NEXT DOR
VOICE OF THE NEW JEWISH GENERATION
Finding Balance
Love, work and new motherhood: Mental health therapist Ronit Szczotka on navigating life. ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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rowing up, mental health therapist Ronit Szczotka read the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul book series, where everyday people share personal journeys and challenges. “I would read the books and relate to others,” the 31-year-old recalls. She experienced mental health struggles in her family as a kid and didn’t understand them. “In the early-to-mid’90s, I saw how challenging it could be to not only access services, but also the stigma that surrounds it.” At the time, people just didn’t talk about mental health, Szczotka explains. “It was something not to be discussed with anyone out of fear that it could negatively impact your relationships, or even your career to the point where you would be fired.” The secrecy of mental health led Szczotka down a journey to learn more about it and to find answers to the many questions she had about what mental health truly was. OPENING THE DIALOGUE ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH As she grew older, she became a big fan of the hit TV show
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Law and Order SVU, where she first saw the field of forensic psychology and the career opportunities it offered. “It was shedding light and opening the dialogue about mental health and how it can impact people’s behaviors and actions,” she recalls. Inspired by the show, Szczotka attended Beloit College in Wisconsin with the goal of going into forensic psychology. Yet, toward the end of her college career, “I found social work and realized I could still explore mental health without attending medical school,” she explains, hesitant to spend 12 years pursuing a medical degree. Graduating in 2012, Szczotka immediately entered Avodah’s Jewish Service Corps where she got what she calls her “first taste of social work.” She worked as a housing case manager finding homes for men who were homeless, while also learning about mental health conditions like bipolar disorder, depression and schizophrenia. Later, while doing clinical rotations as a grad student at Wayne State University, Szczotka was placed at an inpatient psychiatric hospital where she learned even
TOP: Ronit Szczotka and her daughter Orli. ABOVE: Ronit, Michael and Orli Szczotka.
