I often get asked what I do and why I chose to be a professional counselor. My attempt at answering that question is usually longer than the person asking wants to hear, so I’ll try to make this short and sweet.
As a child I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. All I ever knew was that I liked helping my friends with their problems and comforting them when they were sad. I didn’t figure it out till I was 21, as a single mom of an almost one year old at the time, and floundering through some community college courses.
Through lots of prayer and some crazy events, I felt led into a helping profession, which ultimately led to earning my bachelor’s in psychology from Liberty University, and my master’s in counseling from UTSA.
When asked “why this?”, I honestly don’t have a very profound answer and all I can say is 1) I know this is what God called me to and 2) I wanted to show love and compassion to those who were hurting and felt alone like I had experienced at different pivotal points in my own life.
Although each aspect of my profession always have their place, and the more clinical side of therapy is of the upmost importance to me (because, if it weren’t, we’d be in some trouble), being a therapist, to me, isn’t always about diagnosing people, analyzing their life and problems, or using big, fancy, clinical words (as you can clearly see in my writing). For me, being a therapist is all about, and will always be about the people I am privileged to come in contact with. Showing grace for their journey when others can’t, or when they are unable to extend that same grace to themselves.
I don’t take this responsibility lightly and strive to carry what each person brings with the upmost care. Though the complicated stuff I learned in school, at expensive trainings and fancy seminars are vitally important to effectively helping my clients, it would all mean nothing if I couldn't connect with each one as a person.
Despite our diagnoses, dysfunctions, traumas, addictions, pain, and suffering, we are all just people who want to be seen, known, heard, understood and loved, and that’s what I get to humbly do each day.