Staff Highlight: Roxas Tumaneng
What is your position?
I am a School Based Therapist at Cox Academy.
What led you to your current position?
Clinical Supervisor Mark Thibadeau was actually the one who first encouraged me to consider Light the Change, along with other supervisors from different programs when many of us were finishing our clinical internships. At the time, my experience had primarily been in counseling enriched classrooms and nonpublic schools, so I hadn’t deeply considered becoming an outpatient, school-based therapist.
Three years later, I experienced a traumatic injury while supporting another school. Around that same time, my old program was closing. I found myself wanting to support young people at a broader scale — and there happened to be an opening at Cox Academy.
I don’t think I was the most convincing interviewee at first. But when I was invited back for a second round to demonstrate how I show up in person, I came in with the energy of someone who already belonged there. Now, here I am — four years in. In addition to providing Tier 3 clinical services, I also lead Tier 1 supports as the Social-Emotional Learning Chair.
What inspires you to do this work?
Parallel healing. I entered this field to better understand myself, my family, and the systems that shape how we relate to ourselves and one another. I’m driven to provide youth emotional literacy with the same intensity teachers give for their academic growth.
Healing isn’t just what I help facilitate for students — it’s something I commit to alongside them, through reflective, culturally rooted, neurodivergent-affirming care.
What is a recent highlight you’ve experienced in the work or an important lesson you’ve learned in this role?
The highlight — elevated “calm corners”. I applied for a grant for the first time and to get consistent calm corner items for the grades K-5 classes. There’s a weighted capybara, a Breathing Pal whose lights sync up with three different breathing exercises, a squishy sensory maze, and a rainbow visual timer. I delivered them to the teachers and one smiled as he said: “It’s like a Christmas gift for us.”
The lesson — accountability is a shared practice. Whether I’m navigating team dynamics or student behavior, I’ve learned that repair takes courage, but it also takes structure, consistency, and relational trust.
Share your life motto or something unique about yourself.
Not my motto, but a famous set of lyrics from Steven Universe I live by is: “Take a moment to think of just flexibility, love, and trust.”
