“It’s so important to put yourself first. I feel like as psych majors we regurgitate that information so blindly and we don’t do it. Even in the mental health advocacy realm, you talk about self-care so much but as students even, we go go go. 2020 really was the first time where we all just kind of just stopped and took a breath. Yeah, I miss being busy, but I don’t miss not taking care of myself. 2020 definitely taught me if you don’t take care of yourself it will come back to bite you.
I would like to have a conversation with Viktor Frankl. His whole book about finding meaning through suffering is such a powerful idea. I can definitely say that’s true for me, I found a lot of meaning through a lot of suffering in my life. I would love to take him out for coffee. So ahead of his time, even ahead of this time.
Psychology is nothing like I thought it would be. I thought there would be only one route you took. The main thing that I get out of it is that mental health professionals are there to support you; they’re not there to really know everything. We put so much pressure on counselors, on therapists, on psychologists to give us advice or give us the right answer. A lot of the time, we forget that we’re people and we have the answer. Psychology has really shown me that it’s so much more than diagnoses and treatment. It’s also about empowering the person because the brain is the most magnificent thing in the human body.”