From Marketing Strategist to Maternal Mental Health Counselor

Meet Autumn Colón, MA in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness Student…

After working in marketing and communications for more than a decade, Autumn Colón (MA, Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness) decided to change her career by following her passion for helping others tell their own stories.

A native New Yorker, Colón earned her bachelor’s degree in public relations from St. John’s University in Queens—even though her heart told her that she belonged at NYU.

“I was drawn to NYU even in high school—a lot of my afterschool activities took place around the Village and SoHo, and I loved the energy there,” says Colón, a first-generation college student. “Different people discouraged me from applying to NYU, and I always had a deep regret about not going. When it came time for graduate school, I decided that this time, I was in charge of my own destiny.”

Turning Advocacy into Action

Because of her own journey to motherhood, Colón has long been a maternal mental health advocate. In 2024, she coalesced her advocacy work by founding Sol Well, a nonprofit organization for moms of color that provides mental health assistance services beyond the postpartum period through group meetings, digital storytelling, healing-centered events, and wellness access funds.

Around the same time, Colón was laid off from her full-time career in marketing as director of social media and strategy. She “did some soul searching” and decided to make the pivot to pursue counseling as her full-time job.

Also a mother of two, Colón knew that flexibility to navigate her complex schedule would be key—making NYU Steinhardt’s online MA in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness program the perfect fit.

“I wear a lot of hats, and I needed something that allowed me to manage the course workload while maintaining my career as a freelance marketing consultant for social impact and mental health organizations and raising my children,” says Colón. “Though mostly online, the program includes a three-day, in-person immersion with your cohort, plus an on-site internship and practicum, which fulfilled my deep desire to be part of the city that raised me.”

Learning Through Connection and Practice

During Colón’s on-campus immersion, she was able to gather with members of her cohort, which included people from Hawaii, the Bahamas, California, Georgia, and more, many of whom were also career changers. She also took one of her favorite courses—"Group Dynamics”—which introduced students to the process of holding group psychotherapy sessions with and for each other.

“The way the class is structured, you’re in collaboration in a room with your peers providing therapy with and for each other about our current issues,” says Colón. “Helping my peers navigate their concerns in this way was challenging, but it was also one of the better testing grounds. I honed my skills of standing up for my beliefs in social justice and that experience crystallized the types of clients I want to serve.”

Colón also traveled to Ghana as part of “Cross-Cultural Counseling,” a course that helps students from across NYU better understand clinical frameworks of social justice and multicultural awareness.

“This course deepened my understanding of what it truly means to practice with cultural humility,” says Colón. “Being immersed in Ghanaian culture reinforced that—as feminist author bell hooks once said—healing does not happen in isolation, but within relationships and collective support systems. This experience reminded me that effective counseling requires more than clinical skill; it asks us to remain curious, engage in self-reflection, and be willing to unlearn, listen, and honor each client’s cultural context.”

Shaping a Therapeutic Approach

Colón’s next elective, “Social Justice for Counselors,” introduced her to different therapeutic modalities, including the technique that is helping her prepare for “the work [she] wants to do in the world”: narrative therapy.

“Narrative therapy helps people untangle their identities and externalize characteristics to help them heal, going from ‘I am an anxious person’ to ‘I am a person who experiences anxiety,’” says Colón. “It gives people the chance to unravel the stories they tell themselves and start to tell new ones, ones they get to choose.”

From Classroom to Community Impact

Colón has been able to apply much of what she’s actively learning directly to her work: One class project had her create a 12-week psychotherapy program that helps postpartum moms build their own peer networks for support, which she then put into practice through Sol Well.

Colón is also building hands-on experience as an individual therapist through her internship: She is an associate therapist at Renewed Focus Psychology Services, a Black women-run and women-empowering practice in Lower Manhattan.

“NYU Steinhardt gives you a lot of autonomy in this program, and you are supported to find your own placements that work for your specific interests and goals,” says Colón. “This offers great opportunities for figuring out how to do things in the real world.”

After graduation, Colón hopes to continue growing as a therapist, building Sol Well, and strengthening her research chops so she can soon embark on her next journey—earning her Doctor of Psychology degree.