Her Story
About Anna
I began my career journey after graduating with my bachelor's degree, starting with internships and positions in human resources. From there, I transitioned to working with special needs populations, an experience that lasted around three and a half years where I worked with children and adults with autism. While gaining this hands-on experience, I was simultaneously completing my master's degree in mental health and substance use counseling. During that program, I externed in an outpatient program for substance use, working with the elder population. Recently, I achieved an important milestone by obtaining my Credential to Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Counselor Trainee certification, which took me around two years to complete. I'm now pursuing a second master's degree in marriage and family therapy, and I'm preparing to start seeing clients in couples and family therapy around summer. I'm working toward getting licensed in marriage and family therapy, which will allow me to start my private practice, something I'm very much looking forward to. I definitely want to continue with substance use counseling and marriage and family therapy as my main areas of focus.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Anna
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think that having a strong network of professionals is essential to success. Having mentorship programs would definitely help myself, and I can also be a mentor for someone who just started the journey. I think it's important that we all share what the experience has been for us with someone else in the field, and I think that's a key to success.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would definitely say that it takes a lot of patience to start a career in mental health, in psychology. I would advise everyone who wants to continue and start the career in that field to have some patience and to definitely remember why you wanted to be in a helping profession like this.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
MFT is a new field, and there are definitely less MFT professionals in the field compared to mental health counselors. It's a newer field, so that's understandable. There are more mental health counselors in the field of psychology, in the professional field, but MFT is kind of like a new field, so I would definitely say that it's important to be connected with one another, like one MFT professional with the other MFT professional, to build a stronger network.
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