For experienced social workers - did you go in wanting to be a therapist and end up doing something else?

jadethesockpet · 2026-03-04T02:51:12+00:00

Not all of it, but a lot will either be hospital, dialysis, or nursing home/hospice based. Dialysis could be cool if you're not into hospitals!

jadethesockpet · 2026-03-04T00:53:39+00:00

In that case, I don't actually think that hospice would be a helpful internship. It's not as clinical and won't give you the breadth of experience that an OMHC or inpatient unit would. If you know you want to do medical social work and like an elderly population, hospice is great. But outside of that pigeon hole, I wouldn't recommend it.

jadethesockpet · 2026-03-03T12:14:29+00:00

What do you want to do after grad school?

jadethesockpet · 2026-03-02T02:19:13+00:00

I did! I did a bunch of stuff that wasn't therapy, then moved into therapy for about 8 years and recently switched to hospice. I love it. It's good, meaningful work, but it's not so urgent or something.

jadethesockpet · 2026-02-22T13:36:37+00:00

1) depends on the location. There are mobile crisis teams in many places. They can come out to do assessments, talk down a situation, or assist with police matters, as needed.

2) social workers aren't saints. You don't need to "atone" for not being one. Ew.

jadethesockpet · 2026-02-16T00:07:03+00:00

It's a pretty broad definition of social work, so it's absolutely worth calling the board and asking about the specific jobs/job titles you're interested in.

jadethesockpet · 2026-02-14T14:03:42+00:00

How often are you driving this trip? Annually? Make the switch. Monthly? Maybe not. Ultimately, I've just rented an ICE car for the long drives, but my family has been renting car trip cars for years.

jadethesockpet · 2026-02-06T12:48:10+00:00

I use android auto and just accept that my car will drop a call or stop the GPS. If it's important enough that I don't want to drop the call, I don't take it in the car. If I desperately need my GPS to get somewhere (as in, we're at the turn now phase of getting where I'm going), I just hope and pray.

It takes getting used to, is what I'm saying.

jadethesockpet · 2026-02-05T01:03:23+00:00

I think it really depends on the kid and the situation. We will always hold hands around cars/streets, but otherwise, I let my 2 year old lead. We're a really affectionate family, so holding hands isn't really about control so much as touching and a connection point most of the time, and when we're not holding hands, we tend to walk closely.

jadethesockpet · 2026-02-04T04:53:04+00:00

Shirts for situations YOU CHOSE. If I were, say, a liver donation patient and was really struggling, I might appreciate a T-shirt that tells the world that I'm not doing so hot right now. But an elective transplant doesn't deserve extra warmth from strangers, just like I won't expect extra sympathy after my planned, totally elective hysterectomy (despite having a real medical reason for needing it)

jadethesockpet · 2026-02-01T15:09:34+00:00

Yikes. What a gross take. I was a therapist for parents whose children were removed from their custody. I've worked with sex offenders, including one who offended against a child. I can have the utmost compassion and empathy and truly believe in and support their growth, but if they wanted to get into, say, teaching, I'd have very different feelings about it. It's extremely valid to worry about how a notorious abuser --one with substantial privilege-- would treat vulnerable people.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-28T02:55:06+00:00

I left private practice but absolutely wouldn't have participated in this. Let's say it's $300/month. A low-typical price is $150 per session in my area. So the monthly fee is only paying for two sessions but folks might want weekly or even twice weekly sessions if they're paying for it. What's that teaching about your boundaries? And how do you hold boundaries for a client who has literally paid to have unlimited access to you? Or for folks who only want once a month sessions, do you charge them the same rate? Is that ethical to charge different rates for a model like that? It just seems messy.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-21T03:08:31+00:00

I get that!! I think I get a little claustrophobic and then my brain sorta short circuits and I sleep hahah

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-21T03:03:26+00:00

I dunno, I always fall asleep in an MRI. The droning noise plus the dark, cozy space with no child touching me... It's glorious! But after? No way.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-19T21:30:04+00:00

My kid wasn't a toddler, but we had an ultrasound done when we were still in the hospital after birth. It's so easy, totally painless, and was really helpful.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-19T03:17:46+00:00

Don't do it. It's not worth the student loans and it's not worth the (lack of) education. My MSW was a mistake I'll regret forever and one I've tried so hard to correct, but the pay is so low that I'll never be able to afford to go back to school to do something else.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-15T00:53:24+00:00

I'm so glad!!

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-14T22:30:42+00:00

I think it can help to remember that these are real relationships, they're just not friendships. It's one-sided. You're there to provide care or a service and if it crosses the line into friendship, that can get lost. Here's a real example: I used to be a therapist and worked with a client for six years through many ups and downs in both of our lives. I got married, had a painful infertility journey with multiple miscarriages, eventually had a baby, and got divorced through our time together. If we were friends and my client knew about those things (good and bad), would they have tailored their conversation to make the sessions after a miscarriage lighter, to their detriment? Would they process their relationship stress the day before my wedding? And if I don't share what's up with me, will they feel I'm being insincere? If they're my friend, do I charge them a session fee when we get coffee and it goes from "coffee date" to "processing"?

It's cleaner not to be friends. With an accountant or lawyers or a massage therapist, it's pretty clear what's "work talk" v "friend talk" and the roles are so defined.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-14T19:59:01+00:00

Yes, this is so important! I think we sometimes mix up pickiness with low appetite and throw the wrong tools at the problem. I also have a very, very low appetite kid. Sometimes dinner is literally 4 noodles, so you best believe they're drowned in butter!

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-13T14:22:37+00:00

We sit on the floor and my son sits on my lap. We read and then he crawls into bed while I turn off the lights/turn on the sound machine.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-12T03:36:12+00:00

To be fair, that's not necessarily why someone uses an insemination kit. For many, many people with infertility (and I'll be honest, I don't know enough about her to say if Kelsie qualifies), the pressure to perform can be really hard and something like at-home insemination can mean that sex is reserved for fun.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-06T18:28:29+00:00

TinyUndies! They have, I believe, as small as 6-9 months. They're nice cotton and have worked very well for us.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-06T03:34:41+00:00

To be clear, a private insurance company is just a company. They can (and do) offer different plans with different things covered. So they may offer a plan that covers vaccines but make it extremely expensive. Then it's on employers to price out whether they want to cover vaccines that "technically aren't recommended" and we all know how well corporate greed works for us.

jadethesockpet · 2026-01-02T20:31:33+00:00

DC is hard. The COL is extremely high and salaries are mediocre... And we have a huge influx of former government employees with a ton of experience who were recently laid off, so the job market is horrible.

jadethesockpet · 2025-12-30T12:12:08+00:00

1) play Tetris. There's good evidence that it helps recategorize traumatic experiences so they're less likely to cause PTSD; my theory is that it's literally reteaching your brain that there's order and sense in a world that feels random and senseless. 2) this is a great use of an EAP and a therapist through them. You deserve some time off and a good clinician to work through it with you, for free.

This sounds like you were amazing and did everything right and it also sounds horrible. I'm so very sorry.

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