MARCEE BEN-MENACHEM
2e, ADHD, Dyslexia, Anxiety, HSP, M.Ed., LMHCA, NBCT, Mom (she/her)
Kids?
Two amazing, yet very different boys (one 5 and one 10) who teach me something new every day.
Dogs or cats?
I am a dog person who loves cats, and I have both!
Roger and Penelope - two tabby cats
Wilson - A super-fluffy Bernedoodle puppy who is in training to be my office therapy dog.
Wilbur - An equally fluffy hamster who lives in my 10 year old son's room.
If you could be any fruit, what kind of fruit would you be?
A Mango - for two reasons:
1) When I first started facilitating groups with at-risk teens 20-something years ago, we'd play a name-game where you introduced yourself and a fruit that started with the same letter of your name. “Marcee Mango” somehow became my nick-name. Once I tried “Marcee Mac n Cheese” and it didn't have the same ring to it.
2) You have to handle a Mango with care, then it takes some effort to get past the skin, but it's sweet inside with a strong core.
What superpower do you wish you had?
Definitely the power to manipulate time. Freeze time, fast forward, slow it down, rewind.
Where in this world have you lived
Lots of Places– Bainbridge Island, Vermont, Bellevue, Tacoma, Seattle, Issaquah, Sammamish, Bainbridge Island.
Where did you go to school?
Landmark College
Central Washington University
City University
First Job:
Retail sales person at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts.
Best Job:
Tough one! Elementary School Counselor AND Private Mental Health Therapist
How did you get involved in Neurodiverse Connections?
Oh boy…how do I sum this up…?
It all started with an email entitled “One of Marcee's Crazy ideas”
Well actually, Neurodiverse Connections has been in the making for years. I'm a former educator and social worker, who is now a therapist who specializes in neurodiverse kiddos. I am also an ADHD dyslexic mom, in a family with other awesome neurodiverse humans, so I come to this project wearing many hats.
Simply put, I have long desired a world that embraces and celebrates neurodiversity (you can read more about that below if you desire).
Since my return to the island, I've met amazing parents, teachers, therapists and other professionals who shared my common belief that “normal” sucks and these kiddos are going to change the world.
Last fall, while driving home from Portland after picking up my son's fancy hamster (long story), my ADHD brain decided “NOW is the time. Start a non-profit!”. So I called Meg, because she was born to run this. As soon as she said “I'm in!” I sent the email to the rest of our awesome group, entitled “One of Marcee's Crazy Ideas”. Meg, Shannon, and Robin jumped in feet first and haven't looked back.
We are all so excited for what's to come.
MARCEE'S STORY
My story is a series of following my intuition, meeting amazing people and being in the right place at the right time.
I grew up on this beautiful island in the 80's. I was a curious kid. I LOVED exploring the world and bludgeoned my parents with a million questions about everything. Then I went to kindergarten and my love of learning was crushed by a kindergarten teacher who behaved like a teacher who genuinely hated children. School simply didn't feel good to me from this point on…this is key for a highly sensitive child like me. I wasn't picking up on reading like my friends were. By the third grade, I started having panic attacks and stomach aches. I was terrified my teacher would call on me to read out loud in class and felt massive embarrassment when looking at the multiplication chart on the wall in my class and seeing how far behind I was from my classmates. I was worried that my friends would discover that I wasn't like them, but at that time, I didn't really know what made me different. I felt smart, but I wasn't smart in class. This is when I started masking. I knew I was different, but I could fake it.
My mom (my hero) knew there was something going on. She pushed the school to evaluate me, but I wasn't far enough behind to qualify for support. This was before IEP's and 504's. I did get a little reading support in 4th grade, but still no answers.
It wasn't until I was in the 6th grade when my older cousin in California was diagnosed with Dyslexia. My mom said, “that sounds like Marcee!”, so we flew to Cali and I was evaluated there. I learned that I was highly capable with dyslexia. Still not able to qualify for school services because I wasn't failing badly enough, my mom got me tutors and we drove to Woodinville once a week for 2 years so I could have vision therapy.
My mom also flew us back to California for the Orton Society Conference (now the International Dyslexia Association) so I could learn more about my dyslexia from the experts and other dyslexics. That experience changed my life. I'll write a blog post about the details of this experience in the future, but hearing adults talk about their challenges and their gifts changed everything for me. Shortly after that, I learned that I also had ADD (the final piece of the puzzle). I pushed my way through high school, then attended Landmark College in Putney, VT. At that time Landmark had been operating for about 10 years. It was the only accredited college in the country specifically for “high potential students with learning disabilities”. My cousin had attended in the late 80's and I knew I'd go there one day. When I walked onto that campus I immediately felt seen. I finally had peers who had shared experiences. It was the most vulnerable and empowering coming of age time in my life. There were many remarkable things about this school, but most importantly I finally was in a learning environment that didn't dumb things down for me. Instead they raised the bar, expected me to work hard, and taught me about my brain and how to learn. The teachers there are nothing short of miraculous.
I knew I wanted to work in the field, so I got my bachelors in sociology and interned at the Learning Disabilities Association where I eventually was hired to facilitate a groundbreaking program to work with youth in the justice system who have learning disabilities. I went on to be a behavior specialist in elementary schools and a high risk social worker in Tacoma. I came full circle and returned to LDA to manage their programs while I worked on my Masters Degree in School Counseling. I worked as an elementary school counselor for 11 years. It was my calling for a variety of reasons, but I think my favorite part was that I could be the educator that I never had in school. I hope that I helped even one child feel seen and understood in my time in that job. My heart eventually pulled me to move back to Bainbridge to raise my family and open a private mental health therapy practice. I feel privileged to have found two professions that fill my bucket. Along the way, I met these three amazing kindred spirits who share the same passion as me. It's an honor to do this work and support kids in this way and I'm thrilled to start this non-profit with these amazing humans. I can't wait to see who else I get to meet and what fun and impactful programming we get to bring to the community.