But currently not working in that field at all cuz I’m in a stage of arrested development teaching english to schoolchildren in a foreign country but I plan to get a masters and start working when I go back home in a year or two
Feb 9, 2024
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preface: this is the opinion of someone who has yet to go to grad school but is in the same boat as you. I think if you just want to have a professional career as a counselor/therapist/social worker then you can do a master's degree that will help you get some from of clinical license (MSW, CCMHC, LMFT). I'm working in a direct care/nonprofit job before I apply for my master's just so that I know what I'm getting into before I lock in to a career doing this for the rest of my life lol. Getting prepared for a PhD is trickier because it's more competitive; you'll need research experience since that is mainly what a PhD student is doing (writing academic papers rather than working directly with patients). Since you've already graduated, you would need to do a post-bac program/volunteer in a psychology lab at a nearby university/or find a job doing psychology research to get that experience. I don't think a master's degree in psychology alone is the move unless you plan to go on to get a PhD.
May 10, 2024
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not really working though because I’m currently finishing up an English degree in prep for grad school
Feb 10, 2024
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I was set on a fine arts path for a long time, then wanted to combine that with my interest in psych and become a music therapist. Then I got stage fright during my clarinet scholarship audition and threw up on the stage and decided I could never show my face in the music department again. I stuck with psych and added anthropology.
I loved my social sciences classes but I decided to take a development class online during my first summer of college, and I loooooved it! I remembered how much the brain fascinated me as an organ and how neuroscience may be a better fit for me than psychology. So I emailed my advisor and we ended up changing my whole life around to build a curriculum that mimicked what I’d be taking if my school had a neuro major. Then, they developed a neuro major and I was one of the first to graduate from it! Took me an extra semester but oh well lol.
I got multiple job offers, and took the one farthest from South Dakota. I ended up in a random suburb in Maryland at a clinic/research facility that worked with children with abnormal sex chromosomes (XXY, XYY, X, etc) since that can significantly impact cognitive development. But this place was so shady and everyone who worked there was miserable, so I had to leave. I found my next job and worked at the old job less than 90 days!
But this new job would have me questioning myself and my intelligence on a daily basis. There were days when I loved it and felt like I was doing something really cool and special and interesting and important! But most of the time I was sad and scared and anxious and ended up really hating myself and the work. And this is unfortunately how a lot of grad students feel, but I wasn’t a student! People mistook me for one, or even for a post doc sometimes, but I just worked there!! I was going through all of that for 3 years of my life and I don’t even have a degree to show for it smh
So I thought about what else I wanted to do with my life and decided to go back to school for occupational therapy! I want to help people directly, and I know first hand that animal research really does help people (I’m on an antibody that was developed inside of rodents lol) but I want to do that more tangibly. And I still want to have it pertain to neuroscience in some way, and OT would allow me to help people recover from strokes or TBIs or maintain a level of autonomy during age-related cognitive decline! So I’m currently taking classes so that I can be ready to apply to the OT doctorate program in my state :)
But going back to the job…I lost the job last month… And now I haven’t been working in weeks and I’m about to get my last severance paycheck and the job search isn’t totally going how I’d hoped…but it’ll be okay, I’ll find a way through this chapter and I’ll make it into that program and it’ll work out eventually, right?
And if a patient likes to make music I might end up being a music therapist of sorts after all!
May 29, 2025
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My pipes are so cold that all my water is pre chilled. Pour it into a glass, drink about half of it, refill to the top, walk away... nuff said. #GulpNation
Mar 6, 2024
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You can learn so much about what’s going on when you’re not there. It’s fun to speculate about what made them. The snow is good for keeping records of things
Mar 3, 2024
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Sometimes all I want to do is have someone listen to me talk about it. It’s not realistic though and it’s annoying. When I write in my diary and I read it back over it feels like someone is listening
Feb 25, 2024