Boaz Hall

Working as a freelance interpreter has been an amazing opportunity to navigate a myriad of interpreter settings in addition to working with Certified Deaf Interpreters and building my experience with different modalities of consumers' interpreter preferences.

At Lions Wilderness Camp for Deaf Children, I worked as a camp counselor with Deaf children ranging from hard of hearing to profoundly Deaf. In addition to monitoring the children, I would interpret staff meetings between hearing and Deaf volunteers and staff members.

At Tri-Counties Regional Center I worked as a designated ASL interpreter for a family who's son was Deaf and had a psychiatric diagnosis. In addition to interpreting for the consumer, I worked closely with other interpreters, Applied Behavior Analysts, a Life Skills Coach, and a clinical psychologist.

Destinations to Recovery is a residential mental health treatment facility. I worked primarily in the duel diagnosis facility as a counselor
(different inpatient facilities have different titles for the job. The most commonly used term is Floor Staff). The clients in the duel diagnosis facility had mental illnesses and would use a variety of substances as a means of self medicating. At times, I would also fill in for other counselors at the facility that solely addressed mentally ill cliental. The responsibilities of being floor staff included, but was not limited to, supervising the clients and ensuring their safety at all times. Invariably, when no therapist was on site, this would entail on many occasions deescalating any episodes or crises the patients would experience. Further duties involved, recording relevant notes at the end of each shift that would be utilized by the clinical team and participate in meetings every Sunday where the entire treatment team would go over the progress of each individual patient for that week.
I would also be responsible for maintaining the treatment/"house rules" of the facility, and driving the clients to different off site therapeutic programs as indicated.

Free Arts for Abused Children is a volunteer program which provided art therapy for children nervous about being on the stand while their parents were on trial for custody. Often times, children who have experienced abuse find it nerve-racking, or even traumatic, to have to be part of a trial where they would have to relive their experiences. During my time at Free Arts I would work making arts and crafts with the kids helping to not only take their minds off of the situation but also help them relax.