Faculty FrontDoor

Dr. Odette Escobar Santiago(She/Her)

I was born in the Caribbean Island of Puerto Rico, and I have been living in the State of Florida for more than 10 years. I love art, music, and anything creative. I also love nature, especially big, old trees. I love reading, journaling, "Studio Ghibli" movies, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Korean Comedy-Drama Series, Peanuts Comics, and Mafalda.

I am bilingual (speaking Spanish and English). I have been working at Valencia College at the Osceola Campus since 2017, teaching the General Psychology Course as an Adjunct Professor. I have a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Puerto Rico. I am also the director of the outpatient therapy department in a non-Profit community-based mental health clinic in Osceola County. In the clinical psychology field, I have experience offering psychotherapy mainly to young children (from the ages of 3 years old up) and managerial/mentoring experience with psychologists, mental health counselors and clinical social workers. I have interdisciplinary experience in the Mental Health Field working with different disciplines, including medical sciences, social work, education, law, humanities, and the arts. I also have experience in academic counseling and the field of education with 20 + years of practice in private and public universities in Puerto Rico and now in the United States.

My clinical and research work is based on the Attachment and the Psychoanalytic Theories. I believe in the power of compassion, hope, vulnerability, and recovery in the success of mental health treatment. For me, empathy and self-awareness are essential life values.



Teaching Statement

I teach because I believe that teaching and learning are powerful tools for human growth and transformation. They are sources for inspiration, freedom, creativity, innovation, questioning, reflection, and connection, acts that I value for my life and the ones that I love. I was drawn to teaching by the examples of the mentors that I had through my life. I saw in the way they taught and the impact they had in my life how powerful knowledge is for human growth. The power of learning is not only in the information we obtain but the transformation we do when we share what we know with others and experience it in our daily life. For me, teaching and learning are active and dynamic processes.

I teach General Psychology because is an opportunity for me to share with others the concepts, ideas and theories that formed my professional career. In the act of facilitating a general psychology course I strive to be an instrument of inspiration for my students, to learn and explore in detail the psychology discipline. For me successful learning is obtained when the students can understand the concepts and theories, in the light of their own experiences, and when they are able to make sense of what they have learned using it in their daily life. I believe that beyond grades, my students will show their learning process when they are able to share their own perspectives on the concepts and theories studied in class and use critical thinking to examine human behavior and mental processes as presented in examples through the course. I hope I can be a source of inspiration for this kind of learning during this semester.

I am looking forward to meeting you and learning with you!