Career Path
If you read my last blog post, at the end I talked about how I answered the age old question “What do you want to be when you grow up?”. As I got older, I was urged to be more realistic than Miss Piggy/actress (LAME!!) and at some point I decided I wanted to be a therapist.
I don’t know where I got that idea from, but it stuck for the rest of my teen years and through early adulthood. All throughout high school, that was my goal. Go to college, major in psychology, go to grad school to be a therapist, then graduate and be a therapist. That was about all I knew, which I recognize is a lot for a 15 year old to know already! But all I was envisioning was a fancy office, a really nice chair for me and a really nice couch for my clients, and myself in a pencil skirt or a sheath dress and stilettos, asking over and over again “And how does that make you FEEEEEEL?” while scribbling notes with a fountain pen.
Clearly, I had no real clue what I was thinking about or what I was getting myself into.
Fast forward to college, when I have my first internship in the mental health field. I was an intern at a residential treatment program that I shall not name to protect the innocent. and because HIPPA and confidentiality, of course!! Anyways, I’m working at this program with kids who are OFF THE CHAIN. Like, major behavioral problems, the kind they DON’T show in the movies. I would swing back and forth like a pendulum between loving it and hating my life. Because it was really hard work! In the end, it was super rewarding and once I got the hang of it (more or less), I kept going back for more. I went back to that internship every summer for three years and then applied for a full time job in their Boston based office when I graduated. By that point, I had learned that there were a lot more options in the mental health field, other than “therapist”. I had also learned that no matter which of these options I picked in the end, the chance of me wearing stilettos at work was zilch. My mom was extremely disappointed. I looked around at the people that I admired and saw that they were all social workers. So that’s how I picked social work!
For the next 3 years I worked at the same agency, dabbling in social work and learning more about myself and the field I was prepping to go into. I was super responsible during this time in my life- I saved no money, got into massive credit card debt, drank excessively and went on a string of dates that were disaster movie worthy. Think like Amy Schumer before she gets her shit together in that one (all) movie. But that’s a story for another post… maybe… because some of it is definitely super embarrassing…
One of my godmothers was a therapist. I told her I was planning on going into social work and she asked me how long I thought I’d last before burning out. I laughed and said I WOULD NEVER BURN OUT BECAUSE I JUST LOVED IT SOOOO MUCH!!! Welp. I was wrong. I burned out. Several times, in fact. But here’s the thing- It was never the kids or families that burned me out. It was the red tape. The paperwork. The bullshit from the powers that be. It was the low pay and the trauma that I was constantly exposed to. I thought about leaving social work and pursuing a completely different path several times, but never actually did it until I was 15 years into a career that, although brought me satisfaction and was rewarding, did not bring me joy. Until I realized that there could be a lot more joy and freedom in my life than what I was experiencing.
I was a total mess at that point. I was bringing trauma home with me and taking it out on my family, who at the time consisted of my husband, my toddler and a baby. I needed to figure something else out, and fast. Before I caused any real emotional damage to my favorite people in the whole world. I realized I needed to make a big career pivot, more than just finding a new job in the same field. Because let’s face it. Social work and people in this field are knowingly overworked and underpaid.
Why are social workers so devalued? Yes, I said it. Not just undervalued. They are quite literally DE valued. Their value is lessened by those that have the power to edify and uplift the field. Mental health professions in general are greatly devalued. Why is that? Are you in a career or job that devalues you? I would love to continue this conversation in the comments!