We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cynthia Langley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cynthia below.
Alright, Cynthia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’re complete cheeseballs and so we love asking folks to share the most heartwarming moment from their career – do you have a touching moment you can share with us?
I was working for a non profit in the Pasadena area in the early 90s. I was working as an in home social worker providing therapy and educational services to mothers whose children were at risk of being removed from the home. My work assignment was to work with teachers at a local elementary school, and then take the referrals of the teachers of the children they felt were most at risk. I was assigned a case in which there was a single mother of 8 children. The mother was from Mexico. She fled Mexico because her husband had killed one of their children. the mother was undocumented. She fled to the US and her brother agreed to let her and her 8 children live at his house. the hard part was that the brother did not let the mom and children live inside the house. All of them had to live outdoors in his garage. The garage was small. There was only room for one full sized mattress where all the kids slept. There was a sink in the garage where the mom had to make sure the kids were cleaned up every day before they went to school. there were 2 children under age 4 that did not go to school. The rest of the children were in elementary school or middle school. My job was to meet with the mother and tell her that her children were considered at risk, and they could possibly be removed from her if there were not changes in their hygiene. The kids had lice and they did not always have the cleanest of clothes. The quick story was that after 6 months of working with the mom and the children, I was able to clean out the garage; get the children twin beds to sleep on; and help the mom know about the resources in the area that could help her. My Spanish language was not too good, and so the older children had to translate for me. However I got good at communicating with the mom on my own. We ended up getting the children new clothing; we got the children to go to the local beauty salon to get new permanents ( which burned out the lice from their hair) and we were able to get the mom services which could help her. We helped the mom find a better paying job. She worked as a cook in a local restaurant. I did get a lot of skin injuries and infections working with this family and their squalid living conditions. But I recovered and went back in to help them and gave the mom counseling and the children too. The story had a much better ending than what could have been imagined.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I got into the field of social work from watching my mother work for years as a secretary with the Department of Public Social Services in the 1960s. I was fascinated at the work that the case managers did with their clients. As a teenager I was inquisitive and asked how children and families got into the system. My heart went out to those who were financially challenged. I decided to go into Psychology at first to do counseling with children and families. I later learned more about clinical social work while I was working on my BA degree at Pepperdine University Los Angeles ( not the Malibu campus). One of my professors told me that I could do therapy as an MSW. I asked her what schools offered an MSW program. I decided to apply to 3 graduate programs. I chose USC to attend graduate school. I went there full time from 1977 to 1979. I am pleased to say that my graduate school education helped me immensely. I went on to become state licensed in California as an LCSW. After being licensed in 1981, I went on to work in several fields in social work. My favorite area of social work was medical social work. I have had the privilege to work in the fields of mental health, adoptions, foster care, senior services, homeless and housing services. I have also enjoyed teaching, training and mentoring countless students and staff in my role as a clinical supervisor and Director of Social Services. One thing I have done in my career ( which spans four decades) is to accept clients where they are, and to serve them to make their lives better. I connect with people. All kinds of people. I currently work as an online therapist for two online platforms. I also took the opportunity to attend a Bible College in Broken Arrow Oklahoma in the late 1980s and received a certificate for missions ministry. I was later licensed an ordained in the ministry. With that ministerial education, I have traveled the world sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in many countries. I am bivocational—that makes me unique.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The best story that illustrates my resilience is when I was working for a hospital in Santa Ana, California as a medical social worker. I enjoyed the job a great deal. It was busy, fast paced, lots of families in dire straits because their loved one needed special hospitalization at an LTAC facility. One day I received a call from a colleague of mine. This colleague informed me that a former boss of mine had suffered a major medical emergency. Her prognosis was poor. I was asked to come and help the agency stay afloat by running certain programs. I had a decision to make. Would I stay at my job where I was comfortable? Or would I help this former boss? I decided to talk to my supervisor at the hospital about my dilemma. I told her that I did want to go to Inglewood CA to help my former boss, but I also would be willing to work part time at the hospital on weekends. there was no social work coverage at the hospital on weekends, and that would be very helpful to the facility and to families with new patients being admitted over the weekend. My hospital supervisor pitched my idea to the senior management. They loved the idea! Therefore, I was able to keep my job at the hospital part time on weekends. I did end up helping the agency where my former boss worked. The most challenging part of the story was that the programs that the former boss supervised were not up to par. The staff was not doing all of their work. I found out about that and I had to get the staff in line to do their jobs. The staff hated me. They had me sitting in the kitchen instead of having an office. They resented everything that I pointed out that needed to be done. The contract was in danger of being cut, I shared with the leadership how to prevent that from happening. So the leadership of the agency supported my creative way of planning for how to preserve the contracts. The good news is that the former boss did recover well from her life threatening illness. But the persecution, the ridicule and the hatred of the staff was really very uncomfortable. But I persevered and survived.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
When you have a “can-do” attitude, that is unbeatable. That type of outlook on life will sustain you throughout your professional career. You do not need to have other people to validate you all the time. When you know your stuff, and you know how to do it, and you know how to perform with excellence, that is unstoppable!
Image Credits
Cynthia Langley, LCSW