For about the past year, I have been majoring in psychology and determined to continue on through grad school and to make a difference in people's lives as a therapist. After adding my second major in women's, gender, and sexuality studies and delving deeper into that curriculum this academic year, I have realized there are so many social and cultural issues that contribute to mental illnesses and traumas. By making the conscious decision to study to be a more well-rounded psychologist, I have discovered a bounty of reasons why I want to go into this field: here are just a few of what is probably hundreds of my reasons.
1. Some people don't have anyone else to turn to
For many people seeking mental health treatment, they need to talk to someone about a problem that they cannot tell anyone else that is around them. Especially in areas with higher mental illness stigma or issues facing marginalized groups like women or LGBT+ people, there are unique experiences that make it hard to turn for help. With therapists with a rich and diverse educational background, we can reach out to a massive number of people to try and provide everyone with an opportunity for help.
2. You make someone's future exist
To some, the future seems so bleak due to a dismal past and present; this is also often the biggest cause of suicide. By giving people reasons to live and to find and live their most fulfilling life, clients can become empowered to take control over their futures. In criminal settings, especially, preparing someone mentally and socially for their futures is critical and how you fight things like repeat offenses and addiction.
3. You can help people move past their history
A large part of being a therapist is to help people move on past trauma and various negative things that have happened to them in our critical society. Shaping people to grow from their experiences and to look forward to life after a traumatic event is definitely not easy, but it is an effort that is guaranteed to be worth working for.
4. You can help a person find themselves
After a traumatic event or when having a mental illness, a person often feels helpless and lost—in addition to detached from their true personality. Therapy attempts to help people reclaim their old selves or to live in a more positive and accomplished life than ever before.
5. You can bring change to a whole community
The field of community psychology does this more intensely, but even a clinical psychologist can focus on political reform and education programs to bring awareness to mental illness, stopping things that cause trauma like sexual assault and domestic abuse, and even teach future therapists.
6. So no one has to go through what I have
It may seem like a generic answer from future therapists, but more times than not, therapists and other mental health professionals have some sort of mental illness/es themselves. Therapists like this are not only able to use their personal experiences to guide their clients: they can use methods from their own therapists. By wanting to make the world happier and to live more fulfilling lives, therapists can not just combat their own issues: but they can also help the world with theirs even better.
