Therapist Survival Manual
My Mission After going through my own experiences in life and attending therapy programs, I know I can help others that are going through similar issues. My mission in helping others is specific towards teens with mental health. I have always observed the people around me. How they act, what their stories are, what makes them the way the are. I find the mind to be really intriguing and how people’s environments and surroundings shape a person. I want to help others by becoming a therapist and creating my own treatment center for teens. In taking a gap year, I want to meet new people around the world and hear their stories. This year will hopefully teach me a lot. After, I will go to college and study psychology to become a therapist. Having this survival manual will allow me to look back, and have resources to achieve this life’s mission.
Lay Of The Land Overall the schooling and experience it takes to be a therapist is a lot. In becoming a therapist it takes at least four years of college, earning a bachelor's degree in Psychology and then at least two years participating in internships. In recent years, it has started to become harder to be a therapist because of the high demand for the profession. Mental health has just recently started to be taken seriously, and there is so much more awareness around it. This means, more people are finding out about it and wanting to learn more. The amount of people that want to be therapists is a lot. It has also been known that therapists do not get paid enough. The average yearly salary of a therapist is $70,580. Although therapist don’t normally go into the job looking for money, more to help people and solve problems. I admire my old therapist, TJ. His approach towards life was so different than anyone else I know. He helped me through one of the toughest times in my life when I wasn’t staying at home. Although he got frustrated with some of his students, he always chose to somehow approach the situation in a mature, calm way.
Timeline August, 2015 - Start High School June, 2019 - Graduate High School June, (2019- 2020) - Gap Year/Travel August, 2021 - Start College August, 2021 - Start a job that deals with Psychology December, 2024 - Apply for Internships May, 2024 - Graduate College July, 2024 - Start Internship July, 2026 - Therapist January, 2029 - Treatment Center for Teens
“Mapping” (2019) SC.
Resources & Materials
In order to make this mission possible I will need to save up for college. I must have a decent paying job that I am able to put savings aside for school. Once I am in college, I will need to make connections with others within the same industry. Psychology’s resources are mainly relationships between people. Having the right connections. It is also important that I have the right mindset going into it. Being a therapist can be a stressful job. Having a safe, welcoming office for clients. Once I eventually make a treatment center I will need to find the right environment for it to be in and all the logistics that go into creating one.
Non Negotiables & Back-Up Plan
In becoming a therapist, it can be a long process in both school and experience. In fact it could possibly take much longer to achieve my mission of starting a treatment center. I may end up going to college and decide it’s no longer a big passion of mine. I do for sure know that my passion towards helping others and mental health awareness will always be something I am interested in working with. I would like to start consistently volunteering and doing service working with people that are different from me. I hope to at some point do a leadership program and travel to other countries. Whether I make the decision to become a therapist after college or not I will still continue to help in other ways. I enjoy incorporating art so I would most likely do that in a way that could help others.
Inspirational Quotes
“As a therapist, I am a companion. I try to help people. Tune into their own wisdom”. -Virginia Satir “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it”. -Helen Keller “The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change”. -Garl Rogers “We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us”. -Virginia Satir “Meeting with anxiety can free us from boredom and sharpen our perception, if there is anxiety, there is life”. -Rollo May “We are our choices”. -J.P. Sartre
Works Cited “About Us - People Helping People.” Demo, www.peoplehelpingpeople.org.za/about-us. “Average Mental Health Therapist Salary.” PayScale, www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Mental_Health_Therapist/Salary.
“How to Become a Mental Health Counselor.” Online Counseling Programs, onlinecounselingprograms.com/become-a-counselor/counseling-careers/mental-health-counselor / “Solstice West | Residential Treatment Center For Teen Girls Ages 14-18.” Solstice RTC, solsticertc.com/.