Our lived experience speaks truth into the complexities of parenting a child/youth with complex behavioral health care needs.
Jasmine Martinez, a former Behavioral Management Specialist and BMS Program Director, has firsthand experience in behavioral health. As a devoted wife and mother of four, including two children with chronic illness and special needs, she became a Certified Peer Counselor after advocating for her own family for over a decade.
Currently, she serves as the Program Manager for A Common Voice | C.O.P.E. Project, offering crucial support to parents statewide. Jasmine’s unwavering dedication is evident through her involvement in various committees and fellowships, where she amplifies the family voice and provides hope to overwhelmed families navigating the behavioral health system.
Sherry Lyons is the Executive Director of A Common Voice with over a decade of direct experience shaping the workforce of Family Peers in WA State.
Sherry herself has the lived experience of parenting a youth accessing the WA State Children’s Behavioral Healthcare System. Sherry specializes in training, coaching, and supporting Parents in the role of Family/Parent Peers. Since 2008, Sherry has prioritized hundreds of hours training the workforce of Family/Parent Peers within the WA “WISe” model of care. A strong believer in the power of positive thinking both personally and professionally, Sherry inspires others to look at “what is and can be” in all situations. Sherry welcomes positive energy from people as equally as she loves the solitude of a walk along the ocean beach. She also recommends aerobic exercise through the practice of a good belly laugh! Nationally certified in 2012 as a Certified Parent Support Provider, Sherry has been a WA State Certified Peer Counselor since 2010. And a Parent Partner since 1999.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Nicole Murphy is a Certified Peer Counselor located in Spokane Washington, currently working at A Common Voice as Lead Parent Support Specialist for the COPE project.
Nicole is a mother of a child who has struggled with behavioral health challenges from an early age and together they have navigated the children’s behavioral health system. Nicole attributes her success in life to her child who in her words “has been my greatest teacher”.
Nicole’s early work as a Family Peer on a WISe team influenced her passion for working with families and supporting parents to be empowered in their parenthood. Gaining experience working alongside clinicians in WISe, Nicole found a passion for working with individuals experiencing substance use disorder, mental health challenges and supporting family members through the various stages of the recoverybprocess.
In 2018, Nicole won Peer Support Specialist of the Year at Passages Family Support. Nicole is currently working on getting her bachelor’s in psychology so that she can pursue her dream of getting her Master’s in Social work degree.
She is a mother, wife, animal mom, and individual who is in long term recovery. At the basis of Nicole’s beliefs are integrity, honesty and hope.
A Passion for Supporting Other Parents
Lead Parent Support Specialist with A Common Voice COPE Project in the Salish, Great Rivers, and Southwest region of WA her children experience special behavioral health care needs.
Lead Parent Support Specialists fill the role of “tour guide rather than travel agent” as they go alongside
another parent/caregiver navigating the Washington State Children’s Behavioral Healthcare system.
Thousands of parent/caregivers across Washington State have been connected, supported, and
empowered through the parent to parent support services of A Common Voice and the C.O.P.E. Project.
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