NEC 2024 Interview with Samuel Bryant

0:09Hello. I'm Michele Drennen. I'm the Alumni Relations Director at Divine Mercy University. And I have the rare opportunity today to talk to one of the individuals who hires our graduates. And being in alumni relations, that's very important. I'm gonna introduce you to Samuel Bryant. Samuel is actually in Tempe, Arizona, and his, wonderful counseling program is called Witness to Love Family Counseling Services. Right now, he currently has hired one of our graduates and he has an intern, which is a big compliment. So I guess my first question would be, Samuel, what is it that draws you to hire Divine Mercy University graduates? Well, when we got started well, when I got started as a therapist, I knew I wanted to serve the Catholic community.

0:54So in order to serve the Catholic community, you wanna be familiar with what Catholics believe. So I really feel God is calling us once again to serve this very unique, population. And so I was looking at Divine Mercy as a a place where we could find therapists that were trained in Catholic understanding of the human person, which is very important because there's a lot of Catholic families out there that are afraid to get counseling for their children or even for themselves because they don't understand that the counselor will respect or even understand their, philosophy, their faith, or their conscience. So how did you come to find Divine Mercy University? We still wanna be a household name, and we're working on it.

1:42But how did you find us? So many years ago, I was involved with Raynham Priestley. And so I knew about the Divine Mercy when it was called the Institute for something. IPS in yes. Yes. So I've kind of watched its development over the years. And then when I became a therapist myself and I knew we wanted to expand, we actually have contacted Divine Mercy, because we knew we wanted well, I actually wanna go out and visit and, even give a presentation there about what we do at Witness. There's graduates that, in particular, wanna work with the Catholic community and then take what we understand and know about the human person as Catholics and spread that to other faith backgrounds. That's a real the heart of our goal there.

2:41Got it. That's true. Now how long have you actually had your practice? So I'm 59. I started my masters when I was 47, finished when I was 50. So we've had the practice for the last six years. I've raised my legs. I often say to future students, it really doesn't matter how old you are. It's really how much passion you have for what you're doing. That is right. Absolutely. Absolutely. So what have you found, you can just name two or three, are the qualities of the individual that you hired that you continue to say, I'm so glad I hired you? Yes. The first person, Liberty Richardson, she's just so, like, down to earth and solid in her formation, which gives her a confidence when she's working with her clients and a clarity.

3:31It's I'm really amazed at how the word that comes to mind is professional, but, empathetic she is with the client. It's just been amazing. And her, educational foundation from Divine Mercy University, I think, just gives her a confidence that she understands a human person. And that's and that's the that's just at the heart of it. It's the essence of it. Yes. Yes. It it makes all the difference in the world. That's testing. Now how long have you had our current student who's the intern? He started, I believe, in January or February of this year. So he just started. So he's still in his, yeah, he's still in his first, I don't know if they call it semester. Right? And he's, once again, very mature, very sound.

4:30Right? Speaks with a lot of confidence and understanding. We actually got the meta model of the human person for our whole staff to be able to study and be at at their disposal at any time. So, I've watched Aaron. Aaron has sat in with me on a number of with a number of clients, and his ability to just jump right in. A lot of, interns wouldn't have the confidence to just jump in. But once again, I think the educational background gives them confidence that they have a clear understanding of of who the human person is. First of all, let us express our appreciation that you're hiring our graduates, now doing clinical rotations with them, and we look forward to serving you. Your gift of time today is so valuable, and I look forward to staying in touch with you.

5:22Thank you so much. God bless you. Awesome.