When COVID hit, I unexpectedly had time to reexamine my career path, and the opportunity to ask myself what I was passionate about. I knew I had always been driven to advocate for others, so I began working as a victim advocate in 2021, supporting survivors of sexual assault and potential or confirmed child exploitation. That role expanded into collaborating with partners across San Antonio to identify and support child survivors of trafficking at a Children’s Advocacy Center. My professional identity was shaped in those spaces through providing direct, hands-on support, while collaborating with others across organizations.
I became passionate because the work was immediate and deeply relational. I responded to crises, supported individuals navigating legal and family systems, and advocated for their needs across multiple systems of care. It was there that I began noticing gaps, including survivors falling through the cracks, feeling invalidated or unheard, and interventions that failed to align with the realities they were navigating. At the time, I understood these gaps through experience and intuition. I did not yet recognize how many existed because the research had not caught up to practice. Witnessing the harm that came from overlooking these populations in mental health care, in particular, led me to pursue a degree that places me on the path toward eligibility for Licensed Professional Counselor licensure.
I entered the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at UT San Antonio in the spring of 2024 with this strong advocacy identity and a focus on developing my clinical skills. My perspective began to shift through my involvement with the Counselors Against Sex Trafficking (CAST) Research Lab. Early in my program, I completed an advocacy project on sex trafficking that examined prevalence rates in Bexar County, barriers to supportive treatment, and strategies for better serving survivors. Through this work, I was introduced to Dr. Romero and Dr. Interiano-Shiverdecker, two of the founding members of CAST. Working with this team challenged assumptions I did not fully realize I was carrying. I began to see how much of the field relies on research that contains significant gaps in multicultural understanding, particularly in how counselors can effectively support survivors across diverse communities. While identifying these gaps can be straightforward, filling them requires intentional, high-quality research informed by varied backgrounds and lived experiences. Without practitioners contributing back to the research, these gaps persist and continue to shape care in limited ways.
“No research without action, no action without research.”
– Kurt Lewin
Looking back, research felt like something that belonged to a different world, an academic space disconnected from people’s day-to-day lives. It did not feel attainable or relevant to someone outside the academic environments, particularly as a Veteran and nontraditional student returning to education. I assumed the information already existed and that the gaps I observed were problems of access or implementation rather than evidence. I have since found that research in counseling exists to make sense of lived experience, identify patterns across systems, and help provide education for future counselors to sharpen their skills. It is not separate from practice; it is how counseling becomes sustainable, ethical, and effective beyond any one individual’s effort.
My involvement with CAST represents a full-circle moment in my professional development. As a researcher, I now engage with the same population I once served on the front lines, but through a broader lens focused on training, advocacy, and hopefully systemic change. My work has included editing interview transcripts from counselors, survivors, legal professionals, and law enforcement, as well as coding qualitative data related to counselor support and system response. The themes that emerged closely mirrored my lived experience. Survivors often do not identify their experiences as trafficking, professionals frequently feel underprepared, and systems can unintentionally or intentionally replicate harm. These parallels reinforced my belief that research is a powerful form of advocacy. It bridges the gap between intuition and evidence, and CAST is shaping how counselors are trained and how communities are supported. Rather than replacing my advocacy identity, research has expanded my passion for it, allowing me to translate lived experience into evidence that supports more ethical, trauma-informed care for survivors of sex trafficking.
–Written by Kaela Schneider. Kaela is currently completing her MS in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a projected graduation in August 2026. She plans to continue working with populations impacted by sex trafficking, interpersonal trauma, and substance abuse.
Counselors Against Sex Trafficking 