March is Social Work Month! We're proud to spotlight the amazing social workers providing care to clients at our Center for Effective Therapy. Below, get to know our Staff Social Worker, Courtney Muller!
How long have you been at The Baker Center?
"March of 2022."
How did you first become interested in mental health?
“My own experience getting diagnosed with ADHD at 16 was the beginning of my interest in mental health. I was the kind of kid with ADHD who went under the radar for a long time, getting good grades, but experiencing a lot of anxiety and overcompensating to keep up with my peers. The ADHD diagnosis was a relief. It allowed me to understand myself better and connect with people who could give me tools to make my brain work for me. My first experience with mental health care was very positive as a teen for these reasons.”
“Initially, I was a political science major at Barnard College, driven by my interest in distribution of power and resources. Following graduation, I worked as a paralegal and began preparing to go to law school. Through my work experience in law, I realized that the day-to-day life of a lawyer didn’t mesh with the draw to advocacy work that I felt. I began to learn about the social work profession, and how it could be a way to advocate for folks, work against systemic violence, and expand access to resources. Mental health care came to the forefront of my interests, as one of the resources that is often inaccessible to many who need it.”
What about your degree and education has set you up to be a successful clinician?
“I attended the Columbia School of Social Work and graduated with my masters in 2014. I had a generalist concentration, which allowed me to have both clinical and policy exposure. I learned a lot about mental health care, treatment and assessment, and community organizing.”
“I appreciated the holistic view my education provided, and the idea of social workers as ‘change agents’. Social workers are not just there to provide a treatment, but to help reshape society through their work to make the world healthier and more just for everyone.”
“While in graduate school, I took clinical electives focused on working with kids, and I always knew I was interested in family systems. My first placement was at the NYC Anti-Violence Project, a short-term trauma counseling and crisis hotline for queer New Yorkers. In this position, I ran groups for survivors and provided short-term trauma counseling. My second placement was in family court, working to support caregivers who had been pulled into the system because of concerns about the child’s safety. My role focused on ensuring that caregiver rights were being respected and supporting them through making the changes that would allow them to safely move forward with their child. Many people I worked with were young parents, some who were even in foster care themselves. In my work with them, I often brought in a trauma lens to supporting adolescents with the goal of helping them learn to become safe parents when they didn’t have that experience themselves."
What was your work experience prior to the Baker Center and how did that impact you?
“Following my graduation from Columbia, I stayed on at my second placement as a full-time social worker at the public defenders’ in Brooklyn for five years. My experience working with adolescent parents there led me to crave more opportunities to build clinical relationships.”
“For my next job, I worked as a high school social worker, and I loved working with the kids and families there. When the school program closed, I became a supervisor for an in-home therapy provider in Brooklyn. In that position, I managed a small caseload and supervised four social workers and some interns. Concurrently, I was participating in a program at the Ackerman Institute for Families. It was a post-grad program, where I met with families in their clinic, received live feedback from my cohort on my therapeutic approach, and learned more about effective treatments.”
What made you want to work at the Baker Center?
“I came to the Baker Center’s Center for Effective Therapy mainly because of the evidence-based practices that are used in treatments here. My previous experiences honed my assessment, engagement, and perspective taking skills. But I didn’t always feel supported in knowing that the work I was doing would consistently be effective. I found that providing treatments can lead to burnout when you care so deeply about your clients, but you’re not sure that all your efforts will lead to the outcomes you hope for. Having the training to back me up and the confidence in the evidence of our treatments has been exciting."
What are your thoughts on the evidence-based practices that we use here?
“As a clinician, experiencing the success that our clients consistently have with evidence-based practices is really encouraging. I am interested in seeing the continuation of increasing our knowledge about how evidence-based practices can be applied effectively for different communities. One of the things I like about working here is that we are expanding our treatment population, and we are trying to contribute to the picture of how evidence-based practices can be effective for everyone, as we can see in our own data of client experience.”
“I also believe that our evidence-based practices are not cookie cutter for each family. What makes them so effective is the support we have in tailoring interventions for each family, supported by the level of supervision clinicians have and the flexibility the interventions provide. With our approach, we can still be confident that we are providing good treatment, while also being responsive to what is going on with each individual kid and family.”
What would you say to a family who is seeking out mental health services for their child for the first time?
“I would say that the thing I really appreciate about evidence-based practices is that they offer immediate support for caregivers and children in the form of concrete skills, and that these treatments can be very empowering. For someone who hasn’t had previous experience with therapy, the coaching and skills-building models can feel more familiar and provide more immediate relief from distressing symptoms. When your first experience with therapy to be one that leads to significant improvement in someone’s quality of life, it can open a door to life-long relationships with mental health care that benefits everyone. I would also say that the quality of supervision for clinicians providing evidence-based care is very impactful. I don’t think that I would be as effective of a clinician if I didn’t have weekly individualized support structured to help me think about each family and child’s needs and progress. The environment created amongst clinicians at the Center for Effective Therapy makes for happier clinicians at their best for their clients.”
What is your favorite part about working at The Center as a clinician?
“Oh gosh, there are so many! The culture and warm community at the Center hits you right when you walk in the door. Everyone I interact with here is so aligned in their approach to engaging with kids and families. Overall, I really love the opportunities to work with parents. At the beginning of my career, my work was all about advocating for parents. Coming into the work I do here with a parent advocate perspective is great, because I always love it when I can support caregivers in reaching their goal of helping their child. I aim to do this work by helping parents feel seen, validated, and supported without judgement through their family challenges.”
“I also love that we are so responsive to the needs of the client. We value the ability to meet kids and families where they are at to help them access the care that they need. The leadership and culture throughout the organization is so adaptive and eager to understand and respond to new opportunities, with the goal of improving the delivery of care and the experience of the staff.”
More about Courtney:
Courtney Muller is a queer, licensed independent clinical social worker and a Staff Social Worker at The Center for Effective Therapy. Courtney specializes in family therapy and has worked with families in many settings including family courts, public school, in-home services, and outpatient clinics. Experienced in supporting the whole family as they navigate complex systems, identities, and experiences, Courtney is curious and collaborative, partnering with youth and families to understand where they have been and where they hope to be. She specializes in working with LGBTQ families and youth, with neurodivergent children and adolescents (ADHD and Autism) and with adolescents struggling with anxiety, depression, and trauma. Courtney is trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the Modular Approach to Therapy for Children and Adolescents, and other evidence-based models. Courtney believes that every member of the family system can learn skills that can positively impact the family’s functioning. She is passionate about helping parents and caregivers feel empowered and equipped to lead their children towards healing and growth that can continue beyond therapy and into the future.
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