[music]
I think every family therapist
has a story and even before they learn
the systemic language,
they've always thought that way.
I absolutely love being a therapist.
It's one of the reasons
why I became a researcher
and one of the reasons why I became a professor.
Therapy.
It's been getting a lot of attention
and more and more people
are becoming open to its benefits.
Historically, therapy has been steeped in stigma,
making it difficult for people to ask for help, but thanks
to the work of incredible therapists
and clients who have normalized it within public discourse.
Therapy is now more accepted than ever before.
On this episode of Jobs of Tomorrow,
we're discussing the world of therapy
and talking to some
of the occupation's leading experts.
The idea of therapy has existed
in many forms over thousands of years, if not longer.
The most general definition is remediation
of health issues through treatment,
but therapy as we know it today typically refers to healing
through conversation or other methods
between a client and a trained therapist.
Marriage and family therapy helps
individual clients and families alike
by understanding all the factors that lead
to the challenges they're experiencing.
Rather than focusing
on an individual's issues out of context,
marriage and family therapists work with clients
to connect context with systemic solutions.
For example, take Alex, a teenager with
behavioral issues at school.
Instead of labeling Alex as a troublemaker,
a marriage and family therapist might involve Alex's parents,
teachers, and peers
to understand the various aspects
affecting Alex's behavior.
By looking at the bigger picture,
they could uncover family dynamics
or social pressures that contribute
to Alex's challenges and work towards a holistic solution.
Marriage and family therapists focus on systems
and the interplay of relationships
between self and others.
When proposing solutions, we go
beyond the individual and also consider
the different relationships they're embedded in.
Ivonne Harting is an MFT candidate who specializes
in marriage and family therapy and addictions counseling.
Marriage and family therapists
are extensively trained in approaching problems
from a relational perspective while other counseling
approaches focus on individuals and their symptoms.
This holistic approach really allows us
to empower clients to understand themselves,
the interactions they're a part of,
and how to better affect change Marriage and family therapy,
also referred to as systemic therapy
attempts to understand
underlying dynamics between people
in various relationships.
Dr. DeAnna Harris-McKoy is a licensed marriage
and family therapist who works
as an Associate Professor and Program Director
for the Marriage and Family Therapy program
at the University of Northern Illinois.
I conduct therapy, I conduct research.
I have a lot of meetings because I'm a Program Director.
I meet with students, I meet with community members,
I meet with internship sites, I meet with
various administrators at the university.
I also do consulting work.
My every day looks very different.
Many marriage and family therapists
or MFTs wear a lot of hats,
but what exactly does an MFT do
and how are they different from any other therapist?
We do not only work with families and couples,
we also work with individuals, but it's the how we work
with people that makes them very special.
There's the misconception that therapists
give advice or tell people
what to do, what their problems are.
We actually lead by asking questions
and helping the person gain
insight and attribute meaning
to their life experiences individually.
Dr. Eli Karam is a professor
of Marriage and Family therapy
at the University of Louisville in Kentucky,
where he's responsible for teaching
the next generation of marriage and family therapists.
He's the current host of The AAMFT Podcast.
To me, when somebody says
systemic solutions, it is a way of thinking.
When you think systemically,
you are devoted to looking to the person or people
in all their systemic context,
meaning what is going on at home,
what is going on at work or at school
in all of their interpersonal networks, friends, family.
It is not looking
at a very linear way of thinking,
meaning A causes B.
It's like no, A affects B,
bounces off to C in a very recursive way
instead of a very linear way.
We're always looking at that space in between,
and that space is the relationships.
We focus a lot on the relationships
and then there's a context
that influences that relationship too.
We're always looking at people in their context,
whether that's looking at their race,
their ethnicity, their class, their religion,
their sexuality, their gender identity, the type of resources,
or the lack of resources they have.
We're always looking at that space
in between within a context.
It's the system in which they live in
that we also have to analyze.
I think for a very long time,
we only focused on that family system or a community system,
but we also then have to look
at the macro system and look at how oppression
influences the symptoms that people
come in and they're presenting problems.
When we are looking
at systemic solutions, we are looking
at the person in all of their contexts.
Systemic solutions try to lift as many constraints as possible
and work within the constraints
that are not liftable.
Coming up.
I think every family therapist
has a story and even before they learn
the systemic language,
they've always thought that way.
[music]
Imagine wiring a house with
switches in three different rooms:
A, B, and C.
If there's a short in the wire at some point,
electricity to the other rooms will be impacted.
Finding that short helps to solve
the issues in other areas of the house.
Similar to this interconnected system,
marriage and family therapists examine the root factors
that influence every aspect of your life,
like a complex electrical network,
various factors including relationships,
family dynamics, experiences,
and emotions can affect your wellbeing.
MFTs seek a holistic view of your unique situation,
recognizing that disruptions
in one area can impact the whole system.
They aim to understand the complexities of your life
and offer support to create positive changes,
but you must be wondering how does someone get
into this dynamic line of work in the first place?
I have always really been interested
in youth development.
Even when I was in high school, I really wanted to pursue
a profession that allowed me to help youth.
One summer,
I had an experience where I learned
that we cannot only give youth skills, knowledge, and training.
We really also have to help their families and communities.
Luckily for Dr. Harris-McKoy, she took a course that changed
her perspective and career trajectory.
I had an introduction to marriage
and family therapy course
and it just changed my whole view of helping.
I learned that in order to help youth,
I have to help change family dynamics, and systemic thinking,
and marriage and family therapy was going to do that.
Once I learned about the field
of marriage and family therapy,
I went and got a master's in marriage
and family therapy from Drexel University.
Then I went to get a PhD in marriage
and family therapy
from the Florida State University,
so I love the field of marriage and family therapy.
Sometimes, it's personal and rooted
in one's family life all along.
I think every family therapist
has a story and even before they learned
the systemic language,
they've always thought that way.
My dynamic is interesting in that I have a twin brother,
which made me interested in sibling dynamics
and a parent that was much older than one parent.
I'm ethnic looking.
I'm 50% Lebanese and Italian.
I had very strong cultural family traditions.
My father passed away when I was 18,
which was a really defining moment in my life.
That is when I discovered
the power of family therapy, helping heal grief.
That led me to studying psychology.
I was walking home, couple
of blocks away from where I lived,
and I saw this place called the Family Institute.
It was a recent collaboration
between Northwestern University
and the Family Institute of Chicago,
which was the largest freestanding body
in the Midwest, a hub,
a think tank for systemic family therapy.
I got my PhD in marriage and family therapy from Purdue.
After that, ended up back in my hometown.
That's the short story.
I've been here for the last-- I'm entering my 16th year
as a faculty member and full professor.
Just like Dr. Karam, many early career therapists, like Ivonne,
are starting their journey of exploration while healing
the wounds they have seen
or may have experienced themselves.
Studying psychology definitely
was a part of my self-discovery process.
I had a lot of hardships growing up, and unfortunately,
faced a lot of stigmas around accessing
mental health care in my country.
I decided to try to learn a little bit about
myself through psychology,
understanding the human mind and behavior,
and then through personal therapy.
While she was living and studying in Venezuela,
Ivonne was caught amidst a mass protest
that enveloped the country.
I began to participate in peaceful activism.
Once protests became violent
and people started getting murdered,
captured, and prisoned by police forces,
I decided to start the first aid movement of my university.
We would go to the protests with emergency kits
that were created with the intention of having
resources to heal wounds and be able to pull
people out of the mass protests.
Feeling powerless
while fighting for social changes
also became a defining moment for her of finding power,
making a difference, and providing support to others.
I believe that through the distance,
it's still possible
to make an impact and support others.
I make sure I'm involved with organizations
that support education shelters and food for youth.
I keep my country in mind always
because I definitely would like to go back
to Venezuela eventually and help make the mental health
system over their function more ethically and effectively.
The common thread between these therapists seems
to be their shared interest in marriage
and family therapy,
whether that originates from a desire to help
others or to better understand themselves.
One of the things that you need to know about MFT
is how it's both similar and different
than the other big mental health professions.
I'm talking about clinical psychology,
social work, counseling, psychiatric nursing.
MFT really prioritizes strength, health,
and interconnectedness of people.
Pursuing a career in therapy definitely means signing up
for a self-discovery journey yourself
because for many people,
including myself, becoming
a therapist is a trauma response.
You become the person you wish
you had growing up or the person you needed.
It can really be a part
of that healing experience
for anybody that wants to be a part
of the change they want to see in the world.
Coming up.
I think that we have changed
the definition of what therapy looks like.
You don't have to have
a diagnosable mental illness to go get help.
[music]
Just as a writer finds inspiration
in a Dog-eared book of poetry, or a mechanic sees
the Mona Lisa under the hood of a Rolls Royce,
a therapist finds purpose in stories of resilience,
growth, and the potential to be better.
For each of our therapists,
that meant looking inward to find out
what drove them and looking outward
to recognize the societal shifts
that forever changed them and so many others.
I was in an MFT classroom the day in 9/11,
and I remember that that changed everything.
I grew up in a world
where you did not have to worry
about school shootings or mass terrorism.
MFTs are more in demand than ever before.
There are so many social challenges
impacting us now.
What the pandemic has taught us, it's taught us a lot about
a profession and that people especially disconnected,
shut in, need connection with other people.
Since the pandemic,
there was a lot of awareness gained
around the importance of mental health and mental health care.
I believe that's very impactful
to be able to walk with someone and aid
in their self-discovery process
that allows breaking cycles of violence, trauma.
Progressively, I believe
that makes the world a better place
if people go to therapy and gain
that self-knowledge and heal
from the different trauma they've experienced.
I believe the world can definitely
become a better place.
For the first time in decades, the entire world was shaken
by an event that would lead
to increased depression and anxiety
among a number of other mental illnesses.
People were ready to talk.
We see a lot of celebrities talking about going to therapy.
We see a lot of reality stars talking about going to therapy,
and they actually have therapy sessions online.
I think that we have changed
the definition of what therapy looks like.
You don't have to have a diagnosable
mental illness to go get help.
But in third-world countries like Venezuela,
there's still a lot of pushback against mental health care
because there are a lot
of cultural influences that stigmatize mental health
for being something that is for "crazy people".
Therapy may seem like
it's becoming less stigmatized,
but the truth is many cultural communities
are still wary of seeking mental healthcare
as an act and as an institution.
MFT has come a long way,
in that in the '70s, your major models, by and large,
were designed by white non-diverse men,
groups of men focused on working with
white middle to upper-class families.
In the last several decades, MFT
has done a great job of expanding
the lens not only in recruiting diverse therapists,
but also working with diverse client populations.
Many minorities are skeptical of mental health
because they have been burned by the system,
or they feel like my therapist doesn't look like me.
People that have been historically marginalized,
that are currently marginalized have dealt with
a lot of oppression since the the beginning.
A lot of what's happening is not new for people,
I think it's potentially more visible
for some people that can increase
the intensity of people's symptoms.
Maybe they had sadness before or maybe
they had some anxiety before.
Seeing a lot of the trauma
that's happening constantly,
whether that's on social media
while it's watching the news or experiencing
low employment or underemployment
or lack of resources, increases
the intensity of people's symptoms.
Therapy is one of the ways to help
people manage and regulate some of that.
Accessing therapy can sometimes feel dehumanizing.
People sometimes feel left out by the system or misunderstood.
When you, as a therapist yourself,
come from a background that includes
a lot of resilience,
I think people can overcome that barrier of this person
won't be able to relate or understand me because I will.
I'm someone that has endured and faced trauma myself.
Marriage and family therapy is special in that therapists
see the fruits of their labor in many places,
clinical settings, research findings, and the real world.
Dr. Karam believes that an important part
of this is that marriage
and family therapists should never stop learning.
We need more MFTs doing
the research and collaborating with
the researchers in order to have real world
research that impacts service delivery, dissemination.
We have to also package research
in a way that informs clinicians.
They need the information presented
in a way that's usable and that helps them,
not in the ivory tower of research.
I like to stay modern, up to date.
If it's not evidence-based, I don't take it into account.
I really like making sure that my training is ongoing,
and that what I'm doing is coherent and aligned
with best practices that are ethical.
I absolutely love being a therapist.
It's one of the reasons why I became a researcher
and one of the reasons why I became a professor.
I love teaching students
how to be a marriage and family therapist.
There's always this one moment in their two-year program,
where they really just understand,
they get systemic thinking.
It's not intentional for them anymore,
but it just becomes a lens in which they're able
to answer questions in a way that considers culture,
that considers context.
They just get it,
and it's just an amazing experience
watching them grow into professional therapists.
Everyone has days that are good or frustrating,
exciting or uncertain,
but what's important is to take things one day
at a time and to seek support when you need it,
and marriage and family therapists can do just that.
Helping you understand your situation better
with a holistic view of your life.
Thanks for watching.
I'm your host, Kristin Marand.
We'll see you on the next episode
as we explore the jobs of tomorrow.