◆The path did not begin in graduate school.
Samantha’s experiences as a woman, U.S. Air Force veteran, mother, advocate, disability professional, student, and clinician in training each shaped how she understands people and systems. They are not disconnected credentials. They are parts of one path.
Military service contributed to her understanding of systems, transitions, identity, stress, adaptation, and belonging. It also gave her respect for the complexity of military culture without assuming that any one veteran’s experience represents another’s.
Motherhood made systems personal.
Supporting a child with developmental and communication differences meant navigating systems that were not always designed around the person using them. Teaching her daughter sign language from a young age taught Samantha that communication is much larger than spoken language. It strengthened her respect for the many ways people express needs, ideas, feelings, preferences, and connection.
Marriage & Family Therapy brought the pieces together.
MFT gave Samantha a professional framework for something she had already come to believe: people cannot be fully understood outside their relationships, families, histories, environments, communities, and larger systems.
Weyr & Roots grew from all of them.
