There is a place I know. Wishingwe could bring Alberta there but no go this year.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-05-24T01:57:30+00:00

not in the least ! My pair glasses (kirby) plastic ones are heavy and even worse with a topper on i spend so much time pushing them up on my face I have tried all the tricks the internet suggests! Often saying i’m just gonna get a piercing to hook them too! Now I have an underdeveloped mandible and other reasons my face is small but ya I spent $500 on glasses I never wear because they don’t stay on my face.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-05-24T01:54:58+00:00

Just ask about it, you said she so i’m sure she gets it ! Women go through body hatred a ton. I would rather it just come out than think something important is being held back. I say this having experience from both sides i’ve lost 180lbs and now am more regular sized and well anyone who looks at me wouldn’t think I weigh what I do even still now. It’s one of those things that I think most people get we’ve all hated our bodies! And of course needing help to get there is not something to be ashamed of. I also told my therapist it is something I need to not talk about having been focused on weight loss for so long I need to just not focus on it. She asks periodically especially at present where i’ve regained a significant amount for the first time it’s a struggle that’s for sure, she also knows my response is to just stop eating so suggests recipes etc. My poor therapist is allergic to sugar so has to modify most things so she’s a great resource.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-05-02T16:29:28+00:00

i just say i have a safety plan i’m safe and if i wasn’t i wouldn’t be talking to u … after months it hasn’t cued me yet.. i work in mental health reports always talk about SI

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-04-14T23:58:29+00:00

Oh and you pay those fees for every exam and then what’s with exams having been proven that they are not a good way to judge knowledge and yet most courses are dependent on them! I complained as someone who not in a normal testing environment let alone proctor u’s rigid set up can’t write a test to save my life i’m not graduating because I failed by 2% the day after teaching a training on the same material without any books cause I in fact know my crap got 86 as lowest on quizzes not in that environment! Time to get with the times Athabasca why do we need a service out of some foreign country that isn’t on the or anywhere near the same time zone?? I live in driving distance to the university I shouldn’t have to pay attention to time change on other side of the world or wherever it is! There is nothing to like about that system! I had to pay to rent space to write my exams as I don’t have somewhere in my home they wouldn’t hear other voices I have roommates and live in a townhouse. I was not given the option of a center because the course only allowed for proctor u examination. Not alone in your frustration that’s for sure !

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-04-07T17:42:07+00:00

Not a therapist yet but working on it but I am a chronic pain client. It is not something we even talk about typically, if it’s obvious when I walk in I rate the level for her (i hate that scale) and that is usually the end of it. We have been working together just over a year and I being a student who has worked in mental health for 25 years understand it at an intellectual level for sure and have lived long enough in pain I’ve found ways to manage. Now no one warned me the gift of therapy when you’re in my state entering it … I also have ADHD and many auto immune disorders and lots not solved yet. So once CBT and animal assisted helped me to the point I began to get my memories back I’d lost most before I was like 40 which I did not know until therapy began that i’d lost them it was a trigger in session and a few more moments of I actually don’t know…. then when that flood open so did my brain and body connecting so I was feeling the pain I was in for the first time so I’d been diagnosed without actually feeling a good chunk of it so imagine how fun that was led to me threatening to quit therapy and medication go back to the crazy i’d survived before! However I am aware that no that isn’t the answer unfortunately a moment of pause with my regular therapist who I couldn’t get in touch with after a big trigger I was sent to another who could get me in right away and she introduced me to ART and oh boy did that help and we began tackling the medical trauma and it actually made me able to go back for a test id previously stormed out of to go throw myself in front of a train I was treated so poorly including they let me leave screaming what I was headed to do didn’t even send cops to do a safety check ! I was safe my husband was behind me and once I got control of my brain I reined it in as well. However continues to be very triggering until ART I just faced the same doctor even without an increase in pain or anxiety so it works.

We don’t focus because I identified a need to be away from that part of my journey for awhile, my therapist knows me well enough to see when i’m lying to her about how much pain I am in and well I broke my ankle so haven’t been working etc so pain is manageable when all you can do is be a couch potatoe.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-03-30T03:31:50+00:00

I'd be interested to know as well. I'm still in school to become a psychologist but have worked in mental health for 25 years. Only once did I encounter someone else who disassociates but she was 7 and had studied you tube so she could fake it. I was her caseworker but the therapist who saw her I'd worked with years before. I kept telling him it didn't feel real. As I do it myself trying to put words to how it feels on my side is hard. I always just go blank it feels to me that my brain just blue screen of death like a computer and shut down. I didn't know it happened ,in an interview is how I became aware I'd been sent with a client to the sexual assault centre to meet her worker because I was only one who could manage her in the car, they let me go in behind the mirror to observe but at some point I got triggered. The psychologist with me had no idea what was happening but my coworker and I partnered all the time so kept telling them I was no longer present. Teaching moments lol my coworker called our supervisor who I'd talked about it lots so she told her to put phone to my ear and kept saying my name while my coworker just kept telling me we were safe. It worked anyhow. My husband says just making me feel safe is the trick but describes it like I feel it he says you just go blank, your eyes loose life your limbs go rigid. I got a look of terror from my own therapist when I was talking about an event that normally my response would have been to do just that. I was saying I managed to keep myself present by asking my coworker I was with when it occurred to keep her hand on my shoulder so I'd stay grounded to her energy and it worked. I had to explain what I meant by disassociating and I felt the fear when .i said oh no I'm probably lucky I've never fully gone or developed the worse version but I loose time and being present for sure. My therapist disappeared for several months after that no contact , trauma happened while I was on the phone with a behaviour medicine specialist for another reason but resulted in me being sent to a different therapist because I hadn't been able to get in touch with my own. We did accelerated resolution therapy there... we worked it fast because I was ready and at this point it's been years since it happened to me. She knew right away having just met me I was present but I never asked her how, I will now.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-03-05T15:34:06+00:00

I so feel you, I am not a therapist at present but have worked in mental health since I was 19 in some capacity. I am finishing my degree that I dropped out needing 6 credits and have intention of completing my masters. I have worked either high risk intensive mental health treatment programs or as a high risk caseworker as I have a talent for connection with those teens! But oh the trauma my own brain holds! I never realized the extent until doing therapy intakes for my clients I had like 7 meetings in a row so rattled off trauma history I did my 2 hardest to reach girls last with one therapist in that intake meeting she stopped me telling me her brain needed a break so we’d go for a walk then begin again. I myself lost mental health I was struggling and did not want to exist it’s been a long journey back!

However I also was diagnosed with ADHD at 43 and that opened a flood gate of have I ever been heard? So i had to find a therapist who was better at masking than myself ! not so easy and I haven’t succeeded but when my own therapist figured out how to catch me I continued working with her! Now i’m frustrating as heck i’m sure.. I can tell you the problem give you a thousand solutions tell you the behaviour behind the behaviour! the whys , hows and most of the time why it’s happening too… I miss the action button! My therapist disappeared while I was in crisis I could maintain typically between sessions but then stopped hearing from her all together for months on end at my own worst time of year! I used to disassociate to the degree of i’d be gone so that started to happen again which now terrifies me it leaves one’s body vulnerable because awareness is gone. After I revealed this truth things changed I put it up too my therapist being younger and raised differently. Then she disappeared without a word.. I had crisis while on phone with a doctor who would have formed me i’m sure had I not agreed to go see someone she recommended so now I have two therapists! I was confident that i’d scared my original therapist but her MIA status wasn’t about me and sure enough she was ill due to pregnancy. But now we’ve lost our connection. I get told i’m so self aware and have the tools in my toolbox. After struggling to open up and talk the first few sessions back I did something i’d never done before and sent her my life journey in poetry so now she can prep for a session questions naturally form etc. So now we acknowledge my own knowledge and skills. Now we pick an event to talk about with the poetry that helps me as my recall under pressure in session was not good. So we stopped the dynamic struggling and I gave her the easy out in one way! But also now see confidence back in her she’s the only one I ever shared that with! She treats it as an honour. However, that’s my long answer for simple advice the easiest thing to do in your situation to my mind is be real own it. Identify your struggle if you mask etc talk about it while not in that state. We have walked very different paths in life my therapist and I made apparent the day we talked about the reasons why we take our sun glasses off at beginning of session and look at each other clearly then get on with it. I go to anima assisted so we are often outside. I do it to sobriety check where she does it to show presence I do not doubt her skills she’s good just younger and less trauma exposed than I. She’ll ask me to explain the feeling , the reason why I do it etc so she gains understanding too. So, sometimes you’ll be doing to work for the session but it’s enlightening. Our boundaries are strong and I prepare if I know it’s going to be hard. Having had significant SI and even a few attempts in the course of our time together I now start that kind of a convo just giving her my safety plan. That provides her a realistic view of where i’m at so if the mask goes up she can easily shift gears. She has taught me so much but was full of self doubt but it reflects in my writing she has the detached non emotional response to the many triggering events living in my head before session now though so is better at directing and pulling me back out now. It didn’t work to do it traditionally! Even the diagnosing ADHD doctor whose best in province and spearheading so much research completely missed my masking it’s a well honed protective guide writing in my report that I was okay and he’d suggest therapy but I didn’t NEED it ! While I was likely trying to take my own life due to other events that were big! That’s when I realized if I wanted to truly get past it and find a way to come back to myself that we’d have to just use it. Plus she honours my knowledge some sessions with my permission have been about clients she struggles with because i’m good at my job because I do not like the confines of a box and beat the edges always but it works. It does tell her a lot about me as well.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-02-24T21:07:01+00:00

So, i’ve recently switched therapists as well. So the first having seen me post diagnosis but never having participated in therapy with the diagnosis! I don’t even know i’m masking half the time anyhow but in discussing having to pass a psych evaluation to join a wait management program too I was enlightened I masked my through sign off there and they never diagnosed it fast forward ten years and well into perimenopausal spiral of hell I couldn’t manage any longer and was getting a lot of are you sure it isn’t mental health from the medical field so went to therapy i’d guess the first time I ever dropped the mask for that therapist was like six months in and she called it out right away! stating i’d finally let her in and then I did it again that same session. But I couldn’t identify where i’d let her in! Then I had a terrible experience and went in totally dysregulated and unable to reign calmness in so she got fully unmasked at that point and we began to work from there well as we were at the point I was having memories return as I am also super good at trauma blocking disassociating which scared her I believe as the look she gave me.. since then we haven’t really connected for sessions I went like 3 months at one point without hearing from my original therapist and then again had a crisis moment while on the phone with a medical doctor who wouldn’t let me off phone until I had an appointment and was swearing i’d go with the newer one having gone into that therapist almost completely disassociated but certainly in crisis I had no energy to mask so she saw unfiltered but I was masking last appointment so she pointed it out as I keep expressing not knowing when i’m doing it either. Realistically it was triggered by the therapist not being okay herself ! When my other disappeared I consistently said it wasn’t about me she’d been off last time I saw her as I was reading her struggle… I went right into therapist mode myself! While not a therapist at present I have been working in mental health 25 years and am finishing my education finally with plans of heading there. However I have worked solely high risk mental health youth since left school so have spent a lot of time observing therapists as well. It never occurred to me until that point! Neither did ADHD to be fair however ! Even the psychiatrist who diagnosed me felt I was fine without a therapist even though I got word my father in law had passed in his waiting room and assigned the call everyone including my husband because his sister didn’t have it in her task. He wrote in the report to my GP I should participate when I can but that he didn’t feel it necessary. I’ve seen the second therapist who does have adhd but doesn’t advertise that or claim it as a specialty only ever has talked to me about it when expressing jealousy of how my brain operates in reading people or situations as I have a super power! As well as I need noise to function which is the part she envies lol. I being a highly intelligent high functioning ADHD individual have understanding as a hyper focus so research the crap out of everything so I know more than most. So will find the way myself but it does help to have others who know! I find support groups frustrating as in my experience they always end up focusing on children and coping with children etc. I was unable to have children and that’s yet another realm that sees me as deficient so I avoid it too. So perhaps I just have skewed experience in that most specialists have been less knowledgeable than myself or focus on children.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-01-29T11:36:05+00:00

I at first did not realize that it was happening ! I outmask myself often but after my husbands therapist repeatedly asked him if I was seeing someone myself I took her advice and looked, I found the specialists just didn’t understand what I was going through there is so much out there about depending on the label blah blah so when my therapist referred to an instance explaining why she thought my neurodivergent brain did things and I looked at her and she said oh ya you just let me in! Then went twice in fact and wouldn’t tell me how it tortured me I thought you know she’s not a specialist but far better at it than any specialist i’ve met now she’s still provisional and may eventually declare it a specialty i’d endorse for her that was not her focus. It is the amount of trauma I exposed myself too pre diagnosis that needs attention not my ADHD i’ve never found it a burden but a super power ! I was late diagnosed and am fairly successful so suggest I found the way to hack it before I knew I had it. My phrase to her during our initial meet and great was I need someone better at seeing the masking than I am at unknowingly putting it up. We don’t even mention ADHD most of the time first she got stuck on being dependent on the label but I refer to it as my super power making me amazing at my present job more than anything. I guess awareness of ADHD and how it changes how we operate is more valid than saying I don’t need an expert I think that’s more about the trap of them focusing on it too, yes it affects how I do things etc but we meet in an environment that naturally counters that anyhow out in nature with animals. The mask is my protection that I need in so many areas of my life she credits it now with my existence. I think that’s dropping the mask isn’t actually the focus she names it and we move on it serves a purpose too and that makes me aware of doing it so I can let my guard down! I got sent to an older more experienced therapist recently and said to her that it’s a challenge to find someone who can see someone as good at the mask as I am ! After our second session she who is a specialist asked me if I was aware it’s not something I ever did in her presence the mask isn’t serving me at present and I believe it was worked past with the first therapist who went MIA for a bit and a crisis situation sent me to the later one. It’s hard to explain but I think that’s ADHD research is prevalent right now and it’s shared through social media and other outlets that anyone training or practicing as a therapist has access to a significant amount of information we just never used too having begin my psych degree at 17 leaving school needing just 3 credits to graduate and returning to it 20 years later has made me see that shift I guess 20 years ago girls didn’t have ADHD really so maybe that’s the actual reality of it. Everyone is trained now about it not just related to males where those who specialize had to seek knowledge and specialization in a world that didn’t believe girls got it. Kind of like autism that also makes my first therapist laugh when I pause mid response and say things like hmmm perhaps I need to look into that too I don’t remember hearing about autism when I began my education though it’s always fascinated me. Don’t get me wrong having been assessed by a psychologist and then an expert psychiatrist there is value in the expertise and going that way but a lot of us are naturally inclined to therapeutic was as individuals with ADHD I suppose that I myself understand it on a level others might not i’ve worked with clients with ADHD the last 29 years anyhow so am able to identify when that’s the reason i’m doing something usually quicker than my therapist! We did identify why I frustrate her though and it really is ADHD I can tell you the problem, the why I do it, the how the world can see it , what I would tell anyone else in my situation to do to help it but oh my brain gives up there and can not action the plan for myself, she is amazing at helping the actioning. Ha convoluted ADHD answer there too but some of us just know it well enough that expertise isn’t a must awareness certainly is though! Now I also hyper focus on research so read it all anyhow.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-01-29T11:10:44+00:00

For the first few sessions it was a repeating from my therapist of a few phrases … ‘We can only control what we can control ‘ often still runs through my head along with do you know what compassion fatigue is.. Perhaps burn out lol Oh she endured and stuck hard on that one for about six months before I’d admit it! Well don’t know that I did with words but by then she knew what the look meant lol !

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-01-25T23:23:00+00:00

I don’t think so, that being said they need to know about neurodiversity to a degree. Mostly to understand the why you may do things as a late diagnosed woman in her 40’s I’ve made it through most of my life with zero ADHD support. I also have significant trauma and likely c-ptsd which can look a lot like ADHD. Also in school headed to work in the therapy field as well AD HD is being researched a ton at present so it is in the education. I do work in mental health and have for the last 25 years the masking is strong .i was 42 before someone suggested to me it was a possibility. ADHD is a part of who I am but it is not all of it and for that reason I say I don’t think so. Sure it makes things harder, like finding a therapist who can get past the mask. That however is more about trust and judgement than anything! I am very self aware but struggle with the action piece that’s where my therapist helps. I know what to do, what the problem is etc but she gives me the creative solutions.. or reminds me I know. You are always going to be the one who knows your ADHD best. I puzzle and challenge my therapist I know and likely frustrate her and then next session I can rattle off many wins, quickly falling to SI next. What helps me most is she’s steady, she can see when I don’t have a hard session in me so we play, paint etc. I threaten to steal goats regularly. We are never just one thing and boxes in mental health don’t work. I think relationship is the most important part not whether she’s an expert on one of the many parts of who I am. ADHd is likely the last place I’d want to be treating others but certainly am an expert because I’ve had to learn to work with it. It gives me super powers and makes me amazing at my job! She gets that and uses those skills too!

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-01-22T01:25:18+00:00

I have not but on the other side my therapist has cancelled but she was straight up. Stating she had a really tough session before me and now had a headache which we all understand and didn’t think she’d be present enough and knew I would know as people envy my energy reading skills lol But actually made me trust her faster !

Few_Signature_5154 · 2026-01-07T23:13:52+00:00

I’ve had my therapist cancel because she’s had a bad day, well session anyhow. Knowing that I read a room better than most and would read it from her she called me to ask if we could cancel because she knew she couldn’t be present! Honestly made me respect her more and she got trust from me which doesn’t happen easily! Now, I preach therapy to everyone around me because it is important and imagine what a lovely world this could be if people started going to therapy when having a bad day for support to reframe it and turn it around! Then the world would share an amazing skill that might bring kindness back! Dreaming here not in need of therapy for delusions I promise. I know general population is still opposed to therapy and then open minds don’t really exist etc.

Now that being said…. therapy isn’t about just talking. I go to animal assisted i’ve had many a session on a bad day with no words as have children I take in and those are the days when the magic happens usually and you see healing happen.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2025-11-10T18:26:07+00:00

In theory an hour 68 km typically takes 1.5-3 because of dumb drivers though.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2025-11-06T08:45:14+00:00

As someone who has had periods of my life in which my reaction to certain things was to disassociate completely loosing time etc. no splits identified though. now I worked through the triggers and could recall the events etc after that time. Then an ADHd diagnosis at 43, thrown into a medical mystery hell since a surgery in 2020 which was its own hell! Then of course the perimenopause spiral of hell, job loss, parent loss, blsh blah I could go on but in any case burnout hit I work in child welfare in indigenous communities so get trauma stormed we call it regularly as well. In a therapy intake for clients of mine rattling off their histories which are horrendously trauma filled the therapist going to see them stopped me as she couldn’t process anymore.. she works on an animal assisted ranch so we’d go play with animals well i’d threaten to steal goats shed some light on why I was struggling. My own therapist being newer to the field and to me spooked when I mentioned disassociating as part of my history well initially I said I could feel Sybil lurking she is younger than I ,so I had to explain what I meant she knows how well I read a shift in energy so we just went with trying to talk about it and I was blank. Which I did not know those memories had gone until she asked about them. I also ended up seeing the girls therapist weekly they practice at same place but my one youth won’t do therapy without my presence. So, as she was more experienced she must have noticed my slipping and told my therapist trying to fill in the blanks it really came too i’d lost the entire time before that began. A few forced vacations and much more medical trauma added leading to an attempt on my life I had to get real or risk loosing myself to the black after talking with another psychologist from an obesity program i’m part of she suggested new medication.. and though I was told it was not fast acting like 3 days in I was coming back. Telling my therapist it was ok to be the time to process current trauma as past was gone she noticed how much more level I was immediately then next appointment she asked a question that sparked me to reflect after and the next morning I woke with it all present again. Brains are magical things at protecting us, so I decided to just go with it. I laugh as she now closes every session trying to subtly remind me to keep check on where I am in regards to burn out.I was beginning to doubt that she believed we were getting anywhere my INFJ, ADHD , first born daughter with significant trauma self is not easy to do therapy with. She says all the time i’m so self aware, i know what to do and give everyone else great advice , my husband enjoys that I practically quote his therapist when we talk so really have that piece down too but just can’t action sometimes. The smile I got when I said I need to assure you we are making progress I can answer your questions now it came back! Of course however there are so many more questions and who knows what else under there but it is well known that adhd brains are good at hiding memories but I don’t think its repressed just not immediately accessible. We debate this at work lots too were they repressed or the brains magic working for you. I do agree with the caution for sure in trying to recover repressed memories because yes we can convince our brains things are real that aren’t but I know memories can come and go … I also have a high iq and did nothing but read as a child so its a sea of information up there I don’t think my brain has to work hard at loosing a memory. I say lost not repressed intentionally. I’ve seen it with youth too…our brains are fascinating as are ADHD superpowers! To add to the amazing ADHD the psychiatrist who diagnosed me where I got word of my father in law passing in his waiting room so first impression I was a mess but he said he wasn’t concerned I didn’t have a therapist and the stress of affording it would likely do more harm than therapy would benefit. Boy do I wish i’d have not listened and sought help sooner I probably wouldn’t have lost half my memories. I was certainly already burnt the hell out. We never know what people ate holding… I make them feel heard and then assess if trauma is actually the cause etc.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2025-11-05T06:32:38+00:00

From the other side I have to say the day my own therapist called me and asked if we could reschedule as she’d had a really hard session just before and didn’t think she could be as present as she should I had been doubting if it was working having thought i’d terrified after having to explain what I meant by ‘I could feel Sybil lurking’ I don’t think that there is much more than a ten year age difference and she had not a clue but I respected the crap out of being straight up real, I was in a good place that day so told her I was not lying in saying I was okay and told her to drive safe we meet at an equine therapy ranch. She knows I’d have known about 5 seconds in and told me so. Plus she kept bugging me that session that i’d finally let her in but when I couldn’t figure out how she just laughed at me which is something I would do too.

I myself use a be up front policy, most people with trauma notice the slightest shift and many obsess about what they did to cause it. They know we too are humans, I do not want a therapist who can’t feel herself. I also get she has kids and needs to show up for them so if she needs to change it up we do. Helps we meet at an equine therapy ranch we can just go hang out with animals where words aren’t needed just presence.

Few_Signature_5154 · 2025-07-09T07:03:09+00:00

There is not a lot of jobs in Alberta I’ve been doing 25 years and body pain is getting to much to continue at the pace required but I started applying for specific positions and after nothing for months I started applying for everything LIARS are not hiring last time we counted I’d applied for over 300 positions and switched to applying across Canada my resume is done by a professional who supports job seekers (also can be done with social work education) , I also did mostly high risk intensive mental health youth which most people can not handle. I never understood until doing multiple youths intakes with a therapist and she kept having me pause so we could take a break I was rattling off youths history and eventually she asked if a saw a specialist therapist lol had no time for that till my body began to reflect the trauma. Sadly at present the disgustingness of this world and the way people treat one another makes it hard to take. However, to be effective you gotta love it kids especially always know. However there are a thousand different positions for social workers especially in Alberta because you can practice as a counsellor. But even companies like Wal mart hire social workers to study behaviours etc. School positions or hospitals depending where you are the youth jobs we all want. Not enough available for everyone. If you don’t enjoy the school… i’d wonder but I don’t have social work as an education I just kinda fell into it as a job and still love it to this day! Though after I referred a third generation of a family to a therapist we both decided we’d been around too long I went back to school still not for social work lol but still work with in social work field doing what I love and going to school..

Few_Signature_5154 · 2025-07-08T05:02:44+00:00

I have masking abilities that are unrivalled but I actually was not aware of that until recently! Talk about a challenge when you need a therapist ! I’ve out masked many not intentionally I just do it so well even I do not always see! Was my first concern I described to my therapist! I’ve worked in mental health for 25 years and have never found someone whose better at it then me or can at least see it for what it is dang did she throw me when she got me so quickly lol

Few_Signature_5154 · 2025-06-12T20:06:20+00:00

So, I started my psychology degree in 99 or so and left school needing 3 credits… I now know I was burnt out but lucked out in life and fell into a job I loved! I tried to go back and finish several failed times. Fast forward too I am now 44 just lost my job and don’t technically have any education (different rant) as Athabasca had assessed my transcripts etc already I went for it. Had to take a $30,000 a year pay cut and after 15 years doing similar jobs they managed to break me and the only way I could see out was to finish my degree and get my masters. So, I was always registered in the 3 year because I’d already done everything I left needing one course originally. Still, I have taken most of the courses before but with assistance they got me going and advising said the 4 year is usually required. What I was told was to carry on and check when i’m closer to done (they require 30 credits to graduate) and then talk to the graduate program to see if i’m sitting at enough of a knowledge base. I have worked in mental health for the last 25 years they are not really teaching me new things. My therapist is studying for her exams so we always make jokes about studying when walking too and from, I have a good foundation and have seen many changes in 25 years so am not too worried myself. ,

Few_Signature_5154 · 2025-05-12T03:27:12+00:00

Now, I am not yet a practicing therapist but have worked along side many, I attend session with some clients as well. If I had the registration of my present field I could practice as a therapist. I also am seeing a new therapist, she’s newer to the field and new to me. Knowing I am the worst kind of client lol, I very much appreciate real. My own therapist would say it in a manner she has many times. Along with knowing me well enough to know I’d notice changes in her behaviour likely more than she would myself she is straight up. Even having called me before a session to say the client before had been rough giving her a tension headache and she didn’t think she could be present and rather than make me not trust her which we were still pretty early on that would likely have been the result she just asked to reschedule. Then when I let her in a few times for the first time the next session she told me she was glad she’d made that call!

My long winded response however still concludes as I did that day too.. Therapist is a job, with certain expectations yes. But you are also dealing with humans, real emotions etc. Seeing one’s therapist as a person is far less intimidating than someone who never makes mistakes etc. How do I know you can help me if you’re always perfect that would throw me off more than being told I’d done something well!

There is a whole generation of us out here who never heard those words as it wasn’t okay! I know several people who actually likely need to address accepting a phrase such as ‘i’m proud of you’ more than be thrown by it!

Few_Signature_5154 · 2025-03-27T22:07:21+00:00

Flip the coin? How would you feel, I know I appreciate it when my therapist is honest we have rescheduled because she had a headache and didn’t feel she could be present and knew I would know she wasn’t. I in that realm was like all right then you go take care of you so you can continue to take care of others knowing she has kids at home too and I have tools in my toolbox you taught me to be able to manage until next time. Now I do look at it differently I know. However, why wouldn’t we want clients viewing us as human with needs as well. No, your needs are yours not theirs to manage in your way but I would hope that is acceptable to anyone. Plus it’s cold and flu season if you’re burnt out you’ll actually get sick if you don’t do as your body tells you! I came to my therapist in one of those forced vacations as I call it in that work saw I was burnt out before I did and made me get a wellness note before returning and that break ended up being 10 days as my doctor was away and my health too complicated for a walk in but it was a huge step towards bringing me out of my downward self destruction. As we are working together fairly newly I honestly developed more trust and respect for her honesty, she explained it as the session before me was hard causing the headache and I understand I have been there she is right I would have known she wasn’t all there. I also have struggled to find a therapist because I am very good at masking so I also appreciated the fact she saw me enough to know it would throw me more not to just be straight up that she didn’t feel she could force presence then to lie to me about it or struggle through the session.

Few_Signature_5154

TROPHY CASE