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I was always

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fascinated with relationships an
how healthy relationships work,

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and so my work as a therapist
really started

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with my own personal passion
to better my own relationships.

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And so I realized

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that that passion that I had 
within me could be 

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applied to other people.

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AAMFT has been a 
really big part of me

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building my 
professional foundation.

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When I was about 16,

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I thought I wanted to do the 
natural sciences like biology, 

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maybe even zoology,

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and I had a really great 
opportunity in a physiology lab.

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And when I got done, I realized 
that I enjoyed speaking with 

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the people more than 
the research that I was doing.

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And so that was my first clue 
into, realizing that 

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mental health was more my speed

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When I

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start out with folks, I sort of
have my standards

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for gathering information
from people, learning history,

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getting a sense of the context
that's behind the presenting iss

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And then from there, 
what I do is

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I take a very 
collaborative approach.

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And so basically 
what's happening

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is there's a marrying of my 
expertise and what my clients

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are bringing to the table,
because I always have an 

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approach that is, every client
is an expert on their own lives.

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And so I'm an expert
on how their relationships work

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and what might be healthy.

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If they're an expert
on knowing themselves.

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And so when those things come 
together, that gives us a 

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pretty good idea of

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where we can start in terms of 
goals, in terms of a treatment 

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plan, those kinds of things.

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Curiosity is so important

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when it comes to being a 
therapist who's inclusive 

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and culturally sensitive.

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If you aren't willing to take
in information from the people

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you're working with, then you're
pretty much dead in 

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the water at that point.

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So I know that a lot of people
can get caught up in being 

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competent and getting all the 
right training, all of that stuf

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But if you're not open and
curious, then you're not 

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going to learn how that specific
person is teaching you

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about who they are.

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If it wasn't for AAMFT,

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I probably wouldn't have the 
understanding of 

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cultural sensitivity that I do.

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Meeting so many other therapists
attending a lot of presentations

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based on some really great 
research that's being done.

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AAMFT is kind of the vehicle
for getting a lot of therapists

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together that have different 
ideas and different perspectives