Saybrook University Student Profile: Derek Kee-Haynes
“Saybrook is different from other schools because there really is a focus on lived experience and human potential,” says Derek Kee-Haynes, MSW, M.A., LCSW, MCAP. “It’s so much more than academics.”
Lived experience is something Kee-Haynes has earned plenty of during his personal and academic journey. While he is now studying for a Ph.D. in Integrative Social Work at Saybrook University, he didn’t pursue social work as a career when he first entered the workforce.
Instead, Kee-Haynes’ first love was fashion, which took him to fashion school in New York City, and he worked for many years in luxury retail sales. He also studied musical theater and danced professionally while he was “figuring it out.”
“This was a whole other lifetime, and I didn’t really start this ‘leg of the tour’ until my late 30s, early 40s,” Kee-Haynes says, referring to his first steps toward pursuing social work.
Despite a circuitous route to his new calling, Kee-Haynes draws a connection between his past pursuits and his current work in that it all comes down to his love of people.
“My ability to listen and hear and hold space and bear witness to people’s lives and stories was something that made me very successful as a salesperson,” Kee-Haynes says. “At the time, I didn’t realize that these skills were related to what I’m doing now, but they really are.”
Kee-Haynes’ personal journey and identity as a Black gay man also cannot be separated from what led him to his current path, and he cites Barack Obama’s election as president of the United States for leading him to reevaluate his life goals.
“It shifted the energy, and I was so proud to be a man of color and so inspired to become a better version of myself and affect change,” Kee-Haynes says. “I thought, ‘I have to go back to school. I have to do more.’ It was so huge for me, and it came in so clear that I wasn’t living my purpose or calling.”
For Kee-Haynes, finding the right purpose and calling meant a change in his core values. “You get to a point in your life when you ask, ‘Why am I here?’” he says. “The answer that came to me is, ‘You need to be serving people and not pursuing money.”
During all of this, Kee-Haynes also met some serious health challenges, leading him to reflect further on the meaning of life and how he should best use his time on this planet. It inspired him to earn his bachelor’s degree as well as two master’s degrees: an MSW and an M.A. in depth psychology with a specialization in Jungian and archetypal studies.
Now working on his Ph.D. at Saybrook, Kee-Haynes expects to graduate in the spring of 2026. He wants to focus his dissertation and research on psychodrama as an intervention for racial trauma. He’s particularly interested in the decolonization of social work, recognizing that social work can’t be a one-size-fits-all system for every identity.
Kee-Haynes applies this approach in his work as the director of Clinical Services at Tranquil Shores, a substance abuse recovery center in Madeira Beach, Florida. “I try to meet my clients where they are,” he says. “They love our diverse modalities and our holistic treatment approaches.”
According to Kee-Haynes, Saybrook facilitates the exploration of different spiritual modalities within the field, and the professors he’s worked with so far have been open and encouraging. “It’s a part of who Saybrook is,” he says, “and I know I belong here because of this.”