Disabled With Ptsd, But Want To Be A Counseling Psychologist

[digger]

Why don't people go out and get a life of their own - let go of this being stuck in the healing type thing and really make some decisions and move right on?

Maybe it's not something you would be able to, or choose to, do yourself - it's not a job I think I would be able to do - but I think dismissing it as people being stuck and not making decisions or moving on is pretty harsh. How is dealing with your own shit and then going on to help others not moving on?

Personally, I think it would be hard for someone to have the empathy required to be a counsellor without having experienced, and dealt with, their own shit first. I know you've had some bad experiences with therapists, and that understandably has coloured your view on this, but I don't think you should write everybody else off because of that. Yes it might be a bad move for some people, but for others having the experience to be able to truly understand their clients could be the thing that makes them perfect for the job.

Good luck with it @Lionheart777 - it's sounds like something you're putting a lot of thought and consideration into.

 

[joeylittle]

@Ms Spock, I do respectfully disagree.

For example someone who is an active borderline should not become a therapist, in my opinion someone who is a recovered borderline is should not become a therapist, but in those communities is is also seen as a potential employment path, where it really should not be.

If this were true, Marsha Linehan should not have studied psychology, achieved degrees, and written the entire DBT modality.

I think she may be an exceptional case, but I am firmly against any blanket concepts like "people with mental health problems should not go into mental health".

Better to say, being a counselor or therapist or psych is a very powerful position, and if you choose to go into the field having survived your own mental illness, you'd better be very aware of your own state of health and take your job very seriously.

And I think the notion that one can be "better" at it for having experienced it is nonsense - that's for sure.

I wonder, though, what the differences are between accredation in NZ and the U.S. I will try and learn about that. Because generally, in the US, if you get ahold of any therapists/psychiatrists full bio, you can get a really good sense of what they are specialized in, what they don't do, where they did their clinical hours, whether they are still under supervision, etc. And there is latitude to choose your care provider. I don't know if it works that way where you are.

 

[Lionheart]

....having survived your own mental illness, you'd better be very aware of your own state of health and take your job very seriously.

I for one, would definitely take my job very seriously. I've been in a position of suffering when a mistake by a psychologist would have had horrible consequences for me, as seems to have been the case for some folks.

 

[ms spock]

How is dealing with your own shit and then going on to help others not moving on?

Most people haven't. They do a bit of healing themselves and then get their needs met and have a purpose via their clients. Look at all the adverse therapy experiences that our members have on this forum. If people had pulled up those incompetent therapists before they became "therapists" then a lot of damage could be prevented.

I have been talking to people in borderline communities and they say that active borderlines become therapists, that borderlines that thinking that they have healed (but are not considered to be healed by the people around them) become therapists and that people who used to be borderlines also become therapists (and are considered to have healed by those around them). The clients have to come first - how are they protected from these people? The answer is that they are not.

I don't think you should write everybody else off because of that. Yes it might be a bad move for some people, but for others having the experience to be able to truly understand their clients could be the thing that makes them perfect for the job.

It is a theory that people enact on other people all the time.

And many more people who it is a bad move for - well they are the sacrifice of people giving it ago?

I don't agree with you @digger.

 

[ms spock]

@Ms Spock, I do respectfully disagree.


If this were true, Marsha Linehan should not have studied psychology, achieved degrees, and written the entire DBT modality.

I think she may be an exceptional case, but I am firmly against any blanket concepts like "people with mental health problems should not go into mental health".

As you say an exceptional case and the average myptsd forum member is not Marsha Linehan. Maybe you have met people on this forum that you think are a Marsha. I have not. @joeylittle.

 

[ms spock]

@Lionheart777 Me to, I'm moving towards the same pursuit.

I have read your posts. To be honest the potential damage that you could do to clients is not worth the risk to those potential clients. What needs inside of you are you getting met by pursuing this path? How can you get those needs met by another career?

 

[ms spock]

I for one, would definitely take my job very seriously. I've been in a position of suffering when a mistake by a psychologist would have had horrible consequences for me, as seems to have been the case for some folks.

It costs people's their lives @Lionheart777.

 

[Lionheart]

It costs people's their lives @Lionheart777.

Please rest assured that I have no intention of doing anything that might put anothers life in danger, even if that means totally scraping my career plans.

 

[ms spock]

I think she may be an exceptional case, but I am firmly against any blanket concepts like "people with mental health problems should not go into mental health".

I agree with you, but why not explore the concept? Why are the potential clients of people with significant mental illness not as important as those considering a career as a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist, psychotherapist?

Better to say, being a counselor or therapist or psych is a very powerful position, and if you choose to go into the field having survived your own mental illness, you'd better be very aware of your own state of health and take your job very seriously.

And this is what I am majorly focusing on - this does not seem to be really threshed out in people's "I want to be a therapist and "help" other people statements."

And I think the notion that one can be "better" at it for having experienced it is nonsense - that's for sure.

There is a big currency on this with a lot of people focusing on this to justify their foray in to the arena.

I wonder, though, what the differences are between accredation in NZ and the U.S. I will try and learn about that. Because generally, in the US, if you get ahold of any therapists/psychiatrists full bio, you can get a really good sense of what they are specialized in, what they don't do, where they did their clinical hours, whether they are still under supervision, etc. And there is latitude to choose your care provider. I don't know if it works that way where you are.

I don't know about NZ, but I do that since the provision of education as a "product" that many, many people are getting ushered through the university systems in Australia and it is a big concern for professionals in the system, nevertheless the little fringe areas that people do that are "alternative".

 

[ms spock]

Please rest assured that I have no intention of doing anything that might put anothers life in danger, even if that means totally scraping my career plans.

Yes and you are the one person that has said this in my time here on the forum. Ever other time there is blanket support for taking the career path seemingly ignoring the symptoms of the potential "therapist" at the time.

 

[digger]

Look at all the adverse therapy experiences that our members have on this forum

And look at all the positive ones. Do you have knowledge of the backgrounds of everyone's therapists on here to be able to assume that the good ones have had no problems in their own lives?

In your opinion, who should be allowed to become a therapist? Only people who haven't had any bad experiences in life themselves?

I don't think anyone is suggesting that it's okay for someone with a lot of unresolved issues of their own to go into practice, but I think there are people, who have worked hard on their own healing, who have a lot to offer the field.

 

[ms spock]

I know you've had some bad experiences with therapists, and that understandably has coloured your view on this, but I don't think you should write everybody else off because of that.

Maybe google and look at the literature - seeing someone being sexually used by their psychiatrist whilst they are in a mental hospital and then committing suicide because they become pregnant to him is not a bad experience @digger. I would be very careful of calling such experiences "bad experiences" as if those destructions of clients are not as serious as they are. Maybe google and have a bit of a look at the literature?

If a psychologist manipulates some one in away that meant some of their other clients commit suicide, are further traumatised, become completely unable to trust other people, fracture in to many pieces - those are not "bad experiences." So please don't minimise what I am talking about here.