University of Michigan Class of 2026

*Nora is not yet accepting individual therapy clients, but provides groups and case management, assists with Rapid Response, and co-leads our work with MI-CEMI

I like to think my interest in social work and mental health began in my undergraduate years at UM-Dearborn, where I was immersed in issues of social justice and inequity. During my courses, I began realizing that I didn’t just want to learn the theories behind the problems I cared most about, I wanted to be directly involved in addressing them.

The truth, however, is that my interest likely began unconsciously, far before I really knew what mental health professions entailed, by virtue of my identity as a trans person. Throughout my trans experience, a day hasn’t gone by where I haven’t constantly thought about trans issues in relation to how many trans individuals, especially trans youths, must cope with repressing their identities or harboring trauma from when they had to conceal their true selves or exist and operate within a cisnormative world.

Recognizing my connection to this sparked a passion for understanding society and the concept of identity itself, which led me to study sociology and philosophy. Studying these subjects alongside one another was a deeply valuable experience and gave me the tools to formulate my thoughts, feelings, and ideas with much intellectual rigor while understanding where to look to develop those thoughts, feelings, and ideas in the first place. As a future social worker, this deep passion I have for introspection and philosophical modes of thinking makes me well suited for becoming a professional that looks at all aspects of a problem and thoroughly dissects its causes, effects, and the measures we can take to address it.

A problem I am deeply interested in is trauma, specifically in relation to gendered experiences of CPTSD and what that looks like in trans lives. As I read more about trauma and CPTSD, the more I realize the oppression trans people face in their lives can be deeply traumatic, which must be confronted and empathized with. I want to be a part of empowering trans lives everywhere that have had to endure and survive oppression, and bring dignity and justice to trans lives as we find ourselves further and further in a sociopolitical climate they’re freqeuntly unsafe in. I am interested in working as a clinician, an organizer, and a mental health professional that collapses the distinctions between micro and macro, synthesizing the two to create holistic interventions to queer suffering.