How do you know when you’ve found your calling – your mission in life that drives your choices, education and path forward? Kamea knew at age 8 that hers would be helping people with their mental health. WellPower came in 12 years later.

Kamea’s Journey Begins

By age 5, Kamea knew something about her was different. She suffered from debilitating anxiety and ADHD-like symptoms that impacted her ability to sleep, play and function like her peers. Her mom knew that she needed help and got her into therapy. With counseling and medication, Kamea’s childhood began to improve.

By the time she was around 8 years old, Kamea realized that without her mom’s intervention and the help of her therapist, she might still have awful anxiety that stopped her from enjoying life like her friends. She decided then and there to become a mental health professional one day, so she could help others, too.

“As a kid, I thought everyone was in therapy and on medication, since it was so normalized for me,” said Kamea. “I’m so lucky that my mom understood from the get-go that I needed help. I saw my therapist and psychiatrist from age 5, all the way through middle school, and I actually had a pretty great middle-school experience.”

As a teenager, Kamea’s journey changed.

A Dark Place

Around age 14, and after discussing the decision with her care team, Kamea decided that she would try going off her meds, since she’d been doing well for so many years. Unfortunately, she began struggling with panic attacks, intrusive thoughts and insomnia as a result.

She went back on her medication, and things got better for her for a while, but then COVID hit. While she and her family were stuck at home, her stepfather became emotionally and verbally abusive. Kamea started feeling depressed, which led to suicidal ideation.

Over the next several months, her depression and suicidal thoughts got worse.

“I was completely miserable,” said Kamea. “I would stay in bed all day, I had no energy for the things I used to love and I struggled to find the strength to keep going. The first few months of COVID were so hard for me, not just because of the pandemic, but because of how it forced me to be in close proximity to an abusive stepfather without a break. That was a big part of what drove my suicidal thoughts.”

When she reached a breaking point, Kamea opened up to her mom that she felt suicidal and had a plan to attempt suicide. She was in unbearable pain and felt hopeless – she had no idea how to move forward.

Kamea and her mother decided to have her start at a residential treatment program in California for a 30-day stay. She was only 17.

Glimmers of Hope

“Starting at the residential treatment program felt so dehumanizing at first,” said Kamea. “They have you check in all of your clothing, devices and belongings because they have to assess what could be a risk to you. After a few days, though, I began to settle in and it turned out to be the best thing for me.

“I’m one of the lucky ones. In my 30-day stay, I actually got better. That program saved my life. The staff there were amazing, and they helped me to see that life is worth living. They helped me see that I have autonomy in how I react to challenges – that I get to decide how I handle my own life.”

While this experience in Kamea’s life was a major turning point, that doesn’t mean her journey no longer had challenges. After returning home to her family, there was a physical incident with her stepfather, and Kamea and her mom moved away.

When Kamea began therapy again, she realized that the event had given her Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and her daily life had become far more impacted than she initially thought. Through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, her well-being has slowly improved over the past couple years.

WellPower’s Role in Kamea’s Story

Now, as a senior in her undergraduate career at Colorado Christian University and majoring in psychology, Kamea’s childhood dream of helping people through psychology is alive and thriving.

Enter WellPower…not as a service provider, but through an internship at WellPower’s Behavioral Health Solutions Center.

“I never knew the sheer breadth of options available for careers in the behavioral health field until I started my internship with WellPower,” said Kamea. “I hadn’t considered social work or the multitude of paths I can choose from using my psychology degree. This internship helped me to get real-world experience and reaffirmed that what I thought I wanted to do with my life is actually what I want to do – having that practical experience is invaluable.

“Working with WellPower also made me realize how full circle my life has become,” she said. “When I would speak to people staying for 30 days at the Solutions Center shelter, I had these clarifying moments of understanding that I was helping them in the same ways the staff at my residential treatment program had helped me.”

Kamea is finishing her undergrad this year, and hopes to pursue her master’s degree and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) certification. She plans to apply for a full-time position at WellPower as soon as she’s able.