Meeting Fear with Compassion: Richi and Mariah Sede Serve Immigrant Families
As Richi Sede (’21) sits across from clients in his counseling office, the same concerns keep surfacing. Fear. Anxiety. Uncertainty. These are common emotions in counseling sessions, but it is rare to hear so many people point to the same source.
Sede owns and operates Sede Counseling alongside his wife, Mariah, a fellow Corban alum (’21). Their practice specializes in culturally and linguistically specific counseling.
“About 97% of my caseload are Latino immigrants,” Sede says. “My clients kept telling me stories of how much stress and fear they’re carrying in relation to immigration-induced trauma and how it’s affecting their daily lives.”
For many families, that fear rarely announces itself in dramatic moments. Instead, it settles quietly into everyday life—the way conversations shift when strangers walk by, children chastised for speaking in their native language in public, parents afraid to go to the grocery store—ordinary life began to carry an undercurrent of caution.
“People are on high alert,” Sede says. “They are following updates on social media and, while it helps them stay informed, it’s creating real stress. I see parents who don’t want to speak their native language in public because they’re afraid of being perceived as immigrants.”
What struck him most was that fear didn’t stop with immigration status. Even individuals with legal documentation often felt the same pressure. “Sometimes people have their papers, but they still feel afraid because they’re perceived as Latino,” he says. “They’re operating in a state of constant fear.”
Week after week, as these stories accumulated, Richi knew he needed to act. But the question remained: “how much could one counselor do from a single office?”
This question led him beyond his counseling practice and into the broader community. He began reaching out to local groups online and connecting with organizations already supporting immigrant families.
From those early conversations, a broader effort began to grow. Through a developing initiative called the Sanar Network, Sede and other counselors are working to connect immigrant families with culturally competent mental health support and trauma-informed care. The work often requires creativity and flexibility. Many families are balancing long work hours, childcare responsibilities, and financial pressures. Traditional counseling structures simply don’t always fit those realities.
“It can’t always be the traditional model where someone sits in an office for an hour,” Sede explains. “Sometimes we have to meet people where they are. And most of the work right now is pro bono or sliding scale. We understand the need.”
For those who want to help, Sede encourages partnering with organizations already serving immigrant communities—through volunteering, financial support, or simply showing empathy and compassion. “Supporting these organizations helps bring mental health training and resources into the community,” he says.
But for Sede, the work is more than professional—it’s deeply personal. Originally from the Dominican Republic, he first came to the United States through baseball, eventually making his way to Corban University. Along the way, he navigated the complicated immigration system himself.
Today he holds a green card, something he describes as both a privilege and a reminder of how difficult the process can be. “Some people think coming to the United States is simple,” he says. “But there are many steps and barriers. When you go through the system yourself, it changes how you see things.”
It was at Corban that Sede found the support, resources, and encouragement he needed in his own immigration journey as well as the spiritual mentorship that helped shape the work he does today.
One mentor in particular left a lasting impression—former Corban baseball coach, Derek Legg. “He told me, ‘Richi, I see you as a missionary.’ And I think he was right. I may not be on the mission field, but I believe the work I am doing is missions work, just through a different platform.”
Powered by his own experience and a heart to meet the marginalized, Richi looks not to politics or even the tools of his profession to address the growing needs in the community, but to Christ. “I often ask, what would Jesus do if he were living with us in this season?” he says. “Where would he be? Who would he be meeting with? What would he be doing in the midst of this current reality that we’re living in this world? Beyond any political beliefs, I think that’s what drives me.”
His hope for the Christian community, he says, is simple. “Unity. Empathy. We need to act like Christ and show His love.”
When Sede sits across from clients, he hears their fears, and he responds with love. That is his calling—to serve, to care, and to meet people in their moments of distress. “It’s the same as Corban’s mission,” he says. “Every day, we are trying to make a difference in the world for Jesus Christ.”
