...and we don't talk about it enough, so my goal of this blog post is to do just that.
I'll start with introductions:
Hi, my name is Samantha McMullen, and I absolutely love being a therapist.
I was lucky enough to know that I wanted to be therapist from a very young age. At that point my definition of what a therapist is, was thus:
Therapists are licensed mental health professionals who specialize in helping others.
Now that I have actually been able to practice as a licensed therapist the past 5 years, my definition was expanded.
For me, being a therapist means witnessing, being a steward of healing, and helping people feel safe in their bodies, even when the world around them isn't safe.
I mean, come on! Not to toot my magical therapist horn- but doesn't that sound bad ass???
I, some tomboy turned emo punk scene kid turned -IDK what my current style is called, from the Central Valley, gets to talk to people with experiences I would have never have known existed, had I not chosen this profession.
I get to learn so much about the diversity of the human experience.
I get to witness and work with the vast spectrum of human emotion.
I get to see people change, grow and transform, before my spectacled eyes.
I often tell my clients, especially toward the end of our work together, what an honor it has been to work with them. I do not say the words lightly. I am truly humbled by being a part of their life in this way and I say these words like a knight swears an oath. Being a human is serious business.
Healing, learning, growing, accepting who we are; this, to me, is the greatest work any of us and all of us get to do.
I wish everyone was assigned a therapist at birth, a professional care-er, to help guide them and support them, to validate and witness them. I imagine a world where we all take care of each other, a giant massage train of healing, where we all have care to give and care to receive.
Investing in therapy is a choice we make for change. By healing ourselves, I believe we can change the world.
I will just speak from my own experience: I know I am a more effective, mindful human because of my personal therapy/therapist.
I see the potential inherent in this work, and it breaks my heart when people have a painful or bad experience with therapy/a therapist. We are by no means a perfect profession, and being a therapist does not mean we are automatically "good" or safe people, unfortunately. I am by no means perfect, and I put my foot in my mouth and stumble awkwardly at times. And even then I celebrate that I get the opportunity to apologize, take responsibility and choose to do better. I am human after all, and I am always growing, and healing. We are all made of the same raw materials, and that in itself is a reminder to me that we all can grow and change.
I will close with this:
One of the coolest things to me is when people, including myself, start a sentence with, “my therapist said…” This reminds me that our WORDS (all of our words- not just therapist's) have POWER. And somewhere, when somebody in the world says this, they mean me.
And that is pretty crazy cool.
If you are interested in being one of those somebodies, please contact me through my website, email me at samantha@artsomatictherapy.com or call me at 818-465-8516.