Erica Coates, L.C.S.W.

Erica is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who serves as the Coordinator of the Community Resiliency Model at Cook Counseling Center. Her clinical work is focused on the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences students. In her work she feels it is a profound privilege to facilitate growth and healing in others as they discover their own resilience through hardships and injustices. Fascinated to experience the world through the eyes of another, she listens closely to understand the perspectives and needs of her clients from their cultural and developmental lens, and support them towards reaching their goals through warmth and connection. Erica draws from brain science on the nervous system and memory reconsolidation for clients seeking to understand the ‘why’ of their symptoms in order to catalyze change, or from behavioral models to help clients work to counteract symptoms to see changes in themselves and relationships. More specifically she has experience supporting those with complex trauma, and those struggling with identity difficulties pertaining to their religious/cultural upbringing. She currently serves to infuse the Community Resiliency Model content across campus with the help of 20 other CRM trainers. This model has reached several thousand members of our campus and over 50 departments since it was launched in Spring 2023 at VT. CRM works to bolster our ability to regulate our nervous system (the body's stress response) in the moment and have language to share with others to enhance connection and expand resiliency. For more information on CRM please visit CRM VT.

Erica obtained her Bachelors in Psychology with minors in Music and Spanish from Anderson University in 2004, and her Masters in Social Work from Syracuse University in 2009. She has worked in clinical, administrative, supervisory and program development roles in various human service agencies in different sectors. Before coming to Cook in 2017, she built mental health programming in underserved areas in South Carolina, developed services for Spanish speakers in North Carolina, and managed programmatic contracts and staff in New York. She is active on IDEA Team at Cook and enjoys indoor cycling classes, exploring spirituality, and frantically Googling pop culture references her clients make between sessions to try to appear hip.