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On Being a Therapist Part 1 – How did you get here?

By Kendra Davis

On Being a Therapist Part 1 – How did you get here?

If you had asked me when I was twelve years old what I wanted to be when I grow up, I would have said a psychologist. I connected with a school psychologist when I was in the 6th grade. Although I only saw this person a couple times, something about the experience had a lasting impact on me. Despite that early positive experience, the path to where I am now was challenging. In college I changed my major at least three times. My childhood was not easy and as a young adult I was convinced that being any kind of therapist was not my path. Taking care of people was not my path. I had no children but I had already been a parent far too long.

After struggling as a biology major, being kicked out of an acting program, taking law school exams and bombing them, I remember saying to myself and whatever higher power exists in this universe “Okay, okay, I hear you. I will take a psychology class for goodness sake! 

Reluctantly I got a couple degrees. collected my licensing hours and even passed my exams. Despite all of that work, I was still convinced it wasn’t my path. Just after getting my license, I got a job as a corporate minion for a fortune five hundred company managing medical business. For years I worked alongside people with business degrees who were focused on money, metrics and efficiency. I crunched numbers and became a leader of people. It drained me completely.

It wasn’t until a little voice inside starting telling me my health was at risk if I didn’t change course that I took the leap to open a therapy practice. Let’s be real here. It was scary. I was a single mom giving up a guaranteed pay check, great benefits, higher pay and a lot of security, to be out there on my own. What the heck was I thinking? Maybe for the first time in my life I wasn’t thinking. I was feeling. I was listening to my intuition.

Wayne Dyer, one of my favorite authors once said (and I am sure he said that someone else said it first), “When you are on the right path the universe will conspire to help you.” Well, the universe did help me, that, and the 14K I had to borrow from my dad to help me get started. Within eight months my therapy practice was full time and I was making enough to support me and my kids. It was like the gates to my calling just opened up and let me in. I thought, “Okay, maybe I am meant to do this……just maybe I can be a great therapist.”

Today I will say that being a therapist is one of the few things I am really really good at. It feels natural to me, like meeting someone new and having a two-hour conversation that feels like 15 minutes. It just happens. I feel what others are feeling, I sense the energy in a room, I listen to body language and words and see the hidden messages underneath the masks. Then somehow, I am able to help a person navigate life in a new way. I am able to offer them an ear that hears things just differently enough that they really feel heard for the first time. I consider it a gift, a gift I am responsible for. A gift that I have to nurture and care for. A gift that I am so very grateful for.

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Today, thanks to the therapy services I received, I live a life full of gratitude and confidence. I embrace my imperfections and approach life with resilience, knowing that mistakes are part of the journey. What brings me the most fulfillment is being able to offer therapy services that help others find the same sense of peace, joy, and empowerment. I am here to listen to your story and help you create the life you truly deserve.