a career crossroads
feeling stuck and seeking advice
This week I had my first session back in therapy after about a year hiatus. There was no particular reason for the pause; it just felt like it came to its natural conclusion.
And also, I felt like my therapist and I were perhaps a bit too similar? We had eerily parallel interests and even had the same name lol. Likely projection, but I thought it best to try something and someone different.
Starting over in therapy can be challenging because it often feels like a re-telling of life story from the beginning. This in and of itself is an arduous task.
During prior life chapters, I started therapy in times of crisis: dealing with an OCD diagnosis during childhood, break-ups in and after college, and starting my career as a PA during a pandemic. These all felt like valid reasons and topics of conversation.
This time around though, it felt like a return to therapy not for a big change, but rather inertia. My life has been steady and stable for some time now. And in that feeling, I’ve been increasingly more uncomfortable.
I can’t say I immediately clicked with the therapist, however, I think this could very likely be due to the fact that I was waffling around what I wanted to talk about - oscillating between a specific work change I was thinking about and a more global feeling about my reaction to recent work happenings.
I recently had an opportunity presented to me that would change the direction of my current work schedule. I was hoping the therapist would help lead me to a decision, though given it was our first session, it felt like a presentation of big themes, instead of granular specifics or advice.
I left the session feeling frustrated, only to be reminded by my sister, a social worker, that often therapy doesn’t work that way. It’s not about someone swaying you in one direction or the other, but more so getting to the root of what’s impacting the decision making.
So instead of continuing to ruminate on it, I thought I’d put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard if you will, and seek advice from a community who has so graciously gotten to know me over the years.
So Quenchies, I humbly ask for your sage wisdom and help.
Please guide me with this work decision.
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