In fall 2019, Violeta earned her MSW from the University of Michigan School of Social Work with a focus on Interpersonal Practice and African-Centered Social Work. Since bridging her Master’s in Sociology (‘14), community-care based experience with healing justice, and her most recent accomplishments in Social Work, Violeta prioritizes working on health and healing strategies and interventions in clinical and macro-level settings. Violeta currently holds two transformative social work positions. First, she is a clinical therapist at Integrative Empowerment Group, PLLC in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor, MI where she works with many clients of multiple-marginalized identities and supports clients across a number of presenting needs including but not limited to racialized stress and trauma, gender identity expression, LGBQQ+ issues, anxiety and depression, sexualized violence and complex trauma. As a kink-aware therapist, she is also trained to work with clients through a sex therapy informed lens. Violeta is also a macro-level Mental Health Therapist at The Firecracker Foundation which is based in Lansing, MI. As part of The Firecracker Foundation, she co-leads digital project and initiatives that work to uphold the holistic mental health needs of survivors of sexual violence and the communities that support them.
In addition to this work, she has served as a board member of the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network and as a partner to Healing by Choice! Detroit.
In 2020, Violeta was featured on Lindsay Bryan-Povin’s podcast, Mind Money Balance, addressing the importance of spirituality and rest in the quest for financial wellness. More recently, she is one of a select group of poets with work featured in the Untold Stories of Liberation and Love Anthology, "Ypsi on My Mind," which is a publication that centers women of Color stories in Ypsilanti, MI.
Violeta passed her ABSW exam in Spring 2021. More information on her work can be found here: www.violetadonawa.com.