Is A Career In Therapy Right For Me?
 

This is David.

[photo of me waving goes here]

David has a problem. He doesn't know what to do with his life. He knows he likes to help people by talking about their problems.

[picture of me with my hand on my chin and my head cocked to the side with a thoughtful expression on my face]

How about being a therapist? There will always be a need for someone who is willing to listen. To start with you need is a solid foundation of good communication skills and an understanding on how people live in the world.

[image of me looking skeptical]

David looks like he still has some doubts. Why don't we ask some others for their thoughts on it? What do you, the viewers at home think?

EDIT: All my posts are now 1337.

I'm such a huge nerd.

Do you want to listen to people's problems and then help them solve those problems themselves? You'd have to be able not to get depressed and shit about these peoples problems.

If that's not for you, then I'd say no, otherwise go for it.

If helping people is what you want to do, become a mask avenger! Or something else that allows you to help people without worrying about their actual problems.

Actually, Krogo, chances are he won't be helping at all. Basically, being a counselor is signing up for a lifetime of listening to people who don't actually want to solve their own problems and often don't even want to be there. It also means not having a listed phone number so they can't call and harass you, because they will, and being prepared to get it changed if they manage to find it out.

On top of that, it requires you to be able to leave your work at work and leave your personal opinions at home, because if you don't, you will drive yourself crazy, either because you'll stress over all your patients and their problems or because you'll end up showing people what you really think of them, which will cause many, many problems.

Well, someone might want help? sometimes?

But yeah you're right about pretty much everything else. Poor therapists. Not only that, they'll just blame you if you can't help them.

I saw a therapist for awhile, it's what finally motivated me to go to college.

WG, if you're looking for therapist/counselor jobs (I'm going to assume in Arkansas since that's listed as your location); the state Health service, most hospitals like those in Little Rock (Arkansas Children's Hospital?) or Northwest Arkansas, and several volunteer groups (like the Arkansas Support Network) might be good places to start looking.

Some might not be real therapy or counseling jobs, but you're still helping people who need it.

Well, I like to think I'm a good listener. And I know that people have problems. To me, what is more depressing is doing nothing to help.

And while helping people on a superficial level is good, I'm looking for something a little more satisfying.
Wow, that's an incredibly dark view of things. If people didn't want to solve their problems, then they wouldn't be talking to someone about them.

And I will always be honest with everyone about what I think. It's really the best policy.
I'm used to people blaming me. Trust me, I can tell the difference between when something actually is or isn't my fault. (Took me the longest time to figure that one out.)
Yeah, it seems we now share a state. I live in North Central Arkansas in Mountain View (that's in Stone County). Thanks for the info and I will definetly look into it.

I guess it would help if I gave some examples of the type of person I'm thinking about.

Sidney Freeman from M*A*S*H is more of psychiatrist, but I do like the way he carries himself. (Even if I feel more of an affinity for Hawkeye sometimes.)

Of course, I've also read Watchmen and saw what can happen if you look too deeply into people's psyches. But, I'm aware of the risks and am willing to accept them. After all, others do much more hazardous things then merely talk to people.

Judging by your response, I'm going to be blunt. This is not for you. You just have completely the wrong idea about how this works and if you go in with this kind of attitude, you are going to get badly, badly burned.

To break it down:

There's nothing wrong with wanting to help. But you need to be able to help others help themselves, and the vast majority of people coming to you will want you to fix it for them, which you will not be able to do. Others simply don't want the help and are there because they have to be, either by court order or to shut someone up or for whatever reason. If you're going in hoping to solve people's problems, you're going in with a poor understanding of what you'll actually be dealing with and will be very, very disappointed.

This is what a professional counselor told my brother when he was thinking of going into it. It was her job and she told him honestly what he could expect to deal with.

Only you're going to be dealing with people whose problems are likely going to be their own fault, and are often going to be situations and lifestyle choices you disagree with. Telling them that could easily lose you your job or end up in litigation.

Counseling is the ultimate job in keeping your mouth shut.

Again, in this case, "blaming you" might be done with lawyers, or at best them finding someone else or just refusing to come back. If these people were stable, they would not be seeing you.


On M*A*S*H, that's a TV series and not a good measure for a real profession.

Blue, you ever think your brother met a very jaded or unlucky therapist? Not saying that can't happen.

My friend is a therapist and he runs into those kinds of people but he also more often then not has the people who actually want to be helped as patients. Just pointing out the worst possible patients without pointing out the good ones is a bit wrong.

He's told me there's not very many feelings better then having one of his patients say thank you for helping them. You can get the worst kind of people in every possible job. I have people who have actually physically threatened me when their computer fucked up(because they virused it) at my job and I work in IT. Shit can happen both ways.

WG, I don't know if you have gone to college or not, but the University of Arkansas system (UA, ASU, UAMS) has decent psychology and psychiatric health programs if you haven't.

Not the greatest, but they're decently cheap and (I know this is true for the Fayetteville campus and is most likely true for UAMS in Little Rock) you'll get practical experience with helping/treating others as well. The psychiatrist I saw was part of the UA program (graduate student in fact and the clinic was staffed by undergrads).

If you have gone to college and majored in something related to the above fields, feel free to ignore everything I just stated.

Keep this in mind, The Wandering God; you're going to need at least a Masters degree and probably a Ph.D. to be a practicing psychologist, though you can be a psychologist's assistant with a bachelor's. I can't find the specific requirements for becoming a registered psychologist in Arkansas, but the degree is standard. So, you know, weigh the years and years and years of school in your decision.