Becoming a Therapist, and Learning from Therapy
VloĆŸit
- Äas pĆidĂĄn 12. 06. 2024
- I've received a number of questions related to becoming a therapist, what it's like to sit with people, what I've learned from my graduate program, and whether I'd recommend it to other people. Today I'm exploring those questions through the lens of my own experience training to become a somatic psychotherapist.
Topics:
0:00 Welcoming
1:20 The tree of therapy, and making your contribution.
3:00 Therapy as soul work.
5:00 Learning the language, and doing your own work.
8:50 Unpacking your material.
11:50 The stories we hold on to.
14:00 Vulnerability
18:10 A D&D metaphor because I literally can't help myself.
21:00 Supporting people in their self-healing.
24:00 Are you called, or are you driven?
30:00 Dropping the masks.
About Me: I'm a somatic psychotherapist in training. In these videos I'm sharing my personal practice, where I bring together tools from somatic psychology and witchcraft to help people address issues like PMDD, anxiety, and depression.
đž : / elizabeth_ferreira_som...
Iâm 30 mins in and I got teary eyed all of a sudden. I was moved by your description of therapy as transformative for both the person seeking therapy and the therapist. I wish I had a therapist like you. Your approach feels compassionate and kind.
so much sweetness, authenticity, gentleness, and competence in a young professional to witness.... it's a delight, making my heart smile :). Thank you, Elizabeth, for sharing yourself so vulnerably with us. It's truly insightful and useful to watch, apart from filling myself up with relaxation, mindfulness and joy :)
Wow, that last part about being needed warts and all for someone else really hit.
You are my people. †The depths of the soul and the beauty of it in traumatized people are some of the most awe-inspiring places!
As always, Elizabeth, I find you to be incredibly insightful, and I'm endlessly captivated by how you present what's in your heart. I deeply resonated with your understanding and acknowledgment of the differences between the decision to become a therapist based upon a "calling" rather than just a desire. Twenty-five years ago, I felt an overwhelming call to enter into this magical profession. As you spoke about, everything I read, saw, and heard from others within the field of psychotherapy lit me up. I would most often become emotionally moved to tears every time I spoke about the work. Here I sit, a quarter of a century later and I still light up when discussing the role I've so joyously chosen or should I say, the role that chose me. You are also so wise to recognize at this early sage in your development, that we as therapists are not here to fix, change, or rescue our clients. It is essential to the process to remove your ego in order to be fully present with your client. Thank you for your beautiful presence here. Your clients are most blessed to have you. xo
Thanks for that! It would be helpful to hear about your experience with ADHD, particularly as a therapist
I have listened to you before, on another podcast regarding PMDD. I really resignated with you. I think the word "Witch" might throw people off a bit. I really appreciate your honesty and your heart and words to help those of us with this illness, you are spot on. I feel that your more "Spiritual" than "Witchy"??? But I am trying to respect your take on it. I do love your use of herbs, words and thoughts" coming together ". I'm a follower, even if I don't understand. đâ€đ»
FOLLOW YOUR JOY AND JOY IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT YOU THINK IT IS. AT THE BEGINNING I WAS RESISTANT TO BEING TRAUMA THERPIST, I DIDNâT THINK THIS IS WHERE I AM GOING TO END UP. BUT BY FOLLOWING MY JOY, READING THE THINGS THAT I FOUND INTERESTING, CONNECTING TO THE PEOPLE THAT I FOUND INTERESTING, LISTENING TO THAT THING DEEP INSIDE OF ME THAT WENT: âUUH WOWâ. I FOUND MYSELF HERE. IF YOU CAN LISTEN TO THAT PART DEEP INSIDE YOU THAT GOES: âUUâ, - THE CURIOUS PART, BECAUSE THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO THE JOY AND I THINK JOY LEADS US TO A PURPOSE.
This was beautiful, thank you đ
Truly Amazing! Thank You!
Wow. Love this perspective, especially the focus on the Joy that comes from seeing someone more at peace with themselves / get closer to where they want to be / have less dissonance. Iâve heard others talk about the joy of helping people and seeing successes from your sessions, but this was novel because of the focus on the other person at the exclusion of ego. Never previously considered this when contemplating a career as a therapist, though it makes total sense. I do wonder, however, if over time, a good therapist would either become burned out and lose some of their stamina / capacity to do the work despite that joy (perhaps particularly when you canât get someone closer to where they want to be) or simply become desensitized and unable to truly be in difficult places alongside clients. Or maybe not, maybe the whole process including adequate compartmentalization of difficulty (of clientsâ deep pain as well as difficulty in helping/connecting to some clients) becomes second nature over time.
I must say my one big gripe about psychotherapy is the 50 minute model. I truly hate it. That framework just doesnât work for everyone or all the time. I canât tell you how many times Iâve gone into therapy where we just get to the depths of where I so badly needed to go and right when we are at a place where we can start to work on reframing the trauma (let alone then helping me to internalize the reframing), time is up. (And typically, the therapist does not retrace back there next session either.) It feels so abrasive and artificial, and it makes me both untrusting of the process and very reluctant to try again. Itâs like being retraumatized, to be honest., and to this day I am carrying that around. What I often really need is a three or four hour session -really maybe several of those over the course of 2-3 weeks - which the healthcare system wonât allow for and I donât have the funds to pay out of pocket for. This is also one of the reasons I have qualms about pursuing psychology as a career - I donât want to be part of that system and do that to others, nor would I only want to work with clients who can afford to fund their sessions outside of the healthcare system. Any helpful thoughts on this welcome!
You are EXACTLY how I pictured you only have hearing your voice;-)
Additionally escape was in listening to you ...opening up more possibilities to better utilize MY intuition as a therapist as well. You have definitely landed in the most ideal helping profession based on your gifts I will say. The integration you naturally possess gives you the ability to explain things in ways that I have never really heard in any training by any Professor or any colleague has a fellow therapist who also has been trained in trauma I would have to say you are a cornucopia of gifts and talents that many therapists would only dream to have. Thank you for what you do I will say based on what I have been experiencing my personal life you have brought me a slight bit more comfort and that's not even coming from a fellow client so I tip my hat to youâ€â€â€
truly a joy to listen to, I'm grateful for this
what a way to absorb information
that tree branch feels suddenly safer
I love your willingness to check-in w/ yourself during challenging moments w/ clients although as someone w/ FA attachment, that is almost second-nature for me bc of my own trauma. This is something I recently learned about myself as an FA is the tendency to put things on myself that isn't mine. It sounds like that's not the case in the scenarios you've described but I wanted to share my experience bc I do this a lot and it's disempowering for the other person bc it doesn't allow them to own their stuff and take accountability.
Thank you for sharing your time and your healing energy with the world. Regardless of the topic itâs such a pleasure listening to you. â„ïž already looking forward to your next video! đŠâš
Powerful... thank you đ
Thank you so much for this video! Interesting insight, lots of things I can relate to.
Does anyone know if she has a website? I want to know if she does virtual therapy.
19:55 stop describing međ
I don't have time to solve my own problem how do you have time to do others or psykologiest are problem Fri humans maybe I should studied psykology when young to be problem fri
Witch thing is kind of strange
Strange is great