Not Letting Your Family’s Past Define You | Maria Ortiz, MA, LMSW Artwork

The Latinx/e In Social Work Podcast

The Latinx In Social Work Podcast is a show calling awareness to racism, bias, and discrimination felt by Latinx social workers. By sharing personal narratives from social workers within the LatinX community, our goal is to undo the injustice and guide others to note where they exist.

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The Latinx/e In Social Work Podcast

Not Letting Your Family’s Past Define You | Maria Ortiz, MA, LMSW

September 27, 2022 • Erica Sandoval • Season 2 • Episode 3

From the depths of people's suffering to helping the youth advocate for themselves in court, in this episode of the podcast, Maria shares with us what her experience has been serving on the front lines as a community advocate.

Topics we touch on in today's episode include:

Advice for upcoming social workers who want to become a psychotherapist
Some of the challenges with being a psychotherapist
What advocating for youth in court is like
And more!

Maria's bio:

As a dedicated NYS licensed social worker, Maria has a deep passion for working with families, particularly women and children. Maria has a Masters degree in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College and a Masters degree in Social Work from Fordham University. Maria has over ten years of child welfare experience, in addition to over ten years of volunteer and work experience with children in other settings.

Currently, Maria is a Psychotherapist at Ryan Health and previously worked as a Forensic Social Worker at The Legal Aid Society in Juvenile Rights. Since 2014 Maria has served on Manhattan Community Board 4 which covers Hell's Kitchen/Clinton, Hudson Yards, and Chelsea. On the Community Board Maria is the Co-Chair of the Housing, Health, and Human Services committee and serves on Arts, Culture, Education and Street Life.

Maria continues to live in Hell's Kitchen with her son. One of her favorite hobbies to relieve stress and for self-care is to dance, especially to salsa music. During 2020 she was featured in this article for Women's History and Social Work Month.

To connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-e-ortiz-m-a-lmsw-8b54b841/

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