Staff Spotlight: Adelin Brownell

Outpatient Clinician, UCS Northshire

Adelin Brownell’s UCS story started 20 years ago, when she worked as a job coach for the agency. After a pause to raise her child, she returned this year to UCS as an outpatient mental health clinician in the Northshire region of Manchester, VT.

“I like talking to people,” she says. “It fascinates me to learn and know how our thoughts and behaviors are connected, to learn the different kinds of factors that affect human mental health.”

Adelin works out of UCS’ Northshire location in Manchester, VT, with a team of dedicated mental health professionals. The 5312 Main Street office offers a variety of programs and services for individuals seeking care in the Northshire region, including adult outpatient mental health, school-based, and substance use services, as well as care management and therapeutic groups. Clinicians based at UCS Northshire provide different services depending on need, with a common goal of providing care according to each client’s own pace and direction. Adelin recalls a saying used by one of her professors, that clients are the drivers on their own mental health journeys, and therapists are the navigators. Change and progress only occur when someone steps onto a path of their own choosing.

“Clients can go wherever they want,” says Adelin. “What we can do is navigate how they will get there and help them get there in a safe and positive, healthy way.”

Adelin believes that her role as a mental health clinician is to help individuals access the care they need, including referring them to outside resources when necessary. It is all about the clients’ journey and how they want to achieve their goals. “As a therapist,” she says, “my number one role is to collaborate and advocate for my client. If they need something and don’t know how to get it, we refer them to the right team, the right resources, where they can get what they’re looking for.”

Changes happen little by little, and measures of success can be found in the words of her clients. When a client says, “it’s working—it’s making my life better,” when referring to their work together, Adelin recognizes those moments as great rewards.

Adelin sees the positive effects of her work with clients and hopes that the future holds a shift in mindset around seeking mental health care.

“I hope that eventually, mental health won’t be a stigma anymore, that there will be more awareness of it, and that a lot of people who need it will be able to get access to the help they need.”