Nakia (Nicki) Fleming, Ph.D., MSW, BSW, LCSW HeadshotI received my Bachelor of Social Work (2003); Master of Social Work (2004) both at IUPUI. Doctorate of Psychology (Ph.D.) in Counseling Psychology (2016) – University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, United Kingdom. I currently work at the Defense Health Agency which is part of the Department of Defense, Family Advocacy Program – Clinical in Fort Drum, NY. I received my LCSW in 2011 in Indiana.

Social Work chose me. A lifetime ago, I used to be a computer programmer. After paying off my student loans and working in the field, I found myself to be very bored with it. I mostly enjoyed the interaction with the clients and teaching them the computer systems. When I had an opportunity to go back to school, I went to the floor beneath the Social Work Department – the School of Education. I wanted to teach. However, after taking my first class within my major, I knew it wasn’t for me. I happened to hear about Social Work and walked up the flight of stairs and encountered Dr. Irene Queiro-Tajalli. The instant I met her, I knew I was in the right place! I told her I didn’t think education was a good fit. She told me to apply to the school and I could start the following year. I explained that I didn’t have that much time available to me due to life circumstances, I wanted to start now, and she helped me make some things happen. Since this time, I have returned to teaching off and on both at the university level and within federal service with a focus on teaching forensic clinical interviewing techniques and interventions.

I have had the benefit of working within a variety of fields. I have been a social worker working with adults and children within prisons, community mental health, pediatric rehabilitation within hospital social work, inpatient acute mental health, intensive outpatient treatment, assisted living facilities, private practice, and child protection services at the State and Federal levels. I have been on the board of non-profit organizations, I have worked with grassroots organizations on policy development, and I have had the pleasure to teach others – social work students, medical professionals, and law enforcement fields how to utilize social work skills and techniques to have better outcomes within their respective disciplines.

One of the biggest benefits is the variety. Social work is an intense field. Many do not last longer than 5-10 years within the field and it is completely mind-boggling to me to reflect as I write this that it has been almost 20 years of social work for me! I feel like it was only a few years ago I graduated from the Bachelors program! One of the things I learned early on is change can be a very good thing, not only for career growth but also for the elimination of stagnation and burnout. I love the fact that I can go elsewhere within a variety of different fields and I can create a position for myself. I have absolutely convinced employers of not only the need for a social worker, but why they may need my services even more so than another discipline. That is a rewarding experience to see that my experiences have proven to be invaluable to those that need the services.

I find this a difficult question to answer simply because I firmly believe we all contribute to the field in many ways that aren’t acknowledged on a daily basis. I find my work very rewarding and I’m really not the type to look for kudos. My kudos tend to come in changed behavior and increased insight with those that I work with. My specialty is assessment, intervention, and treatment of Active Duty (AD) Service Members(SM) (primarily ARMY) and their dependents (spouses and children) who are experiencing domestic violence – physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect. My particular niche is working with victims/Survivors and offenders of sexual assault – both adults and children. A very proud accomplishment I have is the therapeutic group model adopted by the Air Force for intervention with survivors of sexual assault was developed by myself. This model has been trained by the Air Force for all therapists working with Survivors since 2015.

Working with AD SM’s can be difficult. Having an understanding of military culture and how different it is from the rest of the world is very important. I grew up within the military community and it’s a culture that never completely leaves you. A therapist working within this system not only has to learn the lingo of the military, rank structure and the importance of it, but also weigh the state, federal, and military laws/regulations against the best interest of the patients we work with, protection of all of those values as a social worker we hold so dearly and which sets us apart from other helping professions.

Take the time to develop your own niche in the world. Every experience is an opportunity to improve your own skill set and continue to grow within the field. Utilization of your peers and mentors for experience is invaluable for you to be successful. Remember that there is no “perfect” way to work with a client/patient/community. We all bring a special set of skills to the table, that are all different, and all are valuable and unique to a situation. Take care of yourself! Not only emotionally, but physically and spiritually. You do your clients/patients/community a complete disservice when you are not practicing self-care. GET YOUR LICENSURE! We protect the foundations of social work and the legitimacy of what we do by obtaining that licensure and you will find that opportunities available to you will become in abundance after you obtain it.

“Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” ~Brandt Paul