(Posted 2025 February)
Meet Jennifer!
Position: ADAPT (Anger & Domestic Abuse Prevention and Treatment) Counselor in Domestic and Sexual Violence Services
They say time flies. I was hired in March 2024, so I’m coming up on a year. I was also an intern with ADAPT when I was working on my master’s in social work.
My days are busy but fulfilling. In a nutshell, I help facilitate the ADAPT program. That includes screening folks through orientation process, helping them understand that while they maybe thought this was a class it’s definitely a treatment program. I help them get in readiness shape and with motivation. I help clients figure out their treatment goals. I facilitate groups; specifically, I run an English program and facilitate a men’s group. I help identify barriers along the way. That might be substance use issues, co-occurring mental health issues, housing instability, food insecurity. We try to do a lot of case management services to get our clients connected to the amazing resources Fairfax County has to offer.
This wasn’t always the plan. I feel like I fell backwards into social work. My undergrad degree was in women’s studies and interdisciplinary studies. The values of both of those very much align with social work in that I wanted to help people and change the world. After undergrad I worked for a program for families experiencing homelessness and domestic violence. I went back and did my master’s at George Mason. It was through their clinical internships that I experienced ADAPT. Unfortunately, when I graduated ADAPT wasn’t hiring. So, I went to INOVA and then Loudoun County supporting their emergency services.
A lot of the movement in my career comes back to looking at the systems in which I’m working and asking, ‘Can I create change here or am I stuck within the structure?’ Legal or educational restrictions kept me stuck within the structure. So, I went into private practice for a while. Having flexibility to show up for people in the way I wanted to was great. But I found out ADAPT was hiring. I knew from my internship that I love this program, and I love DSVS, and this felt like an area where my skills could affect a lot of change. I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll apply.’ Then I got a job offer and here we are!
What I do here is hugely satisfying. So many of our clients come into ADAPT with pretty intense levels of shame. Shame from choosing violence within their family, Children’s Protective Services involvement, or court. Even if they come to ADAPT voluntarily, it’s usually because someone in the family has said, ‘You need to get help.’ The model we use and the way our staff shows up starts with you are a valued human being. Yes, you have behaviors that are destructive, but you have value as a human. We want you to be your most genuine, happy self because happy people don’t cause violence.
Folks who choose violence often come in describing these moments to which they don’t want to return. They come into the program lacking confidence, worried they’ll cause violence again. Watching that growth and helping facilitate people walking out of our program feeling confident. … Watching that transformation is rewarding.
What I do is helped immensely by where I do it. DSVS and the larger Department of Family Services—the leadership is unlike anywhere I’ve ever worked. They are committed to human beings in their ethics and their rights, and not just the clients but also the employees. I genuinely feel valued and respected. My family is valued even though leadership has never met them. A lot of organizations say this. But to feel like I work for an organization that values humans, to have it show up and be so concrete really has been incredible. To be sometimes the first point of contact people in the community have with county government, it’s a privilege to be in a position to show people we are here to help you, support you, and help you have safe, happy, healthy families.
Family comes first. I have a 3-year-old, so right now my time away from work consists of potty training, which is not so relaxing. But focusing on family time, getting moments to reconnect, and finding fun ways to get involved in my community are important.
That said, I recently have become interested in Legos. There’s a Legos Botanicals Collection, and since I already love gardening, it’s been fun to piece things together and have “plants” be permanent--even if I forget to water them for a few months. It’s something that’s completely disconnected from the work I do.
Oh, and I am a blackbelt in Taekwondo.
Join our team to discover why I enjoy working with DFS so much.