So you wanna be a therapist?

After a decade of starting, running, and growing a business, I was ready for the next thing. The only problem was that I did not know what the next thing was going to be. I felt stuck. Alone. Bored. Uninspired and anxious. With an emphasis on the anxious part.

I did a lot of soul searching and white boarding trying to think about what I had enjoyed most in my previous career. I kept coming back to the people part. Perhaps I was watching too many episodes of Billions at the time, but Wendy Rhoades's character really intrigued me. I began researching different paths towards getting the credentials to become a therapist in California. I eventually landed on an MSW program (masters of social work) because it seemed like a manageable amount of school time and there would be an internship component. At the time that I began grad school, (six months into the weirdest year also known as 2020) I felt nervous, anxious, but also excited. I had been out of school for ten years and I was worried that I had forgotten about how to be a student. In case you were wondering, you don't forget how to be a student, but you do block out how much work it entails!

Anyway, fast forward to week one of grad school (online, thanks covid!) At the start of each class, we introduced ourselves to our professor and classmates and gave a little overview about how we landed on the program. By the end of that first week, I was beginning to question my why. Why, you might ask would I be questioning my why? Well, almost every intro that I made that first week I received the comment, "What a switch from start up founder/ceo to a masters of social work program!" I am certain that people were trying to be friendly with the comment, but it started to wear on me. I remember going to bed at night that week really wondering what I had gotten myself into. Luckily, once my internship started and I began getting to provide therapy, my decision seemed like the right one. It felt natural for me, yet it challenged me, and I enjoyed the work. Over the next year and a half, every so often when I would meet someone new and say that I was back in grad school, I would typically be asked, "Oh did you go back for an MBA?" After they would hear that I was going back to school for an MSW, I would get a comment such as "What a big switch! How did you possibly decide to make such a big career change?" Again, I took no offense to this response because I truly people that people were just trying to be intrigued, BUT to me the switch didn't seem that far fetched because by this part in the program I was starting to see similarities to my old hat as start up founder and my new hat as the therapist in training.

Yes, the switch was scary, anxiety inducing, and at times humbling (Spoiler alert... I can't pull all nighters anymore. Welcome to school in your 30s).

But So. Worth. It.

Similar to running a start up, you never know what your clients will bring into the session and it keeps me on my toes and I love it.