Allison Rodriguez: Making Research and Work Come Together

Today, we welcome Allison Rodriguez to the podcast. In addition to being a John E. Martin Fellow, which Allison received in 2017, she's a senior training specialist at West Coast Children's Clinic in California, a psychotherapist, and an advocate for children's welfare.

She has a wide breadth of experience working across the US as a teacher, researcher, trauma specialist, and advocate for veteran, maternal, adolescent, and Latinx communities.

On the nature of her work

[5:14] The kids that we see are almost all traumatized in some way. Most of them meet the criteria for complex trauma, which means they've been exposed to multiple traumas, often from an early age. That impacts the way they learn and grow in various ways. 

We also see them not only in the office but in various locations like their homes, schools, sometimes juvenile halls, and other places, where we coordinate care with a lot of other providers.

On research

[8:11] I think one thing that research has taught me is the power of numbers. There are a lot of things that are really difficult to measure, and these things will surprise you in what the numbers show. They can be a huge lesson in things that you had no idea were more of a system-wide phenomena. 

So, for example, there's some really lovely research that discusses how patients define things like trust. It shows that there are cultural differences between how that word is assessed and what it means. And that's just an example of how research can illustrate things that you didn't know that you didn't know in practice.

And it can really improve the work that you're doing.

On where good research comes from

[9:08] I think it comes down to the researcher’s goals and ideas about what will make for interesting results. It's really simply what the person is interested in, and what they think will produce a result that is important in the work.

This is a really important part of research, because it's very much a field that's based on what folks who do a lot of this work think will be useful. That means that the topics you read about are well-defined in the sense that they come mostly from researchers’ own minds, but it also adds a limitation in that researchers only know what they know.

Advice for people pursuing a career in this field

[21:37] First and foremost, be curious. Consider things from various perspectives and ask questions, even if they seem like a no-brainer, because you'll often find things are not as simple as they seem. 

Secondly, I would say reach out to people and ask to talk to them. I can't tell you how beneficial it's been for me to get to know some of the folks in the field just from reaching out and asking them some questions.

And then third, I would really advocate for people considering their careers in terms of their lives overall.