Heart & Mind
Chao and Faith ThaoFor a program that has existed for just 10 years, Bethel Seminary St. Paul’s Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program has produced a seemingly disproportionate number of winners of the Minnesota Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (MAMFT) Outstanding Student awards: five award winners in the last seven years. The MAMFT Outstanding Student award is presented annually to a student who excels in six areas of competence: academic achievement, clinical skills, leadership, research, motivation and dedication, and expressed focus in MFT. What does it say about Bethel’s program that MFT students keep coming out on top? “Certainly it is affirming of our program,” says Mary Jensen, associate program director. “It shows our students are having a great impact.”
The 2006 MAMFT Outstanding Student award was given to Bethel Seminary graduate Chao Thao, who received licensure in June of 2005. Thao works with the Hmong American Partnership, a provider of comprehensive, culturally appropriate social services based in St. Paul, Minn. As a marriage and family therapist in the Hmong community, Thao puts to work every day the integrated life about which he learned in the Bethel program.
Among the large and growing Hmong refugee population of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Thao is one of only a handful of marriage and family therapy specialists who can work with the Hmong in their native language. He is recognized as a bridge-builder between the agency and other community-based resources and uses his abilities to build trust among those he serves. He remains particularly committed to working on behalf of marginalized people.
One of the challenges Thao faces is helping older people in therapy. “They don’t know how to talk about themselves or how to express themselves,” he says. For older Hmong people, therapy can be seen as a sign of weakness - an impression Thao is trying to change. “In the Hmong community, they want to keep things to themselves or within their family,” he explains. “One of my challenges is getting people to see that they need help.”
Thao was born in Laos and moved to the United States in 1979. English is not his native language, making it all the more remarkable that he was able to integrate the theoretical, clinical, and spiritual dimensions of the MFT program, then make those formative elements available to those with whom he works. As a student at Bethel Seminary, Thao completed a master of divinity degree with a concentration in marriage and family studies. His vocational goal was to become a pastor, but he eventually went on to complete licensure as a marriage and family therapist. This change of direction was due to a vision of growing beyond his own congregation to influence the greater Hmong community, along with a recognition that this path would help him “fulfill what God put me on earth to do,” he explains. “I was going to become a pastor, but now I’m looking at that differently. I realize I don’t have to be a pastor to win people to Christ.”