30/12/2022
🎓 I'm celebrating a win with you today!
As of October I became a registered Psychotherapist with the BABCP in the UK and I graduated a few weeks ago! Not only did I graduate, I graduated top of all CBT cohorts at Herts, averaging the hightest grade for 2022.
I didn't celebrate much at the time due to illness but I wanted to share some of the hurdles and detours I overcame to get where I am now. With every achievement there are countless loses we never talk about but directly contribute to the grit and motivation of our successes.
1. I didn't learn to read and write properly until I was 8, I was quite delayed and still have trouble spelling now. But this is my 4th degree. If you want it, make it.
2. Because I was told and believed for so long that I was not able enough to undertake academic subjects I stuck to what I knew best growing up and applied myself to creative fields, starting in fashion and gaining my first degree in graphic design. But I wanted different so I changed my career trajectory.
3. My career change put be behind many of my peers and people questioned the 'risk' I was taking starting again. The only risk for me was staying in my comfort zone working on branding and Ads that didn't align with me. I applied myself and completed further studies over the past 9 years, working in education, physical and mental healthcare.
4. At the beginning of this year the UK government proposed an unethical and inhumane vaccination mandate which I strongly fought to oppose nearly leaving me dismissed from not just my NHS Trust or clinical work but a 9 year career in psychology. I stuck to my principles. The mandate was overturned. I took time for my mental wellbeing and I'm now working with a leading neuropsychiatric service in Europe.
If I could share any nuggets from my learnings to you, or somehow speak to 10 or 20 year old me, it would be to learn to trust our intuition, always navigate life by our intrinsic values, be integral. Do work beyond self-interest and capitalism. Don't give up on things we want for ourselves or our communities, no matter how out of reach goals seem. Don't allow our pasts to dictate our futures.
