Building on Joy and Thriving in Underserved Communities

Keya Williams has spent her career working with kids in underserved neighborhoods. Her work and her own experiences as a parent led her to enroll in the COE’s Counseling Psychology program—first as a master’s student and now in the doctoral program. “I had been a therapist in a school with kids who had fairly severe emotional support issues, and they were in special placements,” Williams explains. “I loved the work that I did with them—I loved being able to have a positive impact on the kids’ lives, but quickly realized that if I didn't impact the system, then I wasn't doing very much.”

To affect change in the ways Williams saw as necessary, she began to study the school and family systems of her clients. Her own children were around the same age as her clients at the time and Williams noticed discrepancies between the parents who had more financial privilege and those who lived in poverty. “So, when I came to Lehigh as a master's student, I really was interested in studying what it means to be a parent of an underserved demographic living in a system that doesn't privilege you, and the impact that has on your ability—not just to parent, but also to find joy and thrive—all these things that go beyond just being okay.”

One of the questions Williams is raising in her doctoral research is, how exactly do you quantify joy? “I started working on how to quantify joy operationally last semester, when I was in the psychometrics class and did a research project on some other measures similar to joy—wellbeing, happiness—and I'm understanding joy to encompass three core components,” she says. “This is what we [Williams and her colleague, Cherese Waight] have also found in the research study we presented at APA.” Williams and Waight presented their findings at the American Psychological Association (APA) conference in Seattle this past summer.

Joy can be understood as a positive emotional state, but also in terms of social connection—to what degree does an individual feel ‘in community.’ “This idea stems from Indigenous and Afrocentric theories of psychology that talk about connection with people in our communities,” Williams explains “And then the third aspect of joy is what I'm calling presence, which is a more intangible—dare I say, spiritual—component often talked about in the theological literature around joy.”

Studying joy in family and school contexts is about approaching solutions from a strengths-based perspective. “Instead of going into the family system and saying, ‘What's wrong with you guys, let me fix you,’ let me assess what is working right in your family and we can go from there,” she says. “When you point out that folks are experiencing all this joy and thriving in spite of the systems that surround them, it’s incredibly meaningful and motivating.” Williams has seen firsthand how that shift can change the way people look at themselves and see the potential and strength they have within. “It changes your willingness to advocate for change for yourself and your community.”

When Williams finishes her doctoral studies, she plans to return to the people and communities where she has spent her career as a school-based therapist. “A big part of my family upbringing is that once you achieve something, you give back as you can,” she says. “It was my work with underserved populations that spurred me to come back to Lehigh, so I plan on going back to the community I have served—and have already started going back as a practicum student as part of my program.”

To hear more about William’s research in her own words, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBv1Y9k2Xmk.