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There is an expression "Physician, heal thyself." I noticed in college that kids who became psych majors were trying to solve their own problems. Many TV and radio shrinks seem to be divorced multiple times. A teacher friend had a student who was the son of a psychiatrist who wrote parenting books and the kid was loony tunes as was the father.
Well, if they chose that particular profession, sometimes it's because they are trying to understand themselves and heal a trauma. Makes sense.
But not all shrinks are. Or they are cured.
Then you have people who are not shrinks and are ALSO nuts.
Yes, absolutely. I think a lot of people who go into this field are trying to deal with their own issues. I had a friend in college, who was one of my best friends from high school, and he wanted to be a psychiatrist. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, had a psychotic break from reality, abused drugs to self-medicate, etc. He did complete his degree, I think even his Masters if I'm not mistaken, in the field. My longest time friend growing up (now ex-friend) had a mom who was a psychologist and a dad who was a psychiatrist. His mom was the most insane person I have ever known in my life, and I hope never to meet anyone worse. She would actually pound on his door if he wasn't awake at 10 a.m. on a weekend and yell at him, "YOU WORTHLESS SACK OF (POOP), GET YOUR LAZY (BUTT) UP!" She would engage in psychological warfare on him constantly, pitting him against his own sister, and I remember one year didn't include him in their stupid "Christmas newsletter" that had an entire paragraph devoted to their two dogs. He asked her, "I was curious... how come I wasn't in the newsletter?" She told him, "Because frankly (his name), you didn't do anything to make me proud this year." This lady was a horrible, evil person and I honestly hope she dies a miserable, painful, extended death that makes her suffer as much as she made everyone else around her suffer. She is the worst waste of oxygen imaginable, and on top of her dark-as-night soul she was a fat, ugly cow. Absolutely no redeeming qualities to this woman. His dad was a bit better, but never once stood up for him, and perpetuated the abuse dished out.
A family member was molested by her own therapist as well. I mean it gets to the point where the sample size is not insignificant for me to conclude that this field has some substantial examples like that, at least.
That being said, and in all fairness, a few years ago I went to a counselor who I thought was great. I honestly wasn't a big fan of the idea, and I felt weird about it, because I felt like I didn't belong. I was not depressed, I wasn't dealing with any issues, I just had some personal relationships that were challenging, especially family dynamics, and got to the point where I was curious to hear some alternate opinions on how to handle these people and how to deal with some other challenges. There's something to be said for speaking to someone impartial and getting some less biased feedback, especially as a guy, where most of my guy friends aren't exactly much for deeper conversations like that.
To get a PhD in Clinical psych or to become a psychiatrist takes a LOT more motivation that just being interested in your own issues! That may be a start though.
I'd worry a lot more about the various "therapists" who don't need to do much training, if any, to hang out their shingle. They are likely to be uneducated and, because academia doesn't weed them out, have major issues.
Look closely at someone's credentials before choosing a psychologist/psychiatrist.
Yeah, that's no joke though, it takes an IMMENSE amount of time and work to become a psychiatrist. Even just what my GF was going for (she majored in psychology and was accepted to grad school; decided not to pursue the career), which was clinical psychology, like a masters in counseling, they said she needed to go through 3 years of graduate school plus several thousand hours of internship. Her counselor who was going over the career path mentioned that it takes between 3-7 years to get that few thousand hours out of the way, because you can't work 40 hours a week doing it, it just doesn't work that way. She said she has never known anyone who did it faster than 5 years, but there are people who are able to find just the right scenario to make it happen in 3-4 years. It's possible, but not likely. In other words, let's say she was looking at around 8 years of further education, at which point she would be 30 years old.
When speaking to this lady, she told my GF to expect making about $40K after that point starting salary, and we knew from research and this lady that you're looking at maybe $65K per year as an experienced, veteran counselor many years later. That's around the best case scenario, without being an actual psychiatrist (as you said, Ph.D program, becoming an actual doctor not just a counselor), so imagine you start your career at 30 years old with a bunch of student loan debt and you're making $40K per year. You REALLY have to love it, you have to have a passion for it.
My GF asked me what she should do. I told her I cannot tell you what to do, this is your life, but the advice I'm going to give you is this: If you absolutely love psychology and counseling, and this is your life dream and your ambition, that thing that will really make you happy, then you should pursue it no matter what the pay is because it's important to you. If it's your calling, do it! But you need to be absolutely sure. If you're on the fence, if you're not really sure if this is for you, absolutely do not do it. The pay sucks, and the route to get any pay at all is extremely long, so you need to have a burning passion the same way I did / do for filmmaking, where your life cannot be complete without doing this. She ended up quitting graduate school just days before it started, after finishing a summer class already, but she was able to get her money refunded under special exception (phew) besides the small fee for that one class.
The thing is, it's probably very hard listening to people's problems all day long every day. That can't be an easy job. For that kind of pay, that's rough.
There is an expression "Physician, heal thyself." I noticed in college that kids who became psych majors were trying to solve their own problems. Many TV and radio shrinks seem to be divorced multiple times. A teacher friend had a student who was the son of a psychiatrist who wrote parenting books and the kid was loony tunes as was the father.
Just a pattern I noticed
A few thoughts, from a deep level of familiarity with the training process for clinical mental health:
1. Anybody can get sick.
2. Everybody has problems.
3. Being divorced is not a mental illness, or indicative of one.
4. People are often drawn to mental health because of past experiences (might be their own anxiety symptoms, a family member's diagnosis, growing up with a developmentally disabled sibling, having experienced the trauma of a loved one's suicide, etc.). But having experienced mental health symptoms does not make someone incompetent to offer therapy. The incidence of common psych disorders like depression or anxiety does not render one incompetent to perform the tasks of their job...necessarily. Subclinical symptoms are like the common cold. Saying a therapist who has low-grade, subclinical anxiety symptoms is "nuts and shouldn't be practicing" is the equivalent of saying a physician with seasonal allergies is incompetent to treat patients.
5.Some insight to the structure...becoming even a master's level counselor is structured so that there are a number of competency safeguards in place. A huge number of clinical hours required to even sit for licensure boards creates a large window to observe and catch competency concerns. All clinical trainee work is done under a high degree of supervision, with legally required regular feedback and signing off by supervising clinicians. Even after one is done with schooling and obtains licensure, they still are only provisionally licensed, and have to have a fully licensed supervising clinician sign off on their work for two full years prior to gaining the ability to practice independently. If someone truly incompetent to practice with clients is doing so unchecked, that means a highly unlikely number of layers of protection have failed. PhD level and PsyD level practitioners have even more layers. It is just a really long, intensive, process of being heavily supervised by others whose own licensure is dependent upon those they're supervising not screwing up, and it makes it very difficult for the truly incompetent to "slip through."
6. Practicing as a psychologist, counselor, or therapist requires background checks. Graduate programs also require them of clinical practitioner candidates...at my alma mater, one can not even apply for the master's in counseling psych program without a background check, and grad candidates are required to do additional ones prior to entering clinical practicum, to safeguard against those with criminal histories working with vulnerable populations. Obviously, experiencing psych symptoms doesn't make one a criminal, a danger to others, or incapable of doing the work. But someone who is a documented danger to others is not going to make the screening process in the outset to even train. There will always be people (in all human services fields) who behave inethically, illegally, commit abuses, and are dangerous to the people they work with (this is not unique to psychiatric counseling, but it is especially awful when it occurs with anybody working with vulnerable populations...doctors, teachers, those working with developmentally disabled, foster care, mental health workers, etc.). But they are the exceptions, by far, and not the rule.
7.Practicing in mental health can be risky to one's own mental health. Treating numerous patients with severe conditions can be stressful, demoralizing, frightening, and depressing. Vicarious trauma and emotional burnout are true risks for those working in the psych community. Recall that mental health professionals work with clients at times who are particularly stressful to work with (think pedophiles, those in the prison system, addicts who have harmed themselves and others, sex offenders, etc.) You can only counsel so many people with severe issues before it takes a toll, particularly if you don't have appropriate self-care outlets. It is emotionally difficult work...imagine losing a patient you have known for a long time to suicide. The work also comes with the same professional stresses as other managed care, to boot. In many practices, those who do counseling are required to do their own check-ins for how they are managing the stresses unique to the job.
Last edited by TabulaRasa; 09-18-2018 at 06:11 AM..
I wouldn't say that most psychs are nuts. If anything, they're very shrewd and sneaky. And therein lies the rub. Many of them go into the profession with the mindset: "I love poking at my client's emotional buttons and seeing their reactions, and it's really fun to dangle answers to their problems just out of their reach and watch the frustrated look on their faces, and gaslighting them gives me a cheap thrill. Sometimes I love to play mind games with them, like ask them about their feelings, then accuse them of lying when they pour their soul out to me. Or ask them rhetorical questions, like how being misteated made them feel, just to annoy them. And if they call me out on my BS, I call them 'resistant', make them look bad, and regain the upper hand."
If I could run America like a dictator, I'd put talk therapists into the same category as aura analyzers and chakra readers. That is, fun to see when you got time and money to waste, but overpriced, unhelpful charlatans when it comes to actually solving your problems. They have no business being within 100 feet of a vulnerable person.
Last edited by MillennialUrbanist; 09-18-2018 at 07:06 AM..
I don't think they're nuts, but I think they're trained with a unique set of skills that can make them difficult to live with. And, often enough, their spouse says, "Enough." Unless said spouse is truly truly vulnerable, they recognize when they're being played or manipulated. Most people do on a long enough time scale. I forgot where I heard it, but someone said it can be just as frustrating living with a Ghandi as a Stalin.
If your boss yells and stamps his feet every day, you shrug it off. If its a really rare occurrence, you pay attention, no?
I don't attribute anything to the garden variety undergrad Psychology major looking for cures or answers, anymore than I would think an Econ major wants to run the federal reserve.
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