WOLFE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Andrea Brooks has always called Wolfe County home.
Born and raised in Campton, she's only left town for college, immediately moving back after graduation.
She even still lives in her childhood home.
"It looks like any trail in the Red River Gorge that you want to take a peaceful walk on. It's our little piece of heaven," Brooks said.
Beyond being her safe space, Brooks's home (and hometown) is also often her office.
She does much of her work as a clinical counselor and counselor educator from the place she is most comfortable.
“Actually when I went to college, I knew that I was going to major in psychology but I just wasn’t sure how I was going to use that degree whenever I got it," Brooks said.
"I actually came home and found a job that was working at the local children’s home. That turned out to be my favorite clinical job of all time. Then the children’s hospital actually shutdown for a little while and we were all forced to find new employment."
"I was working on a master’s degree at that time and was lucky enough to be asked to teach a class when I was finished and just fell in love with helping people how to be counselors and stuck with that for the last 17 years.”
So for nearly two decades Dr. Brooks has been dedicated to getting the next generation of counselors prepared to enter the field.
A responsibility she does not take lightly.
Counseling is one of the newest mental health helping professions. Counselors have only been licensed in Kentucky since the mid 90’s," Brooks said.
"That’s still very new for a lot of those professions. As a new profession, there’s growing pains but there’s also a lot of growth."
Dr. Brooks's efforted were recently recognized by her peers in the Kentucky Counseling Association.
Thanks to her friend and colleague Chris Griffith, Brooks was presented the Dr. Bill Braden award.
"It's kind of like our lifetime achievement award in the Kentucky Counseling Association. Andrea was very deserving for that recognition for a number of reasons," Griffith said.
"First and foremost, she’s a counselor. She supervises other counselors so she’s a leader in that regard. She does training and is a counsel educator. Many people have come into our profession as a result of her tutelage.”
There were a lot of emotions stirred up when Dr. Brooks found out she was getting the award.
Humility, a little impostor syndrome, but also validation for how much work she's put into advancing the mental health industry in Kentucky.
“I don’t think any counselor is very comfortable with attention. I don’t think make counselors go into the field asking for the validation and the attention and the compliments and the awards. It was really nice to receive that honor. It’s a little overwhelming to be honest with you," Brooks said.
"Over the past eight years, I've had the honor of serving on the licensure board for counselors, the group in Frankfort that it's in charge of regulating the profession in Kentucky. When I started eight years ago, there were probably 2,500 counselors. Now today we have about 4,000."
"It's been great to be a part of all of the change."
