What is the Authentic Therapist’s Guide?
This is a resource for all therapists. A place to help you navigate grad school, your first job, your tenth job, private practice, or whatever else this field throws your way. It’s meant to be a space where we shed light on cloudy questions, normalize taboo topics, and challenge this field in order to make it better. I wanted to create a resource to share all the things I’ve learned the hard way - so you don’t have to.
Perhaps you’re a grad student starting your first internship, or a new graduate starting your first therapy job. Or maybe you’ve been in the field for awhile and are struggling with burnout, or what to do next. Maybe you’re considering private practice, but don’t know where to start. Or maybe you did start, but you’re overwhelmed and unsure how to move forward. Wherever you’re at in your therapist journey, I think you’ll find some valuable insights here.
Why I'm Doing This
Depending on your program, you may have differing views on how well grad school prepares you for actually being a therapist. While I liked my program, it left a lot to be desired. I found myself frustrated by the amount of mixed messages, unclear answers, confusing rules, and unsatisfying explanations. It’s wild to me how much we sort of have to make it up as we go. Classes and books can only teach so much - you only truly learn how to do this job, by just doing it. Which can be terrifying!
There was also a great deal about this work and this field that I didn’t anticipate. I doubted myself. I made mistakes. I made changes (a lot of them). I knew there was no way to avoid mistakes entirely, but I wished I was at least more prepared to handle them. That’s what I hope to give you here.
What You Can Expect
Here are some examples (not an exhaustive list!) of things you’ll find here:
Truths and realities about the field
Discussions about systemic issues, workplace concerns, and other important topics
Insights about client work
Tips on furthering your professional identity, finding a niche, etc.
Advice for coping with internal barriers/limiting beliefs
Guidance on starting and maintaining a private practice
How to find your boundaries and stand up for them
Ways to approach money/finances without guilt
Strategies to prevent and manage burnout
Creating a balanced schedule/caseload that works for you
And more!
My Approach
Since my own career was complicated by vagueness, misinformation, superficiality, and “taboo” topics, this space is the antidote to all that. If I had to boil it down to values, it would be these:
Clarity
I got so tired of hearing ‘it depends’. I was exhausted from asking a simple question, only for the answer to become a half-hour monologue that could’ve been one sentence. Too many people were trying to sound ‘clinical’, rather than clear and concise. Because of all that, I vowed to create a resource where advice was clear and the answers didn’t leave you with five more questions.
Honesty
I will give my honest opinion and suggestions, no matter what. Even if it makes me look unflattering, or if the information is scary/not pretty. If I don’t know something, I won’t pretend to. I’ll tell you so. No BS here. (Note: although I don’t super sugar-coat things, I’m also not one of those people that is rude but blames it on “telling it like it is”. So no need to worry about that either.)
Authenticity
I want to normalize the messy parts of this field and the tough parts of this work. I want to be transparent about the reality of this job - positives, negatives, and everything in between. This involves sharing some of my own successes, failures, missteps, and lessons from my career. What I want more than anything is for you to know that you are not alone, and that there is room to be human.
Boldness
It’s important to openly discuss topics that most people dance around, or avoid entirely. Things like money/income, insecurities, workplace issues, flaws in the system, business pitfalls… they’re not pretty, but they absolutely exist and need to be talked about. Keeping them buried only enables and perpetuates the problems. It’s time to challenge the status quo!
If any of that sounds appealing to you, I hope you’ll join me here each week. I’ll do my best to post regularly - weekly is my goal, but I know that life will sometimes get in the way. I own my own private practice, and I’m also an artist on the side. I also like to totally unplug and do nothing from time to time. I’ve always enjoyed writing though, and if I can combine that passion with helping others somehow… that would be pretty cool.
Thanks for reading this far, and welcome! :)