Making peace with becoming: On being an intern therapist

The day of my first training as an intern therapist, I had to dance through some serious energy and excitement before even thinking about learning a thing. It was the first of many appropriate but humorous contrasts of my internship experience. From dancing wildly in my workout clothes in my living room to settling into a cozy chair in a downtown office within a matter of hours, day one already necessitated making room for all parts of myself. Part of me was ready to dive into the work of a therapist, and another part needed to spend some quality time with Lizzo to be grounded. To be an intern therapist is to feel and lean into every part of becoming, arriving, and growing all at the same time, and I found Self Space to be exactly the place and community of support I needed to move through it all with acceptance. 

Though therapists sit with people all day, practicing therapy can ironically be a lonely career. Confidentiality means much of what we experience every day will never be shared with anyone—it stays between therapist and client. One aspect that drew me to Self Space was the founding value of community and support for its therapists. Each therapist in the practice has chosen connectedness and community, and it shows. Yes, I received a personalized mug with my name on it in the breakroom (a proven way into my heart), but over and beyond that, I was included in staff meetings, encouraged to weigh in, and was shown repeatedly that my voice, experience, and developing clinical mind were already respected and desired. I felt bolstered to ask for support when I needed it and to receive the goodness of collaboration throughout the year. 

Within such a collaborative, community-driven space, I was able to truly begin my career. The trope of an unpaid intern assumes being unseen, underappreciated, and jumping through pointless busywork hoops no one else wants to address. To my delight, this was not the case as an intern therapist at Self Space. I was able to build up practical experience of scheduling, finding goodness of fit with clients, and starting to narrow my clinical focus as time went on. We also had trainings, supervision, and community events. At each offering, I was there, nourishing the parts of me that were so eager to learn from clinicians with more experience. 

The parts of me that needed dance processing and bubble tea after long days were there too. As weeks turned into months, I grew in my capacity to welcome my strengths and my weaknesses, trusting that the most fulfilling way to “human” or to “therapist” is to bring my full self, contrasting parts and all, with me into every day and every session. As my supervisor said just the other day, we never truly arrive. We are constantly growing, changing, and learning. So the true work is, then, not arriving to some place of completion or accomplishment, but in making peace with our continual process of becoming. I can think of few reminders more timely for us all in this tumultuous time. As for me, I have my year as an intern therapist to thank.