Today was my first day at the new private practice. I had one of my Thrive clients in the morning and then I hung out until noon for the group supervision time. She does two sessions each week on Tuesdays, one at noon and one at 1PM. For the rest of the time I sent some work emails, straightened the playroom, and talked to two of the other therapists there that I knew from school. One was at Thrive with me for a semester and both were in the last internship video class I had.

So that was cool to have some people. It was nice to just shout out “Hi Kyle!” like it was absolutely nothing and without any kind of hesitation or awkwardness. I actually got to help the other one finish what she needed to get the rest of the things sent in for her license since nobody showed us how to do and we basically had to figure it out on our own. The only reason I knew how to do it is because I went to the licensing office in person because thankfully the state buildings are so close.

I was really nervous but now I think I’m going to like it. I still need to get things figured out with insurance. I kind of feel like I’m being difficult if I say I don’t want to take any insurance, like I’m forsaking the codes of humanitarianism. I am really glad that I made the decision to go to Hope (and that it worked out to go there) because it has allowed me to jump in with both feet and just get started seeing clients so fast. It seems like it’ll take longer to get clients and others need them more.

So I am navigating that. I do still feel, like I’ve said, that I have gotten harder since starting the Hope job and now transferring over to this one. You can have a heart for charity work and still understand that there are people who abuse the system and take you for granted and don’t care about their lives as much as you do. So you just have to get over that and realize you’re not here to help everyone and it isn’t possible to do so. In the meantime I do need to earn some money here too.

The others, I think, will pick up on that too. Right now they’re all still seeing internship clients mostly pro bono. I will still do a pro bono client at Hope but there they make them pay $20 a session. So I don’t know what to think about this place. Today I really liked it even though it was mostly just getting acquainted with the different environment, people, and ways that they do things. I have been bummed about leaving Thrive but I still feel like I made the right decision by being done there.