Eliza Stucker-Rozovsky, Psy.D.

I attribute my success to some of my relationships - I've had a lot of support and guidance through the people that have cared about me. In the professional world, my advisor, Dr. Ken Critchfield, has been not only such an advocate for me, he's been so invested in my learning and getting to know me, and trusting me to help him create this next iteration of what the IRT Institute looks like and really expand its reach. His belief in me and his investment in me has made me such a better therapist, and his willingness to continue to invest in me has created a really important professional relationship that has made me feel like I have a home in psychology, and that's been something invaluable. My husband has been just an overall really intense advocate and support for me. Becoming a doctor is not an easy path, and he was there through that training process, and internship, and postdoc, and all the things. When I said I wanted to leave my full-time salaried job and do it on my own, even though I might not have the same salary for a while, he was like, yeah, I believe in you, do it. That means a lot, and I don't think that I could do what I'm doing without his support, across the board.

The best career advice I've received was something my advisor said - he really encouraged me to just be myself and allow that to be different. He helped me understand that realistically, people have a variety of needs, and in therapy, it's really about the relationship. A lot of the research shows that it's not about the specific techniques of therapy, it's really about the relationship that a patient and therapist have that makes the difference. He encouraged me to trust that I form really great relationships with people, and that that is enough so that I don't have to be like others, and that that's okay. This has been reinforced throughout my journey - I started my business right out of my postdoc by myself, which in retrospect was quite a wild move. It takes a lot of bravery to own a business, to start a business, and to do it when I was so young in the field. But I really wanted to create a space that was authentic to me, and my hope is that I'm able to make a space that really helps a lot of people and really addresses some of the pieces that sometimes can contribute to mental illness.

I would give the same advice that really helped me - be yourself and really own whatever the life experiences are that you've had, previous trainings that you've had, and things of that nature, and bring your full self into who you are as a therapist. For me it was integrating my role as a pastoral counselor and chaplain, but it could be your racial identity, your religious identity, whatever - bringing who you are into your process of becoming a therapist. It doesn't need to always show up in the therapy room, in the therapy hour, but in terms of who I am as a therapist and figuring that out, I think it's really important to allow you to be all of yourself in that process and to trust that. I think that often, women are given a lot of messages that say not to trust yourself, and to sort of defer and obey. I would say to trust yourself, and to keep learning, and keep growing, and doing the things that you need to grow confidence, but realistically, you're gonna have to act before you feel perfectly ready. There is some trust in yourself and bravery to just get started.

One of the biggest challenges is that we have so many people who need mental health care, and not enough providers for the number of people that need help. We don't have as much standardization - there are people that are in care for a really long time that don't always need that, and there are people that can't get into care because the lines are so long. So we have an access issue that is really multi-layered. The flip side of that is the opportunity - that's what I'm trying to build in my business and my partnership with the IRT Institute. We're providing a number of ways for people to learn about psychology and mental illness, with ways to help providers learn IRT. We have a podcast where people can listen, it's mainly clinician-facing, but there's a blog, we have workshops and trainings - all these different ways to learn. I'd like to eventually get into the space of providing some educational content for people who maybe aren't ready for therapy or don't have the means to do individual therapy yet, but are wanting to invest in themselves and grow. Realistically, we may not be able to give every single person one-on-one therapy indefinitely and be able to meet the need. I think we have to get creative and provide education to help people empower themselves, because otherwise we may always have a list that is too long.

Integrity is the first value that always comes up for me. As a therapist, my patients don't see all of me, but I am the same person. I don't put on a mask to do my job, and I think that's really important in having a relationship with patients - that they see that you're real, and that it's not a facade. Integrity is part of trust in relationships. Being the same person in multiple contexts and doing what you say you'll do allows people to trust you, and when people trust you, they learn to rely on you and get attached to you, and those things are all important to having a life of deep, meaningful relationships. Honesty is also essential - I know these seem sort of cliche, but they are really essential to having good therapy relationships and good life relationships. In terms of honesty, transparency in the therapy process is something really important. I'll often share what I'm thinking, and if I'm asking someone to do something, I'll explain why and how it relates not only to the science, but to our goals. I give people a sense of what's going on inside of me, not only for informed consent, but because we're on equal footing, we're working together. This isn't some secret where I'm doing things to you magically - you're the expert in your life, I have expertise in psychology, and we're coming together to share information in a really raw, transparent way.