Hello

Hello! My name is Kriste and I just graduated with my Master's in Counseling Psychology.  I finished up my year long practicum and I am currently waiting for my Intern number.  I am kind of in limbo right now while I wait.  I work at a large psychiatric medical group here in Southern California and my boss has graciously has offered me a paid internship but I am still not completely sure what I will be doing.  My boss is very flexible so I am thinking I will be able to create an Internship that will work.  I will probably be doing a lot of case management and therapy with clients who have severe and persistent mental illness.  This will be quite different from my practicum where I worked with people who were homeless and living in transitional housing.  Their concerns were mostly social and not biological.  It will be a shift for me but I am up for the challenge.  I am very excited, anxious, and slightly terrified as I think about transitioning into this new role at my work and in my life.  I have worked at my job since 2000 doing office work.  I have done billing, accounting, provider relations, case management, front office work, you name it, I've done it.  This has given me so much experience with the business side of therapy.  I am so excited to move to the other side of the therapy room door. 

I wanted to start this blog for several reasons.  First off, writing is so therapeutic for me and I do not do nearly enough.  Honestly, I never journal or anything anymore.  I have been so busy juggling work, school, practicum and my hubby and two kids that I had very little time to do anything for myself. Totally counterproductive but its the reality of it all.  So I want to start blogging as a way to work through the issues and challenges that come up during the process of becoming an MFT.  I also wanted to do this blog as a way to hold myself accountable.  I have a strong desire to be a therapist with integrity.  I want to practice what I preach.  Hence the name of this blog. I want to "walk the therapeutic talk" I will admit that I fall short everyday.  I want to be able to ask my clients to grow and change knowing that I too am growing and changing.  I feel like this is the only way to be truly authentic.  Jeffery Kottler writes

" A therapist who is vibrant, inspirational, and charismatic; who is sincere, loving and nurturing; and who is wise, confident and self-disciplined will have a dramatic impact through the sheer force and power of her essence, regardless of her theoretical allegiances" (Kottler, 2003). 

I remember vividly when I read these words in my first semester of graduate school.  It stopped me right in my tracks.  It was so encouraging and terrifying all in one.  I was encouraged that who I was as a person is what can truly empower my clients but I was terrified that I would not live up to the person he is describing.  That person is my goal.  I am hoping that this blog will help me stay accountable to working towards this goal.  I am also hoping that it can encourage other mental health  workers to be authentic and strive to become their best self.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to this journey!!