Will Motzel MA ’26

When not attending classes at Wheaton’s marriage and family therapy master’s program, Will Motzel M.A. ’26 interns at a clinical treatment program for teenagers struggling with anxiety or trauma that prevents them from attending school. “What gets me really excited about this work is the opportunity to walk alongside people who are suffering,” he said.

Now finishing his second year in the program, Motzel is especially drawn to work with children who have developmental trauma, helping settle their nervous systems and rebuild their capacity for attachment.

Motzel’s attention to suffering didn’t begin in graduate school.
Growing up in Orlando, he experienced firsthand the difference a steady Christian mentor and therapist can make during a difficult season of life. “I felt like I didn’t know what was out there,” he said. What changed him was the presence of someone willing to step into that struggle and walk alongside him during that
challenging time.

That experience led him to Florida State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in social work. Soon after graduating and getting married, Motzel and his wife moved from Tallahassee to Chicago. His wife began a job as a neuro ICU nurse at Rush University Medical Center, while he enrolled in Wheaton’s marriage and family therapy program.

What captivated Motzel at Wheaton was the integration of faith and psychology he hadn’t encountered elsewhere. He remembers a professor describing faith and clinical science as “two buckets . . . and at Wheaton, we take those two buckets and mix them.”

Many assume marriage and family therapy limits clinicians to work only with couples or families. “But that’s actually not what that means,” Motzel said. Instead, the field recognizes how deeply relational human life is. “Some of the greatest healing in life comes in relationships.”

This spring, Motzel will step into his next role at a Chicago-area nonprofit counseling center, helping build that facility while also having an opportunity to carry pro bono cases. “As a Christian, there’s an opportunity to enter people’s pain and not be afraid of it,” Motzel said.

Now finishing his second year in the program, Motzel is especially drawn to work with children who have developmental trauma, helping settle their nervous systems and rebuild their capacity for attachment.

Motzel’s attention to suffering didn’t begin in graduate school. Growing up in Orlando, he experienced firsthand the difference a steady Christian mentor and therapist can make during a difficult season of life. “I felt like I didn’t know what was out there,” he said. What changed him was the presence of someone willing to step into that struggle and walk alongside him during that challenging time.

That experience led him to Florida State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in social work. Soon after graduating and getting married, Motzel and his wife moved from Tallahassee to Chicago. His wife began a job as a neuro ICU nurse at Rush University Medical Center while he enrolled in Wheaton’s Marriage and Family Therapy program.

What captivated Motzel at Wheaton was the integration of faith and psychology he hadn’t encountered elsewhere. He remembers a professor describing faith and clinical science as “two buckets… and at Wheaton, we take those two buckets and mix them.”

Many assume marriage and family therapy limits clinicians to work only with couples or families. “But that’s actually not what that means,” Motzel said. Instead, the field recognizes how deeply relational human life is. “Some of the greatest healing in life comes in relationships.”

This spring, Motzel will step into his next role at a Chicago-area nonprofit counseling center, helping build that specialty while also having an opportunity to carry pro bono cases. “As a Christian, there’s an opportunity to enter people’s pain and not be afraid of it,” Motzel said.