Cortney Baudenistel MSW program at IU East, anticipated graduation date 2023.

Courtney is a police officer’s daughter, and her aunt was also a mental health therapist so helping others runs deep in her family. One thing that Cortney enjoyed was hearing about ways that her aunt would help people. In 2007, when Cortney started working in a substance use prevention grant position, she fell in love with helping people. She has worked at Centerstone providing addiction treatment since 2011. She loves working with this population and seeing people create a new life for themselves and truly work on healing. Additionally, Cortney received her certificate in drug and alcohol abuse from IU East in 2012.
Cortney would like to continue to work in community mental health, specifically with clients with addiction and trauma. She is the team leader of the addictions team at Centerstone and would like to continue to work her way up in management. She feels that training and teaching others to help clients is a strength of hers. She is also a recovery coach trainer and would love to continue to train staff at a higher capacity when she receives her MSW. Cortney would also like to start providing therapy to clients and focus on healing from PTSD and trauma.

Through her position at Centerstone, Cortney has had several amazing opportunities to work with the community including participating in a community panel discussion about addiction and recovery, being interviewed for a book about substance use and recovery, participating in community outreach events, and has been on several committees in the community. At Centerstone, she currently facilitates substance use treatment groups, and batterer’s intervention programs, and provides individual clients with life skills and case management. She is a volunteer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and has helped to plan events such as the Out of the Darkness suicide prevention walk and International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day events locally. She is currently the treasurer for the IU East Student Social Work Association and has helped to plan a virtual LEAD day, Angel Tree event, T-Shirt fundraisers, etc. She also volunteers at Wolf Creek Habitat and Rescue where she gets to interact with the public and teach them about animals. Cortney feels that animals can be very therapeutic for people and would love to see how she can incorporate her love of animals with her MSW in the future!

Words of wisdom/Lessons learned:
Choose something to be passionate about and pour both your heart and soul in it. People need more passion; it helps others and fills your soul. The world needs people with more passion!!

Favorite quote:
Be the change you wish to see in the world – Mahatma Gandhi