I was always
fascinated with relationships an how healthy relationships work,
and so my work as a therapist really started
with my own personal passion to better my own relationships.
And so I realized
that that passion that I had within me could be
applied to other people.
AAMFT has been a really big part of me
building my professional foundation.
When I was about 16,
I thought I wanted to do the natural sciences like biology,
maybe even zoology,
and I had a really great opportunity in a physiology lab.
And when I got done, I realized that I enjoyed speaking with
the people more than the research that I was doing.
And so that was my first clue into, realizing that
mental health was more my speed
When I
start out with folks, I sort of have my standards
for gathering information from people, learning history,
getting a sense of the context that's behind the presenting iss
And then from there, what I do is
I take a very collaborative approach.
And so basically what's happening
is there's a marrying of my expertise and what my clients
are bringing to the table, because I always have an
approach that is, every client is an expert on their own lives.
And so I'm an expert on how their relationships work
and what might be healthy.
If they're an expert on knowing themselves.
And so when those things come together, that gives us a
pretty good idea of
where we can start in terms of goals, in terms of a treatment
plan, those kinds of things.
Curiosity is so important
when it comes to being a therapist who's inclusive
and culturally sensitive.
If you aren't willing to take in information from the people
you're working with, then you're pretty much dead in
the water at that point.
So I know that a lot of people can get caught up in being
competent and getting all the right training, all of that stuf
But if you're not open and curious, then you're not
going to learn how that specific person is teaching you
about who they are.
If it wasn't for AAMFT,
I probably wouldn't have the understanding of
cultural sensitivity that I do.
Meeting so many other therapists attending a lot of presentations
based on some really great research that's being done.
AAMFT is kind of the vehicle for getting a lot of therapists
together that have different ideas and different perspectives