hello friends my name is Youhjung and it took about eight years for me to become an art
therapist and I'm gonna share the reasons why I don't regret going into
this field and doing this work. So keep watching until the end to find out why
and I also will be mentioning a free resource that you can use if you are
interested in becoming an art therapist in the future, or you are becoming one
right now and you want more information and help.
So first let me break down the about time that took for me to become an art
therapist. So it was about eight years in total starting from my undergraduate
years - so four years for undergraduate. So I got a bachelor's in art and in
psychology and then I did two years in grad school for my master's in art
therapy and then it took about one and about two years to become certified - so
"board certified" as an art therapist so each and every art therapist and their
journey to become an art therapist is very different. So my the amount of time
that I took to become an art therapist it's quite on the quick side because
some people they decide later on in their career or in your life to pursue
art therapy, so in that case it can be more time consuming and also getting
your board certification is really dependent on your jobs that you get
after you graduate. So these are the reasons why I don't regret my decision
getting into this field so first of all it was a lot of time and investment as
you can tell by the amount of years it took for me to become one, but I do feel that
I am very happy and where I am I am very happy with the kind of work that I'm
doing right now and I'm so grateful for this opportunity to contribute to this
field and contribute to art therapy and help people with it
and the one thing that I'm really grateful for is the fact that this
career field and this work requires so much investment and commitment it really
helped me to become more serious about the work that I'm doing and
about my choices in life and it really pushed me to find more
clarity and what I really wanted in life and what I really wanted in my career
and work and impact that I want to have this world so the fact that this is a kind of
difficult field and the fact that it requires a lot of me actually helps me
become more focused and become more clear about what I wanted and become
clear about my purpose and the second thing that I'm really grateful for - for
doing this kind of work and becoming an art therapist is that I have learned something very special
and for me I think that art therapy is not a common thing and a lot of people
do not know about this kind of work and the power it has and so to me being able
to learn this and have the opportunity to do this kind of work is very special
and my personal value in life is education and learning so I believe that
I am learning until the moment I die my whole life is about learning and that's
a very important part of my life and I do think that pursuing art therapy and
this career gave me the opportunity to learn something really special that not
a lot of people know about so I feel very grateful for this opportunity to
know the know these things and be able to carry that until much later in life
so I will have this kind of learning with me throughout my whole life which
nobody can take away so this is something that I really value and I'm
very grateful for and another thing that I'm really grateful for and I feel like
it's a very huge plus for my life is the fact that
this career this being an art therapist really helped me to be more confident so
as much as this field is not recognized or as much as it is not commonly known
or acknowledged I feel that because of that sort of a disadvantage of this
field I feel that really helped me to actually own what I learned, to own art
therapy and my knowledge and actually believe in it and be confident in it and
trust it even if nobody else would do that. So it helped me to feel more
confident and grow my confidence as I went.
If this career field was just common and everybody acknowledged its worth and it was
so in demand, then I don't think I would have challenged my confidence in that
way like it has made do. So this is something that I'm really grateful for
And another thing about this career is that it helped me to continue and keep
making art for myself so I knew from a long time ago it was very little that
art was therapeutic and it was something special for me so I that's why I studied
studio art in college but actually going into art therapy and learning about the
therapeutic benefits of how it is therapy really helped me to understand
why art making is a necessity and not a luxury in life. Or not just an additional
bonus. I think that art is a necessity for everybody and creative
expression is of necessity for our souls, for our spirits, for our emotional
well-being. So this is a lesson that I learned through doing art therapy with
other people and being trained in this kind of work and so it really helped me
to keep continuing to make art and that has been a very important aspect also I
think that being an art therapist and getting into this field helped me break
out of my mold - so before in the past when I made art it was a little bit
limiting for me. So I had a tendency to be very perfectionistic and very
realistic and kind of limited in my expression in art. And I wanted to do
things that were more free and expressive and just more liberating but
I wasn't able to do that because I had this kind of perfectionistic side to
me and through doing art therapy I learned that it's not really about the
results and it's not about getting things perfect and so it really helped
me to let go of those pressures and let go of the need to be perfectionistic and
really rather focus on the process of making art and expressing emotions in a
very more direct way so I got to really appreciate all kinds of art even more
than before and I was able to really branch out in my expression in art and
be able to do abstract art, to be able to do very expressive art, and able to
really get to the feelings - get to my inner self through art. So I really
learned what it's like to express my feeling
in a very direct way and basically it kind of changed the way I approach art
and the way I see art and appreciate art. So I think that whatever challenge or
difficulty that we come across in life is kind of put there for a reason and
it will always be a challenge and difficulty and it will remain a source
of stress and regret and a grudge if we don't overcome that difficulty or
challenge and if we don't see the gift in that difficulty or pain or stress so
whatever we overcome I think it becomes our gift and our strength
it makes us the person that we are today I love the phrase that my favorite
teacher Thich Nhat Hanh always says, which is: "No mud, no lotus" - it just means that
without the muddiness and without the dark parts and the difficult parts we
don't get the bright parts, the light parts, the positive side of things, so I
believe that all careers have its own kind of disadvantages or challenges or
difficulties but it's just whether you can handle them and whether you can get
through them and overcome them and turn that into a gift in a way turn that into
a strength of your own. So there are some reasons why some people might regret
getting into this career and becoming in our therapists and so some of the
reasons can be if they give up pretty early, and if they
don't learn what they need to learn in that process of becoming an art therapist,
and also if they limit themselves and they only see one way of doing things.
Because art therapy is a pretty new field I feel like there are so many
different kinds of opportunities that you can make and just kind of different
ways to create your own kind of career. I think that if you just only see one way
to do this work that's a huge limitation that you're putting on yourself so that
may be one reason that someone might regret getting into this career. I think that
anything in life can be made a plus and this includes this career and becoming
an art therapist. Of course this career does require a lot
of investment in beginning and commitment so I do think that it is
important to know what this process looks like and what that path looks like
to become an art therapist and what happens when you become an art therapist. So I do
recommend knowing the most that you can know right now and then be very
persistent afterwards when you have decided to become an art therapist and
being really open minded and see things not as a stopping point in your path but
just as a hurdle that you just have to overcome in your path. So if you wanted
to actually become an art therapist or if you're really interested in this path
I do have a live workshop that I'm going to do online very soon it's going to be
on November 13 and I have a little sign-up for that webinar in the description
box below so you can sign up until that day. So I hope that I can see you
in that live webinar. So that's it for today's video. Thank you so much for
watching and if you enjoyed this make sure to like this video and subscribe to
my channel and hit the notification bell so that you get notified when the next
video comes out each week. So thank you so much see you next time. Bye!