Three alumni returned to Archer for a lunch period no longer as students, but as successful therapists, life coaches and trauma specialists. 

Faculty and students were invited to history teacher and Service Learning Coordinator Meg Shirk’s classroom Friday, May 5, to hear from a panel of alumni in the psychology field. Junior Remi Cannon organized and moderated the event and said it was a great opportunity for students and faculty to learn about psychology and building a career in the field. 

“I hope the panel makes the process of pursuing psychology a bit less intimidating,” Cannon said. “Opening your own practice as a therapist can be daunting, especially as a woman in the field, so I really hope students can see people just like them — who went to Archer a few years ago — were able to go through that process and are now working very successfully.”

During the panel, Olivia Tiffany (’09), Rebecca Brandy (’09) and Linny Levesque (’13) spoke about their experiences working in psychology, reflected on useful skills Archer taught them and offered advice to interested students. After the panelists answered prepared questions, Cannon welcomed the audience to ask questions. 

Brandy is an associate marriage and family therapist and owns a private practice, where she specializes in grief. She said helping patients through difficult times is her favorite thing about her job, especially clients who have different identities and experiences from her own.

“The most rewarding aspect of my job is when I don’t even think I can help someone because they’re so different from myself,” Brandy said. “When I’m like, ‘I’ve never been through this, and I don’t know remotely what they’re feeling — how can I relate?,’ but then I get feedback later saying just being in the room with them is beyond helpful.” 

Levesque works at the OCD Center of Los Angeles, where she specializes in exposure and response prevention therapy for patients with all types of OCD. Levesque said discovering her passion for psychology was a long journey, but one she is thankful for. 

“I started out doing physical therapy, where I found I was actually more interested in how they were dealing with the injury mentally and emotionally. Then, I graduated college and felt a little lost,” Levesque said. “Archer always influenced me in the sense that it connected me to my values and what I was passionate about, and so I took a risk.”

Tiffany is a certified life coach and founder of Teen Souls, where she supports and counsels teenage girls in their formative years. Similarly to Levesque, Tiffany emphasized the importance of journey rather than destination and self-acceptance regardless of where one is professionally. 

“There can be a lot of pressure to people-please or to go down roads that don’t necessarily feel connected to who you actually are as a person,” Tiffany said. “While exploration is important, finding out authentically what makes you, you, engaging in those things and going in those directions is going to create a really happy place in your brain.”