Efrain A. Nuñez is busy. He’s interning with the LGBT Center of Greater Reading, working full-time at Holcomb Behavioral Health, going to doctor’s appointments (more on that later), and getting ready to graduate with his Master of Arts in Counseling alongside being ready to test for his certification as a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).

He knew from the start that embarking on this journey would not be easy, but the ability to earn his Professional Counselor Licensure (LPC) as well as his BCBA is what drew Nuñez to Arcadia’s Counseling program.

“I enjoy counseling, and I enjoy therapy processes and, like, the healing process. And so, I wanted to do both. I didn’t want to commit to just one program and put all my eggs in one basket,” he said.

And so, armed with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Franklin & Marshall College, the Reading, Pa., native entered into a strenuous course of study culminating in an internship requiring a minimum of 600 hours, 240 in direct service to clients. 

It was at the start of his internship in the fall of 2024 when Nuñez began feeling ill.

“So, I got in touch with my medical providers, and they recommended that I get a CT. And then things started moving really quickly. So before Thanksgiving, they had given me the diagnosis.” Stage II colon cancer.

In the words of Counseling Program Director Lauren Reid, “Despite this challenge that would have derailed the plans of many, Efrain not only persisted but thrived… Through it all, Efrain remained steadfast in his commitment to his education, his internship, and his future goals.”

Surgery was scheduled for winter break, and Nuñez raced to squeeze in as many internship hours as he could beforehand.

“It was a really big challenge, just like, having to deal with the news. Holding my family’s emotions and my own, and also still working with my clients until my surgery date. It was really weird being in a therapy space and holding space for others all of the time, and then needing to take back some of that space for myself as I navigated having cancer.”

Now in remission, Nuñez is grateful to have been given the gift of perspective.

“One of the things my professor said to me was that I won’t be accessing a place of sympathy, but a place of empathy for my clients, because they will have gone through like that very same thing, and now I know what it’s like now to be someone that has survived cancer. It’s been really good to have a new perspective on things.”

For his extraordinary determination to overcome obstacles in the pursuit of excellence, Nuñez was awarded the Molly Haas Valentine Award at Honors Convocation in March. His faculty nominator noted, among many things, Nuñez’s support of his peers in their own internship journeys. Hearing Nuñez share one of his favorite Arcadia memories, it’s clear the cohort shared a special bond.

“For our counseling theories class,” he recalled, “we had to submit a role-play of us working with each other as clients. And so, we all met up at my friend’s house, and we banged out our role-plays. And it’s so silly to, like, hear yourself on camera, but it was the sense of community with us just laughing at each other as we had to be in, like, serious therapy mode, and none of us had ever seen each other in that setting before.”

“That’s been one of my favorite memories is spending time with them and just having my friends outside of the classroom and realizing that my grad school friends are going to be people that have seen me at my worst, clinically, and my growth as that’s happening. And you know, maintaining that level of friendship and camaraderie, despite it all, really was like one of the best parts of Arcadia for me.”

As for what’s next, Nuñez has quite a few plans up his sleeve. 

“Immediate plans? I want to take a vacation. I’m definitely owed one. As far as occupationally, I want to continue the good work I’m doing. I want to obtain my LPC, so I want to find a job that lets me at least do some of that stuff part-time and do some supervised therapy while also testing for my BCBA in the summer. So hopefully by the fall I’ll have my BCBA and can work in that capacity while also doing some part-time therapy work.”

When he’s not working, Nuñez can be found reading (“My TBR list is getting much longer since I’ve been in grad school”); video gaming (“I build my own community with friends”); and cooking (“I’ve been making my own cookbook with some Polaroids”). 

Whatever his future holds, Nuñez will face it head-on with clarity gained from, in his words, a “spooky” situation.

“It really helped me. It put things into focus, I think, for, you know, just making sure that I’m applying best practice to my clients and making sure that, like, we’re keeping a full spectrum of perspective.”