuation of diverse experiences and roots.

My Education/Training:

I graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. During my professional career, I have completed trainings in Plain Language Communication, Anti-Racism in professional capacities, and in outreach work with Spanish-speaking populations, among others. Through my coursework in my Masters program, I have especially resonated with trauma-informed course content, education around decolonization of social work, relational-cultural theory, and postmodern theories.

Areas of Specialization:

I am excited to work with individuals through a trauma-informed lens. I believe that wellness journeys are situated within our current relationships and political environments as well as historical and family history, trauma, and embodied knowledge. I believe that our work should be flexible and embrace strategies that best meet each client’s individual needs and backgrounds while also advocating for greater justice movements. I aspire to create a space through therapy that is inclusive of diverse ways of knowing and being and to embrace the practices that best serve each client, while holding space for the current sociopolitical conditions we exist in.