QUESTION
;
I
have been suffering from anxiety and depression. And reading your book is
really helping me understand the whole thinking pattern. And with me I need to
understand something before I can change it. If that makes sense. I am in my
30s with 2 young kids. I work but it's not my passion. I want to do something I
love rather than something I know. A few years ago I was thinking about
becoming a therapist. But I put it off and dealt with life’s events.
And
recently I've been doing a lot of reading and reflecting, realizing that
becoming a therapist feels like my calling. It's something I would love doing
rather than just to have a job. Ever since I can remember I've enjoyed helping
others. I'm not sure what kind of therapist I want to become. How did you come
to choose to become a psychotherapy?
ANSWER:
Thanks for your
letter. My becoming a therapist was totally coincidental. I was taking a friend
to SDSU trying to get her interested in some course of study to get her mind
off her recent divorce. I was behind her in line and looking at the list of
courses when I realized the woman at the counter was asking me what course I
was interested in. Thinking this was merely idle conversation I answered I was
kind of interested in the counseling education course. “Oh, that’s closed,” she
said. “Oh that’s okay,” I said.
And I thought
of my best friend in high school who became a biofeedback counselor and realized
I had been slightly envious but never before had given a thought that I myself could aspire to such a
lofty calling. The clerk said to me then “But you could take it on an at-risk
basis and hope to get into the program after the semester ends. “Fine,” said I,
“I’ve been at risk all my life.” So, on a whim I just signed up then and there.
And that’s how I became a therapist. To become an MFT (marriage family
counselor) is time intensive. You need at least 1000 hours of practice (usually unpaid) before you
can even take the license exam. (You’ll have to check on that figure it may be
as much as 3,000 hours. I don’t remember for sure.
And there are
many different kinds of therapists. Hypnotherapists, and Spiritual therapists besides the marriage
family (MFT). You can get a degree on line. Of if you belong to a church you
could become a “lay counselor.” On the
other hand, some people simply develop a helpful expertise, write a book and
give lectures without any official designation. Read Dale Carnegie’s book How to Make Friends and Influence People.
He started out by doing small free talks at the YWCA and his course in now known
throughout the world. Some people just start by writing a helpful blog and
reach out to help people that way. Some people begin by doing Tarot readings
for people in some kind of psychic community like Elfin Forest. Good luck on
your path.
You might find
Deepak Chopra’s book The Essential
Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire helpful in finding out what your next
step might be. It’s less than 150 pages. A. B. Curtiss
