Cheryl Aguilar is a licensed independent clinical social worker with over two decades of experience in the public and private sectors. She is the founder and therapist at Hope Center for Wellness, a multicultural mental health practice focused on holistic healing. In 2023, Cheryl was named Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers DC/VA chapter for her commitment to excellence in the social work profession. In 2019, she was selected by Social Work Today magazine as 1 of 10 dedicated and deserving social workers making an extraordinary impact across the country. Below is a recent interview we conducted with Cheryl about her life, career, and her advice for current NCSSS students.
What was it about Catholic University and NCSSS specifically, that made you want to attend university here?
Cheryl Aguliar: I was looking for one of the best schools in the area. People that I spoke to about where to go all recommended Catholic University. I wanted to be close to home. I live in D.C. and Catholic is a few blocks from my house, but it was mainly the reputation that it had as a good clinical program.
You work at Hope Center for Wellness. What does Health Center for Wellness do and what is your day-to-day there?
Cheryl Aguliar: Hope Center for Wellness is my private practice. It's a community-based private practice focused on community healing and holistic healing. I am the founder, director, and I also do therapy. Every day could be very different depending on the day. We provide individual and family therapy. We design and implement community programs and support groups for our community. We have a support group for youth at a high school and detention center. We also facilitate creative wellness workshops. So no day is the same. What I particularly do is oversee the team of therapists, our programs, and I also provide therapy to a small caseload of clients.
What is community and holistic healing? What is that process?
Cheryl Aguliar: With holistic healing, we believe in the integration of mind, body, and spirit connection. So our therapeutic interventions include all of those components. A session would allow our clients to nurture those different parts of themselves that contribute to their well-being. The Community healing part is where we tailor what we do to fit community needs and where we take our services to where the community is at. We provide in-person or video services, but we also look to partner with community organizations or other community agencies and nonprofits so we can bring our services right to where our communities are at
For students who might want to follow in your footsteps, do you have any advice on how to start up a practice?
Cheryl Aguliar: Yes! Get organized. Have a plan for your ambition and talk to other people who have done it. We cannot do anything in isolation and setting up a practice is not easy. It takes effort, but there are a lot of other people before us who have done it. Attend trainings on how to be a businessperson. Because we come to school to be social workers we don't necessarily learn the skills to be an entrepreneur. Make sure to get those skills in those areas as well. Talk to as many people as you can and maybe get a coach or someone who can guide you along the way. And once you acquire your licensing hours for an independent license, don’t stop receiving clinical supervision or seeking consultative clinical services.
What inspired you to join the social work profession?
Cheryl Aguliar: This is my third career. I used to be in journalism and then media relations. I was introduced to social work when I was a media consultant hired to lead a mental health awareness project in Prince George County in 2011. I was asked to take on this position that would have dealt with youth and I rejected the gig twice because I wasn’t a therapist and I thought I needed to know a lot about mental health to do this work. I told the recruiter, why would you hire me? But they wanted me to help the youth, to train the youth on how to tell their story before the media and elected officials, which is part of my background in media and advocacy.
We would take the kids over to Annapolis and Upper Marlboro to testify before elected officials, council members, and the county executive. The idea of this project was to advocate for more funding for mental health services at places where young people were already frequenting, such as schools and community centers. To me, it was fascinating to see young people who wanted to use their voices for community change. And in spending so much time with them, they began to tell me their mental health stories. There was a youth who shared with me that he was having suicidal ideation and that he was thinking about harming himself. I remember at that moment being frozen, not knowing what to say, not knowing how to help this youth, and fearing that I was going to say the wrong thing. But I knew enough that I needed to connect them to services and that's what we did. This youth looked at me and said: “it was really hard for me to tell you that I was thinking about harming myself, I want you to help me.” When I went home, I thought about this youth all night. I prayed that he would go to his counselor and that everything would be fine. And that's what led me to social work. I wanted to be a part of the solution.
Do you have any advice for any future NCSSS students who might be anxious about what may lie ahead after graduation?
Cheryl Aguliar: First, normalize that. That's a normal feeling. You spent the last few years studying and now you're getting ready to go and help the community. I'm a big advocate of talking to other people, we don't have to suffer in isolation. There are other people who can guide us. Talk to a counselor or advisor at school. Talk to people in your network. A lot of us who already graduated and have been in the field for a long time want to make the space to help other students who, like us, needed the support back. Reach out to alumni too.