Welcome to Wyrd conversations! I’m Samantha, the founder of Wyrd Coaching and the creator of Wyrd conversations. Today I thought I would share about the second most asked question I hear which is: why did I decide to coach? I have my Masters’s degree in Psychology, why aren’t I seeing patients? Excellent question!
The answer is that in my 30’s I got my coaching certification but was too unsure of what I offered so did not start a practice. I have always kept up on my reading and the community though. Then when my marriage was ending at the same time my mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer, I felt lost. I wasn’t sure who I was and needed to do something for myself so, at 40 some years of age I went back to school. Yeup, I never said I did things the easy way. What I found was joy and knowledge and my place! Even with all the things dying around me and holding down a full-time job and starting over from scratch, I managed a perfect 4.0 for both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs. My mom died a few months before I graduated with my Master’s degree but I know she would have been thrilled, she was beyond proud of my educational journey and grades.
I made the choice not to go for my clinical license because of time. Time is something I coach about because most of us have a terrible relationship with it (again, a topic for another conversation). I wanted to learn, and I wanted to help others and I wanted to do it before I turned 70. During a grief counseling session, yes, I do work with a therapist and often recommend my clients do the same. Coaching and counseling are different tools! Anyway, during this one particular grief counseling session, my therapist brought up my story, my certification, and my education and questioned me, isn’t it about time I gave back? Shared my story and my perspective to help others as I have always strived to do? Yes. The answer was and is, yes.
Coaching allows me to do that, but being a clinician does not, not in a way that is authentic to me. As a clinician it is imperative that nothing of the clinician is involved, disassociation is essential to a clinician’s mental health. As a coach I can reveal parts of my story, I can make a more personal connection with my clients because I am not there to provide medical information, medical help, or a medical diagnosis. I can provide true empathy and I don’t have to hide it. I can openly use my story to help others and I stopped hiding my story and my Wyrd a long time ago. That is why my choice was for coaching instead of being a clinical therapist.
My question to you is have thought about what makes you happy and then focused on a realistic way to go for it?
Have a Wyrd and Wonderful day!