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Brickell Quarles Plans to Offer Mental-Health Aid to African-American Community

Brickell Quarles always knew she would one day become a doctor, ever since she was a young girl growing up in Los Angeles. It was her life-long dream. This year, Quarles expects to fulfill that dream. In 1998, she graduated from Fuller with an M.A. in psychology; In 2000, she graduated with an M.A. in theology; and now she is on target to receive her Ph.D. in clinical psychology by this coming fall.

Quarles did not always plan on attending Fuller Seminary, however, a course change she attributes entirely to God. In 1996, after earning an M.A. in biology from another university, she planned on enrolling at UCLA/King Drew medical school, where would study psychiatry. But at the same time, she was intrigued by Fuller’s clinical psychology program and its integration of psychology and theology.

“I felt Fuller’s program would be great, given that I already had the biological training. All that seemed left was for me to learn was how the Spirit and Mind were also involved in influencing human behavior and mental health,” Quarles recalls.

Suddenly confused about what to do, she prayed and left it up to God. When the door into medical school unexpectedly closed, she knew without a doubt the path that God was leading her on.

“My not getting into medical school was the most positive experience of being rejected that I have ever had because it allowed me to experience the awesomeness of God’s love for me and his plan for my life,” Quarles says.

After enrolling at Fuller in 1996, Quarles specialized in the area of religious coping – that is, how religion is used to cope with stressful life events – and in treating trauma-related disorders during her later clinical training. She says her clinical experience working with women and child survivors of domestic violence was among the highlights of her training.

Quarles says her next goal is to open her own community mental health center. “I intend to specialize in treating trauma and in understanding the role one’s faith plays in coping with the effects of experiencing traumatic events. I also plan to develop a clinical workshop for African-American boys geared towards the issues of adolescence, fatherlessness, and definitions of manhood.”