Spotlight: Dennie Butler-MacKay (SSW ’89)

“Listen for the poetry, notice how you feel, embrace community, and keep seeking clarity on the gifts that are yours alone to give.”

Dennie Butler-MacKay, LICSW (SSW ‘89), recipient of the BUSSW Alumni Association’s Outstanding Career in the Field of Social Work Award (2018), reflects on her path from student and intern to senior clinical social worker at Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center, where she currently serves as Co-Director of Racial Justice and Equity Initiatives.

Q: What was your most memorable experience at BUSSW?

A: One word that calls up my experience at BUSSW is “transition” – my transition in and then out of the school.

Transitioning in…

After learning about BU’s MSW program and daring to dream of a social work career, I felt challenged to bring my best self forward. My first make-or-break experience was when the Admissions Director, Ken Schulman, and the Assistant Dean of Student Services, Fran Gelber, gave me a final deadline on the submission of my personal essay. Everything else was in, but I struggled with shedding light on who “Dennie” was at that time.  

I hadn’t even been admitted to the school, but already I was learning about finding my voice – the need to believe in what feels impossible, and the power of supportive relationships. After four hours of compiling all my drafts and notes into a coherent document, I submitted the essay. I was admitted to the school, and as I transitioned into BUSSW, I knew I was on my way to something bigger than what I’d done before.

During my two years at the school, my experiences were vast, my thoughts and emotions complicated, and my determination – my “stick-to-itiveness” – was tested beyond what I thought was imaginable.

Transitioning out…

On the incredibly emotional day of graduation, I broke with tradition and crossed the stage with my eight-year-old daughter, Jessica. I wanted to honor her experience of having to share me so intensely with school, while also modeling what it meant to climb these steps to success. I knew our lives were about to be changed forever, and they were.

Q: How did BUSSW prepare you for success in the social work field?

A: I completed my second field placement working with victims and offenders as part of a sexual abuse team at a local hospital. There were three of us from different schools of social work who were interning at the site.

In hindsight, it seemed that all the possible learning experiences for what it means to be a social worker were captured and uplifted in that year. The first take-away was clinical practice: The importance of “being where the client is” became more important than where I wanted the client to go.

The second take-away concerned resources and collaboration—, a series of grand rounds strengthened my training and alerted me to stay in touch with the current pulse of my environment. I learned about specialty departments aimed at support and advocacy, like Victims of Violence, which augmented the care we provided.

The third take-away focused on self-care, advocacy, and ethical standards. Midway through the year, my department suffered devastating cuts in funding, and we were told that the department would be closing at year’s end.  While maintaining our practice with clients, we were also bearing witness to the team’s ability to weather emotional ups and downs.

Q: Is there a certain experience that has guided your path since graduating from BUSSW?

A: My course load at BUSSW included the well-known class Social Work Research 1. I was fortunate to have Judith Gonyea as my professor. She might be quite surprised to know that her words have guided my path since graduating BUSSW.

In one particular class, we were all working to understand a difficult concept.  I remember Judith standing in front of us, clearly seeing that we were getting caught up in our struggle to comprehend it.  Wisely, she put up her hand and gently gestured us to stop and settle. As we calmed down, she said, “There are some times where you have to just say to yourself… I believe.”

I have used those very words to move through many situations where the lack of clarity made me feel that the situation was impossible.

What a powerful lesson: to realize that fear and other forms of resistance can almost innocently present in the form of questions and what-ifs, paralyzing you in the process. I have counseled many using these very words: “Sometimes you have to just say to yourself… I believe.” Frequently, the block is diminished, the energy flows and clarity comes.

Q: What do you do now and what does your typical day look like?

A: For the last eight years, I’ve worked as a senior clinician at Southern Jamaica Plain Health Center, one of the community health clinics of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

At the health center, I provide individual and group psychotherapy to adults, as well as children, adolescents, and families.  I also provide clinical supervision and consultation to staff and trainees, as well as community organizations.

For me, each day is varied, and distinct. On one day, I might be seeing a few ongoing patients for individual psychotherapy, followed by facilitating a group (in Spanish) with older women with histories of anxiety and depression. Then, I will join my co-director to offer consultation on facilitating racial justice affinity groups to representatives of a health organization.

On another day, I might be seeing an ongoing patient, then meeting a staff member for supervision, followed by screening a new patient referred by one of our doctors. Afterward, I join my co-director again to either facilitate an ongoing group of youth in our Racial Reconciliation and Healing project or an ongoing group of physicians in racial leadership development.  

Additionally, I may have a day where I am scheduled to work in urgent care, which means I have to pull out of my routines and evaluate a patient having a psychiatric emergency who may need to be hospitalized.

I also recently became the Co-Director of Racial Justice and Equity Initiatives at the Health Center. This allows me to engage groups and systems in racial justice work that is intersectional, radical, heart-centered, and envisions liberation for us all.

The pace, the variety, and the ability to work from a heart-centered place – these are the elements I love most about my work.

Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for current BUSSW students?

A: Listen for the poetry, notice how you feel, embrace community, and keep seeking clarity on the gifts that are yours alone to give.

No one can tell you how to be a social worker. You will definitely get tools and training, but how you put your own life puzzle together is up to you. There is no domain that doesn’t benefit from the presence of a social worker.

The world needs what we, as social workers, are uniquely equipped to give. We have an amazing capacity to channel anger into opportunity and fear into a drive that propels us. We honor commitment in the face of loss. We carry hope in the darkness. We see beauty in the small, as well as the vast. And we won’t stop envisioning a better world for us all.