Marriage and Family Therapy is such a wonderful profession
that can give
people opportunities
in various fields.
I think that we're doing
maybe a slight rebranding
of being more systemic professionals,
because I think that embodies more of what we do.
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 us very special.
I had an introduction to
Marriage and Family Therapy course,
and it just changed
my whole view of helping.
And I learned that in order to help youth,
I have to help change
family dynamics
and systemic thinking in Marriage and Family Therapy
was going to do that.
I'm interested
in black mental health because I am black myself,
and I've always wanted to use my knowledge,
skills and resources
to help people that look like me.
And so that first focused on
the youth, the black youth, and which I wanted to do
since I was in high school and undergrad.
And then it evolved
to looking at black families,
black women, black mothers,
and just black mental health all over.
We learn how to analyze systems.
We learn how to then shift systems
once we analyze them.
And so you can take that skill
into corporate America,
You can take that skill into non-profit work,
you can take that skill into owning a business,
You can take that skill into academia,
you can take that skill anywhere
Especially when people and clients learn
about the way that we do therapy
then they really search is out
because nobody wants to feel like
they are the individual problem,
because they realize that there are other things
in their lives that are influencing their symptoms.
And we do talk about that
concretely with them.
Then they feel less pressure
about some of the things that are happening in their lives.
So I think a lot of younger people
should come and join our field of Marriage and Family Therapy.
AAMFT has
given me the space to develop
as a professional
Marriage and Family therapist.
I have been on the elections committee.
I've been involved
in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.
I've been to so many different
AAMFT conferences
and leadership symposiums.
It's really one of my professional homes
and it's so nice to be around
others systemic professionals
that understand the need
and importance of what we do in our field.