Staff feature: Victor Martini – Adult Outpatient Clinician

As he celebrates 25 years as an adult outpatient clinician at United Counseling Service (UCS), Victor Martini reflects on a career shaped by a deep belief in people’s ability to heal, grow, and move forward.

Victor’s first experience working in the mental health field came as a childcare worker at the Charlton School, a therapeutic residential program for adolescent girls in New York State. There, he worked with students to help them heal from traumatic experiences and move forward in positive ways through equine therapy, recreational activities like swimming and exercising at the gym, and by simply being heard.

It was at the Charlton School that Victor discovered his passion for becoming a therapist. While there, he learned how to lead family therapy and had to the unique opportunity to work with both victims and perpetrators of abuse. Through those experiences, he began to recognize the cycle of abuse and the importance of intervention. “I realized that nothing is going to change unless someone helps them. It was very, very powerful.”

Victor advanced through several leadership roles at the Charlton School, moving from the position of childcare worker to overseeing multiple student cottages while earning his Master of Social Work degree. As there were no social work positions available at the Charlton School at his time of graduation, he transitioned to adult mental health services. Victor embarked on a decade of building experience leading programs for adults with serious mental illness, which includes conditions that can affect a person’s ability to function in daily life, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. These day treatment programs provided individuals with access to intensive mental health care while allowing them to remain in their communities. Victor collaborated with other mental health professionals providing day treatment programs and founded the Consortium of Continuing Day Treatments of NY Incorporated, serving as its president for ten years.

Victor brought his wealth of experience to UCS in 2001, where he initially served as a director in the Outpatient Mental Health division. In this role, he managed the agency’s South Street Group Home for adults with chronic mental illness, its crisis bed program at Battelle House, and the Community Rehabilitation and Treatment (CRT) program, now known as Targeted Case Management (TCM).

Victor also brought the Open Dialogue therapy model to UCS, an approach that invites clients to include family members, friends, and other important supports in the therapeutic process. Sessions, which typically last 90 minutes, focus on listening deeply to the client’s experiences and perspectives. “You listen to people,” says Victor. “You make them be heard. Then you ask them, was that helpful? Most of the time, they say yes. Most will also want to do it again.” Sessions continue until the client decides they no longer need them.

Victor believes in the power of Open Dialogue and its ability to help people become ‘un-stuck’ from challenges affecting their mental health. He continues to offer Open Dialogue sessions at UCS and is available on Thursdays.

Victor also offers Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a therapy designed to help individuals address and heal from trauma, as well as other therapeutic approaches tailored to each client’s needs.

For those seeking help for their mental health or considering taking that first step, Victor recommends taking the time to find a therapist you feel comfortable talking with in the long term. It is the therapist’s responsibility to align with the client, not the other way around. That connection, he believes, is essential to achieving the most positive outcomes.

Doing his best for clients has always been Victor’s focus, and that focus continues to drive his work today.

“This is the greatest work a person can do,” says Victor. “It doesn’t get any better than this. You could have a job that pays you a million dollars a year and be really satisfied with that money, but you wouldn’t be satisfied the same way you would be satisfied in doing this work. This is far greater than what money can buy. My advice for somebody coming in—give it your all, because it’s going to give you back more than you give.”

UCS is currently accepting new clients and offers outpatient mental health counseling and intensive outpatient programs for adults and children, school-based services, programs for families, early childhood services, and 24/7/365 mobile crisis response in Bennington County. Please call 802-442-5491 to learn more about accessing services at UCS.