Please join us in welcoming Patty Long-Brohm, our new GME Wellness Counselor!! Patty starts with us today, September 7, and will be based at Seattle Children’s Hospital. She comes with more than two decades of experience and training and will be a wonderful addition to our counseling staff. Look for Patty’s schedule to open on Schedulicity soon – more details to follow.
Below is Patty’s welcome message to the GME community:
Hello! I’m thrilled to be joining the GME Wellness team! I’m grateful for the opportunity to help support the UW medical residents, fellows, and their partners during this challenging and rewarding time in their careers.
To share a bit about myself, I am first and foremost shaped by my early experiences growing up the youngest of four in a small town in the Midwest. My early experiences, some of which included adversity and loss, helped to shape my concern and compassion for others and for the suffering in the world. These early experiences also planted the seeds for core values of integrity, equity, and social justice, which together with my psychological interests led me to the field of clinical social work.
My graduate education at Smith College School for Social Work provided a strong clinical foundation of psychological and developmental theories – while also providing a critique of these theories and a broadening of their application from the lenses of diversity, equity, and social justice. Moving to New England for graduate school and other parts of the country for training has also been a significant part of my development as it allowed me to experience new perspectives and more diversity than my early life afforded, and fostered internal strength and courage as I adjusted to different settings.
During my career over the past 20+ years I have had the privilege to work with children, youth, families, and adults from diverse backgrounds in a variety of clinical settings including residential, school-based settings, community mental health clinics, an eating disorder clinic, a hospital emergency department, and most recently a community health clinic. My clients have been important teachers and my years of practice have strengthened my clinical interests in trauma, attachment, grief and loss, mindfulness-based therapies, and holistic health and wellness. Furthermore, my work is guided by my personal mindfulness meditation training and practice.
I am so grateful to be living in the Pacific Northwest – having moved to Seattle seven years ago from Minneapolis. I appreciate the more temperate climate, the incredible beauty of the many bodies of water and mountain ranges, and the diversity and cultural experiences that Seattle offers. I enjoy the natural beauty we live in as much as possible through hiking and kayaking. I am also sustained by gardening, meditation, music, the arts, and spending time with friends, my spouse and our pup, Biela.
I look forward to working with you and the GME Wellness team!