Alright, here we go.
Alright so this is gonna be
a little bit different than how we normally do things.
We're gonna go unscripted and unplanned.
Well not totally unplanned I've got my phone here
with bullet points so that we don't stray too far from the path.
You know normally when we come up with video topics we
plan them out pretty far in advance like two to three months.
And so when we came up with this title,
I was like, oh yeah no problem, we'll just like...
crank this one out and it'll be super simple.
I think that was a gunshot.
Alright no worries.
I'm here in Virginia and I'm guessing that people are...
They're doing some sort of like skeet shooting
or something like that. It's kind of a fancy place.
Anyway, we came up with this title and I was like, okay great we'll just
write the script, film it, it'll be super simple,
bing-bang-boom, we'll be done.
And here we are, it's the day before it's supposed to go up,
and, uh, I'm struggling man.
I'm just struggling with this question.
So why did I decide to become a therapist?
Not too long ago, Alie made a video all about
why she became a neuroscientist and what she loves about neuroscience.
And even though it was scripted and very planned out and...you know, written,
it still felt very honest and true and, like,
it lined up with what I saw over the years in terms of
how she evolved and sort of fit into her career.
And so I thought maybe that's what I could do you know I could
write a tight narrative that seems to flow from
point A to point B and, you know,
tie everything up in a nice little bow.
And people will comment and say like, "oh this is so beautiful and inspiring and
really makes me self-assured in my own path."
But it just didn't feel right.
It kind of felt like I was writing a bad college admission essay,
which...I mean...granted, I've written a lot of those over the years, but
it just didn't feel true to my experience.
But we have to start somewhere so I do have that sort of
short story, so to speak, and we can...I can read that off first and then we can
get into the real stuff after that.
So here it is in its narrative, tight format.
When I was young, I didn't talk very much.
In fact my parents tell me that, as a baby,
I learned a few standard words and then just
stopped talking altogether.
They were kind of worried about me because
babies should be talking a lot around this age
and so they took me around to a few different doctors and
they all said the same thing, which is..."he seems perfectly fine"
and, uh, "maybe he's just a late bloomer."
It wasn't until I was 2 years old that I started talking again,
but this time in complete sentences.
I mean obviously this totally threw my parents for a loop.
Apparently I had just been learning in the background and observing
and didn't really want to talk until I was ready
This carried on into my childhood, too.
You know, I was pretty shy and introverted as a kid, and so
I just didn't talk very much in general, but
that doesn't mean that I was withdrawn
When I was a kid, my grandfather used to say,
"you know Micah doesn't talk that much. But when he does,
sit up and listen because it's important."
And my dad, one time when we were canoeing down the Wisconsin River as a teenager,
he said, "you know I think that you're like that old saying
that still water runs deep."
I was always an observer and a listener and, looking back,
I think that, even as a middle child, I was kind of the mediator for my brothers, right?
All of this helped me develop a really deep sense of empathy, and I think
thanks to my parents example, I knew that I wanted to help people as part of my career.
During my senior year of high school I took AP Psychology
and that's where I really fell in love with the subject.
Like a lot of other people I was really interested in how the human mind works
and I was just totally enthralled and captivated by the research of
folks like Freud and Bandura and Zimbardo
and like all of these researchers who did really interesting stuff.
And when I'd express this interest to my mom or to anybody else,
they'd pretty much say the same thing, which is,
"Well, you'd be a great psychologist."
And that was it pretty much. I went to college and graduated with a major in psychology.
I went straight into my Master's program in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
and just recently I achieved my full licensure as an independent practitioner.
So things have been great.
The End.
It's a nice story, but here's the thing.
I think the reason that it feels so disingenuous or
dishonest is because it filters out
so much of the doubt and feeling of unease that I had
going through college and even all the way up to my master's program, to be honest.
In high school, I really did love AP Psychology.
But prior to that I had zero idea of what I wanted to do, what I wanted to major in.
I thought maybe chemistry because I really enjoyed chemistry
or English because I had really great teachers in that area
or even theater.
And I chose psychology because it seemed logical, I guess?
And it was the thing that I really did love.
AP Psychology was pretty impactful on me at that time.
When I got to college, I had doubts too.
My psychology program was not that great.
I mean, it taught me a lot and the material in and of itself was great, but
the program was so huge that I just didn't have any connection to my professors.
And so I felt kind of disconnected from the whole thing.
On the other hand I was also majoring in Spanish and felt
very connected to my teachers and to that program.
Through college I had
some serious doubts about whether I should keep it up.
I thought maybe I should become a sound engineer
or maybe I should go into film
or maybe, you know, change to some other major that might be more engaging.
And I didn't, partly because I knew that I loved the material.
And the other reason is because they just didn't have a film or
sound engineering major or even a minor, for that matter, at my school.
Even when I got into my master's program, it was a battle because I
got in there but then I also got a job offer to teach at my old high school.
And hesitantly, you know, I turned that down.
And I thought that maybe I was making a mistake.
And so it really wasn't until I got into my master's program
that I thought, "Wow. I actually did make the right choice."
And that's the moment that I want to focus on. it's this "Aha" moment
where things just sort of clicked
This is the moment where I decided that I really did want to be a therapist.
You know, there are a lot of things that push me down this path
even though it didn't seem clear to me at the time.
There were certain truths, in other words, that I knew about myself.
I knew that I wanted to help people and I knew that
I was interested in the human mind.
And, you know, I had these soft skills that would serve me,
in this area specifically, along the way.
But it wasn't until I got into my master's program
that I finally learned how to apply those skills in a professional setting.
It was really this "doing" side that captured me.
There's kind of a saying that I was told by -
I can't remember who told me this a while back -
that in undergrad, you learn knowledge.
In your Master's program, you apply knowledge.
And in your PhD program, your doctoral program, you create knowledge.
And I think that generally holds pretty true.
You know, Alie is in her neuroscience PhD program and she is discovering something
in her area of expertise that no one else has ever discovered before.
And for me, being in my Master's program, I learned how to
apply my knowledge in a therapeutic setting - in therapy.
I mean, don't get me wrong, I didn't stop learning after undergrad.
I learned an absolute ton in my master's program.
But being able to apply that knowledge
directly to the client that's sitting in front of you...
It's, like, unlike any other experience I've ever had.
And now I get to have that experience all the time; you know,
seeing someone change thanks to the work that you're doing with them.
There's really just no other feeling like that.
So I think that's really why I decided to become a therapist. It's because
I get a feeling of fulfillment and joy from helping other people change.
Now, if you're watching this video, there's a good chance that
you've found it through search terms because you're trying to
figure out whether or not you should become a therapist or
some sort of mental health professional.
So I'll say this. I think that
we need more mental health professionals out in the world
because there's a lot of people with mental health needs.
At the same time, I honestly do not think that everyone should become a therapist.
And here's why.
Before I started my master's program, at one point,
my mom pulled me aside and she gave me some advice or
something to think about that has stuck with me ever since then.
She said, "You know Micah,
often people who get into the helping profession
are the people who need the help most."
And I think that's pretty true.
It's something that we talked about just a ton in my Master's program.
There are a lot of people who get interested in therapy - in becoming a therapist
because of their own personal experience dealing with mental health issues.
And I think that that is really important.
I think that we need that.
At the same time, you cannot help someone else, professionally
and ethically, if you're not keeping your mental health in check.
And so I think that if you're still having a hard time dealing with your own mental health,
maybe becoming a therapist is not right for you.
Also if you want to make a lot of money, then maybe
becoming a therapist isn't the best option either.
I mean, don't get me wrong, there are some really good paying jobs out there
but the most available jobs are not that lucrative.
I actually did a video not too long ago about
you know, all these different mental health positions that are available out there.
And you can click in whatever corner it's supposed to be in
to see what the median U.S. income is for those jobs.
I think you should become a therapist if you like helping people,
if you are interested in how talk therapy can change someone's mind and help them feel better,
if you have really good boundaries,
and if money isn't everything to you.
I know that all of those things were true for me.
And I know that I didn't make these decisions strictly based on
you know, these idealistic things.
There were a lot of logical decisions being made along the way
that led me to where I am.
I know that I could've done a lot of different jobs and been happy but
I'm glad that I became a therapist, you know?
Right now I really feel fulfilled and happy with the work that I do.
And, I don't know, I kind of feel like
that's as much as you can ask for.
You know there's always gonna be ups and downs and
who knows what the future holds.
I could end up just totally changing tracks in the future
depending on life circumstances, but
I guess the moral the story is just, "everybody's winging it."
You know, even adults. Even me.
But I'm really happy where I am right now
and I can say that this was the right choice for me.
Anyway, thanks for watching. I know that this was a bit of a different video.
I appreciate you checking it out. And until next time,
I'm Micah think about it.