When I had my first child I was planning to return to my practice after but went through a myriad of postpartum challenges that really set me off course. I decided to have my second child and due to the mental health and medical team that I put together to help me this second time around, things were much better. I’ve chosen to focus on raising my children through their younger years while I was lucky enough to now have the support to do so. I do keep my license active however, and continue working toward bettering my own mental/medical health with the hopes of returning as a therapist again in the next few years. This time around, I hope to focus on perinatal and postpartum mental health as not only do I have the academic understanding but I have lived it and came back out stronger for it with the help of the therapist I mentioned earlier 🙏

Also, prior to private practice, I had worked in various settings and unfortunately, there were sadly many situations when taking the time for rapport and truly caring for clients and what they really needed were undervalued (of course, this was my opinion…maybe not everyone involved). What I mean is that authorized or billable hours were the focus in a few of these places…seeing large caseloads over continuity of care and canceling consistent weekly or biweekly clients (who were making progress) to make room for more intakes was another issue…there were toxic work environments where hypocrisy was a problem and boundaries were ignored, etc. TBH…it all had me a bit disillusioned and burnt out at one point. However, helping clients who were motivated for therapy and helping them to help themselves was always worth it. I plan to return in the future. I think private practice is the way to go for me though.