The Beginning
From a fairly young age, I felt a strong desire to help others through therapy. The more I learned about psychology and psychotherapy the more I could envision myself becoming a therapist. The one thing I could not see myself doing was Private Practice.
During my first couple of years in the profession, I was definitely opposed to private practice. The idea of venturing out as an entrepreneur, wearing multiple hats ( therapist / scheduler / front office / etc.), was daunting to me. At that point in time, I felt that I could ensure that my clients received the best treatment if I just focused working the magic in session, and an agency handled everything else behind the scenes.
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”
Over the years that followed, I came to realize that the end results I was hoping for were not always achieved with the support of the agencies, hospitals, and therapeutic programs I worked for. Although these opportunities gave me valuable learning experiences, they often left me inundated with large caseloads, limited my ability to provide the quality of care I wanted to deliver, and caused me to lose the desire of mentor other clinicians. In the end, this reliance on a third party was one of the two biggest things keeping me from providing the best care for my clients. The other was my fear of moving forward alone.
The thing I love telling my clients about anxiety is that its just the feeling one gets upon the realization that their world is just about to get a little bit bigger. Private practice was that opportunity for me. Despite having to deal with the consistent worry of whether I’m making the right choices, I can say that it has been worthwhile.
I chose this to be my first blog not to serve as a testimony for any to venture out on their own but to give those a glimpse into the reason why I am here.
For those that were so kind to visit my page and read this, I thank you for taking time out of your day to spend a little bit of it with me.
For my clients and/or soon to be clients, I genuinely hope you feel the care I attempt fill every session with.
