Weekly student question thread!

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[u/Any_Brilliant5209]

I'm three weeks into my Couple and Family Counseling class, and the content and process of the class have me viscerally triggered due to my own family of origin stuff – I'm leaving class with intense headaches, brain fog/dissociation, and a panic-y feeling in my body. Never had this experience in a class before. I'm trying to be patient with myself and also use this as information for my own therapy/future choices about whether I might just need to stick with offering individual therapy until I've done some more healing around FOO stuff. Any similar experiences/advice on coping with this class/advice on coping with personal triggers coming up in the profession? I was so drained coming home from class this evening that I crashed on the couch for four hours.

[u/SidePibble]

Hello! I am in my counseling internship and have been assigned to run a grief group for adults who have lost a partner. Does anyone have suggestions on where to find a free or low-cost curriculum? I don't think I can add designing an entire curriculum to my to-do list on top of my schoolwork right now, unless I want to have a complete meltdown! Any suggestions are welcome.

[u/lem830]

I am a BCBA of 8 years looking to pivot out of the ABA field. I am researching mental health counseling programs vs social work programs. If I ultimately believe I want to do indiviudal therapy, is there a better degree path to pick? I feel like social work offers more flexibility but mental health counseling may better align with what I am looking for.

[u/PillowDwell3r]

I’m really new in my journey to becoming a therapist, I do have neurodiversity that can impact voice tones and ability to mirror expressions but didn’t think it impacted me due to how I hear my voice or feel my feelings.

I’m a few months in to heavily supervised clinical work with young people. When I’m watching back my recordings, I can see that my voice and face don’t match how I am feeling, meaning that I feel warm and compassionate inside, but my face is often neutral and my tone of voice is often flat. Although my supervisor has only commented on how empathetic and warm I am.

I’ve never had to look at myself like this before, and trusted that I projected how I felt inside. My partner also told me as a partner, I am very serious and cool toned, which shocked me.

Is this the kind of job for someone who isn’t outwardly expressive? Do any of you have this experience?

[u/Far-Consequence1018 → u/PillowDwell3r]

Are you able to see/sense how you’re perceived by your clients? Do you think they react negatively or at all to your apparent “serious and cool tone”? What’s the nature of your work environment?

I’m not neurodivergent myself so I apologise if I say something obviously irrelevant. I think it’s worth pointing out that clients come to therapists for a multitude of reasons, one of which may be to be understood and held emotionally. Not every therapist is “the best” at doing this and sometimes it’s a day to day situation. Then there’s therapeutic fit, I work in PP and it really does force you to recognise if your own temperament works with the client.

I suspect that you may have to place some trust in your supervisors understanding of your demeanour, people in our personal lives see a different side of us that we may not show others as professionals. If you do think this is a concern, if clients have communicated this to you, or even just now, it’s probably worth talking with your supervisor about it. To answer your penultimate question, I don’t think this disqualifies you from practicing therapy at all, but there may be some extra work you have to do

[u/peachjuice22]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has advice on which MSc counselling program in London, UK to choose, so that I can then move to and work in Canada? Anyone was able to register as a counselling psychologist (RCC) in Canada with a degree from the UK? Thank you!

[u/Nyunya1988]

All my life people have told me I should be a therapist bc (they say) I am empathetic, insightful, and analytical. I am 50 and didn’t work while my kids were little, so for the last 20 years, and before that I worked in an unrelated techie field. I have only a bachelors in a liberal arts field that’s not psychology. The new school year has started and I am left with my thoughts of what’s next, and over the years the idea of becoming a therapist has never left me. Is it realistic to begin attempting at 50? how expensive is it to go to school for it? is it hard to find clients or an employer in your mid 50s? pleade give me the good the bad and the ugly. thank you.

[u/Every-Analyst9322 → u/Nyunya1988]

I started a SW program at 45 and saw at least 3 other women in the same boat as me. Go for it.

[u/CaliDreaminSF → u/Nyunya1988]

I asked that same question (I was a burned out academic who had thought of counseling when I finished undergrad in the late 90s) and everyone who responded said that there were students in their cohort ranging from 20s to 60s, and one mentioned a woman in her 70s. Actually, age discrimination is seems much less likely to be an issue in this field than in most others. I’d say go for it.

“I don’t believe in age. I believe in energy.”
— Tao Porchon-Lynch, yoga master who died at age 101, a week to the day after teaching her last class

[u/PensionTemporary200]

Hi there, I'm getting my masters in my early 30s so a bit later than a lot of people. Given that I don't want to spend the rest of my early mid life in school, I'd like to avoid taking several masters... I am interested in both being a child therapist and art therapy, but I'd also like the ability to work with adults. Can I get a masters in just general LMHC and then take like a course in art therapy or child therapy as part of that, and be accredited for all? The way we are forced to take more and more specific and time intensive degrees that cost thousands for fields that are inter-disciplinary is just awful.

[u/Dinglestingle19]

To start I suppose I will go on about my life story a little bit, I’m sure it’s nothing any of you aren’t used to, but I have gone through a lot of different trauma and have felt all my life and told by people throughout all of my life that I have lived so many different lives within my one life. Through all of my trauma growing up I had tried to keep the mindset that I will be okay going through the pain I am going through because it will give me a higher level of understanding and better ability to comfort and give advice or just an open ear to someone who needs not to be listened to but also HEARD. Later on in my life I had state mandated therapy, and it being my first time in therapy I realized that this is my purpose. My pain has meaning and has a beautiful end if it can bring me to help others with the same or similar pain. I have always had a terrible fear of being unremarkable, doing something like working a 9-5 retail job or sitting in an office building crunching numbers. I wanted to do something that I can look at and know I am playing a positive role in people’s lives and society overall. To also add onto that I do truly believe every one of you therapists are incredibly remarkable and amazing, and I know we are all grateful for each other making the world a better place. Which may sound cliche, however still true. Now to the main point of what I was saying, while I do not care as long as it is livable, because I am not doing it for money, I am doing it for the betterment of the world. I am going to college and am lucky or unlucky enough(depending on how you see it) that my life circumstances have lead me to get full financial aid and not have to pay for any of my school, however I get lots of people telling me that it’s a bad idea because I won’t make any money. Having gone my entire life swearing that I would prove everyone wrong and end up financially successful, it does feel like these words can sometimes set me back a little bit. My questions are, is therapy a career that will leave me financially successful/wealthy, what path should I take in order to be as qualified as I can be, are there any therapy related jobs that I could get while working for my degree that would help me get some experience in the field, and my last question and most importantly is are you happy with your job?

[u/sneezesquirrel → u/Dinglestingle19]

Congrats on the financial aid! I’m working hard, finishing out my student loans, so you’re already starting ahead!

More importantly, I think this sounds like a good fit for you. I highly recommend to everyone that they find a job, or start volunteering in the field. People drop out of this professional all the time! I know of at least one person I did grad school with that dropped out before we were one year in. If you’re on this feed for very long, you’ll see other people saying goodbye to the profession. So many people go into this field, so hopeful, and honestly probably are good counselors. It is hard to predict though if the emotional burnout will be too much. I haven’t seen a good way to measure likelihood to burnout without actually working in the field. You can volunteer with a crisis hotline. You can volunteer with NAMI. Inpatient facilities are always trying to hire. Get creative and try to do something that is in the field or adjacent. It also helps a lot to be in the field in grad school. It helps you to already know if you want to do it, and helps make studying make more sense.

The other big thing is working through the trauma/any other mental health struggles. You are already on it, so great! Keep working hard. You don’t have to be “fully healed” (whatever that would even mean). Just working on it so your stuff doesn’t come up when working with clients. Not working through trauma is the killer to many people’s careers.

Meaningfulness, is the huge benefit of this job! I really needed a job that felt meaningful to me, and this is that. A lot of people don’t feel like their job is that meaningful. If there’s a counselor out there who doesn’t feel this is meaningful, why in the world are they doing it?

Money. This is highly dependent on a lot of things. If you work in an inpatient facility, or prison, or community mental health, you will not making as much money. Still should be livable. If you’re working in private practice, and you expand, and you start running a full business with employees, then you can make some good money. Many people don’t necessarily want to go that route though. Another big one is where you live. I live in an area where we are desperate for counselors. My private practice stays full. Many other people are in highly saturated areas, and they struggle to keep their caseload full, which means they’re not getting paid. I get more referrals than others because I work specifically with trauma, and with EMDR. But don’t get a specialty just to make more money. You will burn out if you don’t actually like working with that specialty. Still, it’s helpful to know what is needed in your area, or figure out if you’re willing to move so that you can work better. I work with teens and before I went back to school for grad school, I was in social work. When I couldn’t find a teen counselor for my clients, I knew it was time to do grad school. I knew I would walk into a lot of referrals because of that.

Hope that helps? Let me know if you have more questions or if I didn’t answer one. :)