“What’s valuable about social work to me is that I have had so much freedom and flexibility to do a wide variety of many different things,” says alumni Elaine Yi Lam Szeto, LCSW. Having earned her Master in Social Work (MSW) from Portland State University’s School of Social Work in 2016, we asked Szeto about her career in social work, both before and after her time in the MSW program.
Born and raised in Hong Kong during the last years of British colonial rule, Szeto studied International Studies, Chinese Literature, Business, and Political Science as an undergraduate at the University of Oregon. That may seem like a lot, but Szeto was a double major, double minor. “I’m one of those people who’s like ‘I can’t pick so let’s do everything!’” she said.
“I tried to explore the business world,” Szeto said. “But I ended up not feeling it – there was something missing.” That lack of feeling led her to the Department of Youth Services in Lane County, Oregon. Starting off as a Program Specialist, Szeto’s administrative position evolved so she interacted a lot with the youth that the department served.
“They had a huge impact on my life,” she said. “My supervisor at the time said, ‘Why don’t you be a therapist?’” Instead, she transitioned to a new role as the Program Coordinator for Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Lane County, developing programs and experiencing her first foray into leadership work.
Many of the social workers Szeto worked with at the Department of Youth Services were graduates from PSU, specifically from the distance option in Eugene, Oregon. “I had the pleasure of interacting with some social workers there and discovered for myself what social work in that capacity looked like.” Szeto noticed their compassion and insights gave them a different perspective than other professions. Catching her attention, she applied to the MSW program and entered in the fall of 2013.
Throughout my social work career I’ve found myself doing all those things concurrently, rather than just direct work and moving on to something else. I find myself doing new things in parallel processes.
As a student in the MSW program, Szeto realized the importance of substance use work, while noticing her attraction to academic rigor and problem solving. This steered her towards research, along with clinical direct one-on-one work. “Throughout my social work career I’ve found myself doing all those things concurrently, rather than just direct work and moving on to something else,” she said. “I find myself doing new things in parallel processes.”
Continuing this concurrent process of study and career development, Szeto joined the Portland Veterans Affairs Center to Improve Veteran Involvement in Care (CIVIC) just before graduating from the MSW program. There she supported projects involving Intimate Partner Violence and Interprofessional Education in Primary Care. “I was a research assistant at the time, relying on some connections to pass my information along word of mouth,” she said. “I got lucky enough to have stayed in the Portland Research Department for almost two years.”
Graduating from the MSW program in 2016, Szeto later served as a social worker with Community Reintegration Services (CRS) at the Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS), providing intensive case management and mental health care for homeless veterans. “Many folks might know it as more of a homeless program,” Szeto said. “But for me it became much more than a homeless program. It’s more of a housing program. It’s definitely given me a very broad range of experience and perspective.”
Szeto recently switched jobs to become a Program Coordinator for the Veterans Affairs’ Innovation Hub Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Program. “My job is a bit more on a national scale or scope now,” she said, “There are some clinical elements, but also a lot of research, program evaluation aspects to it.” Szeto’s also an active member of the department’s Racial Equity Workgroup and the VAPORHCS Social Work Education and Professional Development workgroup.
“I’ve been very lucky that in the VA I was exposed to substance use work and a lot of mental health work,” Szeto said. “But at the same time, homelessness and housing is such a national issue that I was exposed to, looking at it from a broad spectrum, national sort of way. That steered me toward thinking about how what I’m doing on the ground is related to a different level.”
Find something that helps you build rapport, whatever it may be. That’s where the magic will be.
Szeto’s focus has expanded to include Micro Social Work, so she is in training for Somatic Therapy, Expressive Arts Therapy, and Clinical Hypnosis. Currently, she serves as Board Secretary for the Oregon Society of Clinical Hypnosis. “It may sound fluffy, like woo-woo,” she said. “But I’ve found them to be really helpful in building rapport. It could be art. It could be somatic. It could be in any way. But find something that helps you build rapport, whatever it may be. That’s where the magic will be.”
Szeto also uses Macro Social Work to offer a multidisciplinary, critical, and humanistic lens on the intersection of power, identity, spirituality, and wellness. Together with Bachelor of Social Work Program Director and Associate Professor Dr. Alma M. Ouanesisouk Trinidad, Szeto has worked on a participatory research project to examine ways to empower student and family voices in K-12 education in East Portland/Gresham.
They also recently facilitated a session at the Walla Walla 2021 Virtual Mental Health Summit titled “Everyday Courage and Act of Love: Diversity and Equity Work as Inner Work.” Of the session, Szeto said, “We took a leap of faith. Instead of having a presentation that told everybody ‘These are the seven things you must do” we decided to take a risk to talk about courage and love, starting when listening to oneself. The things we often ignore or miss may be our own fears, our own silent pains. If we don’t pay attention to them on the inside first and foremost, it’s very easy to project them outward, or perhaps make the space that you occupy much less hospitable, and much less generous to those who are used to generosity or hospitality. If nothing else, I think about the language we tried to use — such as ‘hospitality,’ ‘generosity,’ ‘love,’ or ‘courage’ — all of those words we don’t usually use in our conversations about diversity and inclusion. We tried very hard to use those words, rather than point fingers or to place weight — not even blame — this way or that. We wanted to talk about it from a more artful and poetic and humanistic sort of perspective.”
With all of her concurrent responsibilities with social work, Szeto still has time left to relax. “I actually read a lot of comic books,” she said. “When I’m not doing very much you’ll find me with my headphones, listening to a story while I do crafts. Maybe I’m painting. Maybe I’m cooking. Lately I’ve started to try needlepoint.”