Melanie King

I attribute my success to the different individuals in my life. I've had very strong mentors. My mom was a big influence to my journey, and just in general, I moved to Indianapolis by myself at the age of 18 or 19, somewhere like that, and I've lived here pretty much the whole time by myself. I only moved back to Alabama for a year, but I've been here for the entire time, living on my own as a single mother, so I have a lot of mentors that have helped me just to continue on, which has supported me with that empowerment that I was speaking about. So, I can relate to a lot of my clients. In listening to clients that also improve, you know, and watching their journey, it helps me as well to continue doing what I'm doing, even if I feel as though it can be mundane sometimes, but it is definitely a journey and definitely a ministry.

The best career advice that I've had would be from my mentor, Lynell Cooper, who is my mentor as well as someone who helped me start my own business. She always encouraged me to just embrace what I felt comfortable with doing with this career. I never need to feel stuck. I'm coming from a career where I was a secretary or an administrative assistant for over 10 plus years of my life, so I'm used to just getting a job and just doing it, but with social work, it's very different - you can mold to it. So, she taught me to not be afraid of what I wanted to embrace. Just own it, as well as to own my truth. I think that was the best advice she could have given me, because it was truly empowering.

When entering this field of work, I would definitely say I would kind of lean back on what my mentor told me in terms of embracing who you are on this journey in regards to this career, because this career is very personal. Most people who go into this field go into it because they can relate to it in some sort of way. But for that reason, never stop learning. Always be open to change and adjust, as well as also owning where you have some expertise. It's a very broad career, but that means there's a lot of room for different niches. So, embrace who you are and what you can bring to the field.

Where we are in our world right now, and the different dynamics of the world in general, it's tough to listen to the challenges of most of the clients. Especially seeing on the news and hearing about it through just the government changes and all of these different things, and our economy, and how it impacts the clients, but knowing that it impacts you as well. So, there aren't necessarily a lot of skills to quote-unquote fix that, because you can relate. And I think that's the hardest challenge, is to hear the challenges and being able to relate to them while also not having a lot to say in terms of how to fix it, beyond staying empowered.

For me, especially in terms of working as a therapist, I value individuality. I also value a person's perspective, even if I don't agree with it, it doesn't matter. I embrace this individuality, and I think that that's definitely needed in our world today, because we're meant to be different. And we're meant to have our voices heard, no matter what they are. So, I embrace it. That is what helps me on my everyday journey at my job, just to keep me motivated, because it is very fascinating and interesting to hear all of the different perspectives of everyone.