Katie shares her story

There are plenty of interesting things going on in the life of this 46-year-old Arizona doctoral student, but the most arresting fact about Katie may be that two of her best friends are Nigerian dwarfs.

            “Their names are Monica and Phoebe,” she says with a nice laugh, as she confesses the ‘friends’ she’s speaking of are her pets and they actually are a breed of goats that are officially known as Nigerian Dwarf goats.  Oh, and by the way, her other best friend is an English Bulldog that’s a lovable but slightly dizzy dog she named, you guessed it, Rachel.    

            Turning from her pets to her professional life, Katie says, “I’m a doctoral student studying Clinical Psychology, and I work part-time as a counselor to people living in Arizona, including the Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona.”

            Due mainly to the Coronavirus last year and into 2021, she explains, “I’ve been able to take very few clients.  I work in a school on the reservation as a school counselor and then I work in town providing play therapy to a variety of clients.”

            After completing her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Master’s degrees in professional counseling, and marriage and family therapy, and a stint working in the Georgia state government, Katie moved from Atlanta to Arizona to get her doctorate. She’s glad to have left city life behind her and enjoys the beauty and natural resources around her new home.

            “I live in town but own some property out in the countryside,” she explains, “so when COVID hit and all the parks and trails were closed, I would go out to my property and go hiking. I also kayak a lot, and even though it’s the high desert out here, there are a lot of lakes and rivers and reservoirs where we can go kayaking.”

            About a year ago, as she was working her way through the rigors of doctoral studies, Katie says she started to notice she didn’t feel as sharp or clear, as can happen with normal aging.

“When I saw Prevagen on a display in the pharmacy, I asked the pharmacists about it. They said there were pretty good results with the product with aging and cognition. And so I tried it and I feel sharper. So, yeah, it's really helped.”

Katie adds, “On top of everything else, it's kind of an odd thing but it's boosted my confidence in being a student at this level. You go back to school at an older age and you don't know if you can do this, and now I'm like I can do this.”