Hey you guys. Hope everyone's Sunday is going well.

I'm 25 and I graduated last December with my masters in forensic mental health counseling. Since October 2016 I've been looking for a job in the mental health field. My goal is to help LGBT survivors of child abuse and intimate partner violence. However, that is really specific so I have just been applying for general non-specific mental health counseling jobs. I'm still unemployed and it's really beginning to weigh on me. It's making my depression flare up and I feel a lot of regret. I feel like a failure.

I've gotten some interviews but the problem almost always seems to be my lack of job experience because I went straight through high school to college to grad school without taking a break. However, I did a year long externship last year for school and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. My supervisor literally told me, "I don't like this client so I'm giving her to you." Then one day my depression was really bad and I asked for one day off, and that was big for me because I'm a bit of a perfectionist. She turned to me and said, "You're in grad school and you come here so you can't be THAT depressed, right?" My point is that I experienced a lot of things at that externship, including almost being sexually assaulted by a coworker which resulted in that coworker being let go. I gained a lot of personal and work experience there, especially since I took on a lot of clients and there were literally days when the staff was shorthanded and I had to do multiple jobs and take on even more clients, so it hurts when interviewers say that my externship isn't experience. Of course, they don't know about my personal experiences or mental health. They just know what work responsibilities I did there. But it still hurts.

So I decided to apply to jobs that require high school diplomas or bachelors degrees. I've been applying to retail jobs since I was 18. Never heard back from anything. I've been applying to case manager jobs and no luck. The problem with those jobs is that I'm overqualified in terms of my degree but underqualified because of my lack of experience.

I've been to job fairs. I even had one woman who said I was a good fit for a job and she would talk to her supervisor and to keep in contact with her. I did and I never heard back from her. At another job fair one recruitment officer looked at me resume and said my externship didn't count as experience. After that fair I went to the bathroom to cry because I felt so discouraged.

I have an employment agency helping me but the woman assigned to me has not been in contact with me. She was helping me get a counseling job. She gave me the application and I filled it out. She sent it in and was told to ask me when I was available for an interview. I told her, only for her to tell me that "there are no more room for interviews but they will be opening up room for more interviews in a month". She contacted me again about the same job and asked if I was still interested. I said yes and she said she would send in my application again. I haven't heard from her since.

I have no idea what to do right now. I've gotten so discouraged that I've temporarily stopped my job search because I don't know where to look. I've started looking out of state as a last resort. Everywhere wants social workers or you need your license. But I can't get my license unless I have 3000 work hours and no one is willing to give me a job. I'm very competent and diligent. I just need someone to give me a chance.

I'm not sure what I'm asking for here but I guess I just needed to unload my emotions somewhere. Thanks for reading. If anyone has any advice for me, that would be great. Thank you.