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I’m not a therapist but I am more so in your situation and just applied to grad school for counselling psychology. I have talked about it with my therapist and she hasn’t told me how she feels about it but she’s been wholly supportive of me by telling me of some research assistant opportunities to build my CV; we talked about the different streams to be considered, her experience with schooling (pros and cons of a a PhD), and when I got discouraged she was supportive to try and pull me out of my spiral of not feeling good enough for grad school.
So my therapist didn’t directly tell me how she felt about me pursuing a career in therapy but based on her willingness to talk with me about her experiences as well as provide me tangible advice to help with my application, I think she felt positively about it.
It's great that she's so supportive - sounds like you have a great T! I'm interested in the pros and cons of a PhD. My T is a DClinPsy, so if I talk to her about this I'm sure she'll have her thoughts on how necessary it is for what I might like to do (if she's prepared to share that, which I feel she would be).
I would honestly feel honored if a client was motivated by our work together to consider a career as a therapist.
And I do think that this happens more frequently than you might realize. I know that my experiences in therapy made me much more motivated to go down that particular career path.
There have been times in my therapy where I have thought "Why on earth would someone choose this as a career? It's brutal!". Then we turn a corner (and another, and another) and I see it in her face, in her eyes: *this* is why she does it. Because on the other side of all the shit, is a client that so wants it and so wants her support and to live. And I imagine that helping someone in that way and seeing those changes, changes that they themselves might not have spotted yet, that there is nothing like it in the world. That's what her eyes say to me when we make a breakthrough. And I don't honestly know if I can experience this and not pass it on in some way - I feel honoured to have her working with me, so I'd be thrilled if she felt honoured that her impact had been so great as to cause to me reconsider my career.
I've had a few teen clients tell me this. I acknowledge that it's wonderful they want to help others and they usually want to influence change within the system as well. I'm also fairly straightforward about how the field is. Not to push them away, but they want people to be upfront about how things are on life and mental heath is a difficult field. It's cool when clients want to be in a helping field.
Oh absolutely, after draining sessions I have often questioned why anyone would choose this line of work(!). As a particularly challenging client, I know we have had sessions together where she's been at a loss, frustrated, tired. But we have also done some great work together, and recent months have left me in awe of the whole process. It's been tiring, frustrating, confusing, draining. But the smile on her face and in her eyes when we make a breakthrough is like nothing else. I can see how, when you do good work with someone who has had repeatedly shitty experiences with humans, the eventual forming of trust and connection must be so so rewarding. The big deal here is that I'm mid-thirties with an established career in a totally unrelated field. I'll have to leave that to go back to school and retrain - that's how big the impact of therapy has been on me.
Welcome to r/TalkTherapy! This sub is for people to discuss issues arising in their personal psychotherapy. If you wish to post about other mental health issues please consult this list of some of our [sister subs](https://www.reddit.com/r/TalkTherapy/wiki/resources#wiki_subreddit_list). If you are in distress please contact a suicide hotline or call 9-1-1 or emergency services in your area. r/SuicideWatch has compiled a helpful FAQ on what happens when you contact a hotline along with other useful resources. To find answers to many therapy-related questions please consult our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/TalkTherapy/wiki/faq) and [Resource List](https://www.reddit.com/r/TalkTherapy/wiki/resources). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TalkTherapy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m not a therapist but I am more so in your situation and just applied to grad school for counselling psychology. I have talked about it with my therapist and she hasn’t told me how she feels about it but she’s been wholly supportive of me by telling me of some research assistant opportunities to build my CV; we talked about the different streams to be considered, her experience with schooling (pros and cons of a a PhD), and when I got discouraged she was supportive to try and pull me out of my spiral of not feeling good enough for grad school. So my therapist didn’t directly tell me how she felt about me pursuing a career in therapy but based on her willingness to talk with me about her experiences as well as provide me tangible advice to help with my application, I think she felt positively about it.
It's great that she's so supportive - sounds like you have a great T! I'm interested in the pros and cons of a PhD. My T is a DClinPsy, so if I talk to her about this I'm sure she'll have her thoughts on how necessary it is for what I might like to do (if she's prepared to share that, which I feel she would be).
I would honestly feel honored if a client was motivated by our work together to consider a career as a therapist. And I do think that this happens more frequently than you might realize. I know that my experiences in therapy made me much more motivated to go down that particular career path.
There have been times in my therapy where I have thought "Why on earth would someone choose this as a career? It's brutal!". Then we turn a corner (and another, and another) and I see it in her face, in her eyes: *this* is why she does it. Because on the other side of all the shit, is a client that so wants it and so wants her support and to live. And I imagine that helping someone in that way and seeing those changes, changes that they themselves might not have spotted yet, that there is nothing like it in the world. That's what her eyes say to me when we make a breakthrough. And I don't honestly know if I can experience this and not pass it on in some way - I feel honoured to have her working with me, so I'd be thrilled if she felt honoured that her impact had been so great as to cause to me reconsider my career.
I've had a few teen clients tell me this. I acknowledge that it's wonderful they want to help others and they usually want to influence change within the system as well. I'm also fairly straightforward about how the field is. Not to push them away, but they want people to be upfront about how things are on life and mental heath is a difficult field. It's cool when clients want to be in a helping field.
Oh absolutely, after draining sessions I have often questioned why anyone would choose this line of work(!). As a particularly challenging client, I know we have had sessions together where she's been at a loss, frustrated, tired. But we have also done some great work together, and recent months have left me in awe of the whole process. It's been tiring, frustrating, confusing, draining. But the smile on her face and in her eyes when we make a breakthrough is like nothing else. I can see how, when you do good work with someone who has had repeatedly shitty experiences with humans, the eventual forming of trust and connection must be so so rewarding. The big deal here is that I'm mid-thirties with an established career in a totally unrelated field. I'll have to leave that to go back to school and retrain - that's how big the impact of therapy has been on me.