Jennifer Hawkins has worked at Willow Sage Services as a Mental Health Case Manager (CM) for over two years in our Pocatello office. Jennifer graduated with a BA in Psychology, completed course work focused on children and adolescent development, cultural diversity, along with earning a minor in criminal justice. She is currently enrolled as a fulltime student to earn her master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Jennifer takes a humanistic approach while focusing on peoples’ strengths, abilities, and potential which can promote positive change. She believes that everyone is a teacher and a learner, and addressing the broader issues that impact communities, families, and individuals can also lead to positive social justice. Jennifer helps others bring out their best; offering people community resources and assisting them in overcoming problems that keep them from leading a happy and more fulfilling life. She is creative in finding ways to meet client needs, while advocating for her own clients and for all of the people we serve. She tries hard to work herself out of a job by teaching and encouraging clients to do for themselves what they can. She enjoys researching the various systems impacting our clients, including Social Security, unemployment, and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, as well as the various elements of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Jennifer also works with those who identify within the LGBTQA+ community by linking them to resources and other community supports. “Nature and nurture collectively form who we are, the self-schemas that make up our self-concepts help us organize and retrieve our experiences; human beings have the ability to make the needed changes for a better quality of life, if we chose.”