Svea Bissonnette is a psychologist in the Winthrop House, a special education program for students with social and emotional disabilities at the high school. Bissonnette is currently pursuing a certificate program in trauma-informed schooling at Lesley University to help educators and administrators understand how all aspects of a student’s situation contribute to their development.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What shaped your passion for your profession? How did you get here?

I actually asked my friend and then I googled this: how do I work in a school, not be in a classroom, do counseling, but also look at behavior, look at different aspects of behavior management and work with a whole different group of the population? So she helped me figure out the field of psychology. I’ve worked in all different grades, I used to work in elementary, I’ve worked in middle school, I’ve worked in high school, I’ve worked in an alternative high school, in a couple different districts. Each time I worked, I got a little bit closer to home.

How has your childhood influenced you as a person?

I grew up in Connecticut. Then I went to a couple different schools there, both public and private. Then I went to a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts, Wheaton College, which is in North Massachusetts and is smaller than this high school by the way. This is a humongous high school! So Wheaton had 1300 students at that time. It is very funny because since coming to Brookline High, I’ve now found out that at Brookline High, I’m with three other people from my small class at Wheaton.

What was the most exciting thing that happened over your summer?

I got an Australian Bernedoodle puppy. She’s the cutest little thing! Australian Shepherd, Bernese Mountain dog and a poodle. So this is my research; [she is] supposed to be hypoallergenic. One of my sons, my second son, is very allergic to dogs, so I wanted to make sure that he was good and comfortable, not having asthma attacks, not wheezing. So we get her home, and of course, he started to wheeze even that night. Then he starts crying: “We’re not going to send Ruby back!” I was like, “No, she’s ours.” So he just takes Zyrtec every day.

What book has changed your life?

I always loved “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver.