“So, what made you want to become a therapist?”

Content Overview: Personal disclosure (neurodivergence, previous work experiences, personal thoughts on potential removal of “Social Work” as a professional degree by Dept. of Ed), Requirements to be a therapist

“So, what made you want to become a therapist?”

Well, I’m not sure, other than it’s always felt like, how couldn’t I become a therapist? It felt like what I was supposed to do. 

I’ve always had a really hard time answering this question. Especially because my academic background as a therapist, well, really, for any therapist, isn’t neatly titled, “therapist studies”. 

There’s something that’s important to understand about therapists. Therapists come from all different types of backgrounds, which means that every therapist learned how to be a therapist differently from another therapist who has a different academic background.

What I mean by academic background is their degree type, trainings, clinical hours, supervision, licensures, internships, required courses, accreditations, and all of the confusing acronyms and numbers that vary state by state and even sometimes city by city for what it means to be a therapist. 

I break down all of those in this nifty little post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQHTWT0AWfw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

So, anyways, after you’ve read that (if you’d like to), come on back. 

Okay, ready? Cool. 

When people ask me what made me want to become a therapist, I usually fumble through a panicked answer about how I wanted to be the person that I needed when I was younger. 

But that sentiment isn’t actually true. Well, it was when I first entered the fields of Psychology, Sociology, and Social work as an 18 year old kid. Now that I’m an adult and a professional, I’m not just going into work every day to make the younger version of me proud or to heal my inner wounds. I’m actually going into work every day with my clients’ lives, experiences, goals, and data at the forefront of my mind, modalities swirling around, rapport building banging the loudest drum, and a new training podcast I listened to urging me to try out something new to see if it works better than what I knew yesterday. And, always, always, always, trying and failing to remember to get new candy for the dish closest to the door in my office because I’m positive that last grape jolly rancher in the dish is going to sit there for another week before it gets any takers. 

I need a new answer for “What made you want to become a therapist?” And I’ve needed one for a long time. So I’d like to figure it out with you by going back to my roots in the mental health field.

When I was 18, I went to Butler University for Psychology after having an AP Psychology course, life experiences, and overall a concrete understanding that I was not good at pretty much anything involving numbers. I thought maybe I’d become a neuroscientist. 

Then I took a neuroscience class, aced it, found it to be a memorization snooze fest, and pivoted to some Sociology courses.I fell in love with understanding a person by zooming out to see a bigger picture, by understanding them as a person in a society, and minored in Social Work (but to be honest, didn’t really get to learn about the beauty of Social Work). I ended my senior year thinking I’d get a PhD in Child Psychology or a Master’s to become a Child Psychologist. 

But then I remembered all of the real life, hands-on experiences I had while working through college. And what their degrees were. And what they weren’t. And what I wanted. 

While in undergrad, I worked at after-school care programs, autism centers, community re-entrance programs, on-campus tutoring centers, residential facilities, research centers, and pretty much anywhere that would have me in the field of social services (which, at the time I didn’t know were social services, I just wanted to go where people were). 

And I realized that the higher up my degree, and the higher up my title, the less one-on-one interaction people had with the populations they were serving.

And that was the opposite of what I wanted. 

So, that’s how I picked a Master’s in Social Work over a higher degree. I wanted to work with people. And I wanted to stay working with people. I didn’t ever want to be the head of a giant organization who couldn’t name the most recent kid to get admitted to the program. I wanted to be the person walking alongside that kid, having a conversation with them about how they were feeling. 

And I picked a Master’s in Social Work over a Master’s in Counseling or Marriage and Family Therapy because, well, I didn’t know I wanted to be a therapist yet. I just knew I loved people. And I wanted to put that love into the work that I did every day. 

While pursuing my MSW, I learned through practicums what I was good at and what I wasn’t good at. So I followed that. 

I loved doing things like case management, where I would help clients access resources, but I am bad at anything related to numbers. Not even in a self-deprecating or bashful way. Just in an objective, I have dyscalculia, kind of way. So, I struggled with pages and pages of applications, numbered requirements, acronyms, dates, serial numbers, etc. 

But you know what doesn’t require numbers?

Listening. And I’m good at listening. And I love to listen. I always have. 

So, that’s why I became a therapist, I guess. Because I’m a good listener. 

I’d like to add some clarification here. Being a therapist is not just being a good listener. Going to therapy is not just paying someone to listen to you.

When people ask me what made me want to become a therapist, I will now answer: 

“Because I’m good at listening, I love to listen, I always have.” 

But when people ask me how I became a therapist, I want people to know, specifically the Department of Education, to hear this answer: 

“Because I am a professional. I received a bachelor’s degree from Butler University with a combined major in Psychology & Sociology and a concentration in Social Work. I received a master’s degree from Indiana University in Social Work, with a focus area in Behavioral Health. While in undergrad, I worked in several different settings, having no less than two part-time jobs at a time while being a full-time student. While in grad school, I completed two practicums, totalling 900 required supervised hours, likely closer to 1500. After grad school, I passed the Licensed Social Worker exam to obtain my LSW license. Then, after two years of receiving supervision, I was able to pass the Licensed Clinical Social Worker exam to obtain my LCSW license. Since having my initial LSW license, I have also completed at least 20 continuing education credit hours each year to stay up to date on best practices. If including additional materials outside of CEU credits, likely 40-50 training hours each year is spent on resource building, training, learning, and staying up to date in my field.”

I became a therapist because I love to listen. 

I am a therapist because I am an educated, licensed, and trained professional.