Applying Corey's therapeutic goals framework to personal career development in mental health

Counseling

Gerald Corey suggests that the initial therapeutic interview can be "used most productively to focus on the client's goals or lack of them": he offers by way of example some questions that could be posed by the therapist, such as "What do you expect from counseling? Why are you here? What do you want? What do you hope to leave with? How is what you are currently doing working for you? What aspects of yourself or your life situation would you most like to change?" (Corey 2009, 24). For someone such as myself, beginning a survey course on psychotherapy, it is enlightening to ask similar questions of myself.

In my case, however, I do not have a lack of goals. My interest in psychotherapy at this point in time stems from twenty years of both educational and work experience. My undergraduate B.A. is in Psychology; while I was still an undergraduate, I worked as a recreational counselor for a national mental health organization. Since graduating, my professional experience has largely dealt with the area of my study: I had ten years' experience as a pharmaceutical representative for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country. Then transferring to direct contact with patients, I worked first as a psychiatric technician, then was promoted to clinician/therapist in a Psychiatric Emergency Unit. I am currently employed as a member of a treatment team for a locked psychiatric unit that handles patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

This is a considerable background in the mental health profession, but one will notice that it does not include an extensive experience of the sort of therapy that most laypersons imagine when discussing therapy. Schizophrenics, for instance, have long been thought of as resistant to traditional forms of psychotherapy: the founder of the "talking cure," Sigmund Freud, notoriously refused to handle schizophrenics in his practice, as he did not think that they were capable of making significant progress just through talking with a therapist. Likewise, my work in a Psychiatric Emergency Unit -- while both challenging and rewarding -- was hardly the traditional vision of the therapeutic encounter. These were not people looking for guidance: these were people in extreme situations. The therapeutic role I took on was frequently more concerned with keeping people alive than in leading them to insight and change in their lives.

I have recently returned to school to complete my master's degree after three years. My goal is fairly straightforward: I would like, after obtaining the degree, to get my life coaching certification and begin work as a life coach. I think I have proved my skill and sensitivity in dealing with psychiatric issues in my previous education and employment, but now I am seeking to do so in a more personally rewarding capacity, by helping those who are not on the extremes of the patient population, in emergent situations or confined in locked units. I would like to pursue work as the kind of psychiatric counselor that most people visualize when they hear the word "therapist" -- the careful informed listener, qualified to help those who are seeking a new direction in life not because of an extreme sitution, but because of everyday quandaries or confusions.