Born and raised on O’ahu, Hawaii, Katie Tokunaga M’24 kept adventure in mind when searching for graduate degree programs in clinical mental health counseling.

“I’m a huge explorer, and the East Coast has always fascinated me since I was a little girl,” she said.

Tokunaga discovered LVC’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master’s Program, and after earning her degree in May 2024, decided to stay in Annville as a full-time counselor in the College’s Counseling Services office.

She cites Creative Arts in Counseling course as one of her most impactful classes for her career. The course covers techniques such as Play Therapy, Art Therapy, and Music Therapy.

“When people hear counseling or working on your mental health it comes off a little intimidating. If I were to be in my students’ shoes and coming to counseling after class, I’d hate for my counseling session to feel like a lecture or talking,” she said. “Also, when you start counseling, it’s hard to talk about ‘what’s wrong’. A creative counseling approach allows the student to work their way up to talking about their trauma or backstory that they hold tight to them.”

Not only will Tokunaga draw from lessons learned in the classroom, but from personal experience as well.

“Growing up I struggled a lot academically until third grade when my mother took me to see a psychiatrist where I was diagnosed with ADHD and Dyslexia,” said Tokunaga. “But, more impactful for my 10-year-old mind, my psychiatrist had a therapy dog in every one of my sessions. I would tell everyone who asked me that I want to be ‘the lady with the dog.’”

Through high school, Tokunaga proved to be a supportive friend to other students who were struggling.

“I loved caring for other people. I like interacting with people and learning about their life stories,” she said.

She channeled these high school experiences into her Girl Scout Gold Award Project, choosing to focus on suicide prevention. She created a suicide prevention plan for her high school and led a training for her classmates while learning about her own mental health, and how to take care of herself while also being there for others.

“This led me to want to teach more people about the things I learned during this time,” she said. “Ultimately, that meant obtaining a degree in psychology. Then the master’s in mental health so I can now help, teach, care, and love people in the way they need to succeed and be happy in life.”

Learn more about the free services provided by LVC on the Counseling Services website.