ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Sunday, March 8 was International Women’s Day, and March itself is Women’s History Month.

Some local organizations marked the day and the month with women’s events in the community, and one of those was hosted by Seward County United Way.

The event, entitled Dia International de la Mujer, translated as International Women’s Day, focused on area Hispanic women, and the featured speaker for the evening was Garden City psychotherapist Vanessa Gaytan, who spoke about some of the mental health issues women face.

Gaytan said Hispanics face different cultural adversities than other races.

“With the way we handle certain situations, our roles as women are a little different,” she said.

Gaytan is a licensed specialist clinical social worker, a licensed clinical addictions counselor and registered play therapist dedicated to providing compassionate, culturally responsive mental health services to individuals and families in her community.

While many people choose the vocation they want as a career, Gaytan said she did not choose social work, but rather, it chose her. She added her love for the industry came from her youth.

“When I was younger, I was a juvenile delinquent, and I was in the foster care system,” she said. “I knew I wanted to help others how people helped me navigate some of my difficulties. I had an amazing foster family. I had amazing social workers. I did decide I wanted to do social work later on, and it was when I was in the program, I remember I wanted to work in addictions at first.”

Gaytan earned her Associate of Science degree from Garden City Community College, her bachelor of social work from Fort Hays State University and her master of social welfare from the University of Kansas.

In the work for her bachelor’s degree, Gaytan said she tried to focus on addiction, but as she started working in that are, she started realizing the underlying mental health issues and the lack of people helping the Hispanic community and providing services in Spanish.

“I decided I was going to go ahead and pursue my master’s degree and become a therapist,” she said. “It was then when I thought I was going to do addictions, but I started falling in love with play therapy and really helping support women. That’s what guided me to start pursuing more of that focus.”

Gaytan was born and raised in Garden City and proudly embraces her heritage with family roots in Mexico. Her personal and cultural background deeply informs her commitment to advocacy, social justice and increasing access to mental health services for underserved populations.

In addition to her clinical work, Gaytan is actively engaged in community leadership and advocacy. She serves as a member of the Garden City Cultural Relations Advisory Board, the board of directors for Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland and the Garden City Community College Endowment Association. Through these roles, she works to strengthen community engagement, support youth development and promote cultural inclusion.

Outside of her professional work, Gaytan enjoys spending time with her family, attending local sporting events, volunteering in her community and cheering on the Kansas City Chiefs. Gaytan is passionate about reducing the stigma surrounding mental health and is committed to empowering individuals and families to overcome obstacles, navigate challenges and build meaningful, resilient lives. This is some of what she wanted to bring to the recent United Way event.

“I’m hoping people will at least be able to gain that self-compassion and understanding of it’s okay for us to go through struggles,” she said. “We just have to be kind to ourselves and understand at the end of the day, we’re women. We all struggle, but we can come together. We can get support, and once we start focusing on our needs, we’ll be able to have more mental stability.”

Likewise, Gaytan said she hopes events like the one in Liberal make a big impact on those who attend.

“What I’ve noticed in the past is we miss out on even basic knowledge of mental health,” she said. “A lot of times when I do these presentations, I’ll have people tell me ‘I had no idea some of my normal stressors were some of the things I was dealing with.’ I also give people insight on things I’ve encountered, things I’ve lived through, and when people are able to relate and connect in that way, it becomes really helpful.”

This, Gaytan said, is the type of impact that can happen to anyone.

“If it can happen to me, it can happen to you, and I feel during these events, people come out feeling more motivated and more understanding,” Gaytan said.

Gaytan said the experiences from her youth have served well as therapist.

“I went through some personal issues as well,” she said. “I actually dealt with some sexual abuse that made me fall into the juvenile delinquency.”

Gaytan said she had a mix of emotions as she prepared to talk to the audience and during the presentation as well.

“It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve done this,” she said. “It’s very nerve-wracking. At the end of the day, I just hope whatever I do say comes across well and people get a better understanding of themselves and eliminate a little of that stigma that remains with them.”