When Needs are Not Met

Hi Richard,

I too am sorry to hear that your needs are not getting met. I can say that personally, obtaining this type of higher education would be difficult had I not gone to a university for my master's degree... and didn't have the years of clinical experience. For me, I needed the classroom structure and the one on one supervision, especially during my residency. However, this many years later, with all of the "core" theoretical approaches branded in my brain, it has been uplifting, to say the least, to add these different approaches to fill in the gaps of the more "mainstream" theoretical approaches. Those theories are critical for psychotherapists, for one, that's what you'll be tested on for your board exams (assuming that's the route your planning on going) and secondly, insurance panels will require that you have this knowledge as well. For me though, I can say that all of these types of practices are equally important and I am coming more and more to the belief that it is the conjunction of all of them that gives us the opportunity to offer the most effective client centered psychological services. As for the rock, sometimes it's just the symbolism alone that gets a person from one moment to the next...and hopefully in the next moment it will be that rock and something else that starts to build overtime what the client needs to get where they're going. I wish you nothing but the best. Randi

10^th March 2013 10

The truth is, Randi, I believe my life is not fit for therapy. Frankly, it looked like the logical thing to do when I started this program but things changed. I found a stable job where I already help people with mental problems so I have to ask myself what is this education about? If a better job was my reasoning I’m just being greedy. A person should be happy if their bills are paid.

If I came to therapy to help people, well, I’ve never been helped by a therapist. I’ve seen a good many over the years and found none who could really bring me round where I wanted to find myself. Now I’m there for my clients for free and for as long as they need me. I change lives and connect with people.

Then it came to this class and I was pressed to write a paper I simply felt was unsupported by the evidence. That’s unethical; I could open up a stats text book and show you how the evidence is less than sound. If we go through the world fitting information together with a hammer then I can see why people like myself, my brother, and my father are products of the mental health system and yet are still less than sound minded.

The final nail in the coffin was the attitude I got from management about this subject. I’ve worked in a lot of bad places over my life, and I know when folks are giving me the run around. If they had looked into the subject and given me a clean and educated response I may have changed my mind.

Still, the bottom line fact is that what I want to do with my life is write. I do that every day but when it comes to classes or writing I think I should spend time writing because the only thing a degree in therapy could bring me to is a life where I want to find time for writing.

Like a lot of people my age I’ve spent most of my life in class rooms and in learning. Education has done little for a lot of people I know. Many of the resident advisers have master’s degrees and they work alongside those with BA’s and at some times for less. Education does not make happiness or even wisdom for that matter. This simply isn’t the place for me.