LMU Counseling Alumna Turns Admiration for Veterans into a Career of Service

As a teenager, Jennifer Gracian, M.A. '26, spent her senior year at Southeast Academy Military & Law Enforcement High School in Norwalk, California, and considered serving in the armed forces after graduation. Though her path moved her away from this choice, her interest in working with military personnel and veterans persisted. Today, she's turning this passion into a career helping those who've served navigate trauma, mental health challenges, and the transition to civilian life.

According to the 2020 census in California, the state is home to more than 1.8 million veterans, the largest such population of any state in the country. Nearly one in three veterans nationwide experience depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet many never pursue care because of limited access to mental health providers, stigma surrounding mental health support, or both.

Gracian aims to remove these barriers. "I have a deep admiration and respect for the discipline, selflessness, and resilience of active military members and veterans," she said. "Many of them do not seek help for mental health challenges because they fear being perceived as weak or incapable. Nothing could be further from the truth."

While enrolled in the counseling program (LPCC track) at LMU's School of Education, she complete a year-long internship with U.S. VETS, the nation's largest nonprofit serving veterans through housing, mental health care, suicide prevention, and workforce development. Her first assignment was connecting student veterans at Cerritos College and Long Beach City College with mental health resources.

Building trust proved challenging because of the stigma surrounding mental health, but Gracian persisted. Drawing on grassroots outreach strategies, along with her own experience of having attended military school, she gradually developed relationships with the students. "It took about a month before they started coming in to talk," she said. Ultimately, she was able to connect 35 student veterans with needed support during her internship.

She also revived U.S. VETS's Women Vets on Point, a virtual support group for women who have served, which had previously gone inactive. Gracian developed the six-week counseling curriculum, recruited participants nationwide, and coordinated guest speakers for the group, including professor of counseling William Parham, director of LMU's Center for Trauma Informed Education (CTIE).

Now a finalist for a full-time counseling position with U.S. VETS, Gracian hopes to continue the work she began with them as a graduate student. "Though my career path took me in a direction that doesn't involve direct service in the armed forces, supporting veterans as a mental health counselor just feels right," she said.

During her time at LMU, Gracian also served as vice president of the Counseling Graduate Student Association, worked as a teaching assistant to counseling professor and program director Shari Atwater, and earned multiple academic and leadership honors. She credits Parham, Atwater, counseling professor Fernando Estrada, and fieldwork coordinator Esther Gobrial with helping her grow into the counselor she hopes to become. "Attending LMU helped me find my purpose and shaped the person and professional I want to be," she said.

Looking ahead, Gracian hopes to open a private practice to provide trauma-informed care to veterans and first responders. She has turned her Instagram account into a resource hub that connects veterans and first responders with mental health information and referrals.

"Many people enter service as one person and come out a whole different person," she said. "It can be difficult to assimilate into civilian life, because there can be moral injury and identity shifts. If I can make this process easier for even one veteran, that would be extremely meaningful to me."