Therapist, MFT.

But my first degree and a first job were in the technical field - computer programming. It was back in my country of origin. I immigrated in the US in 1996. A few years later had a tragic loss of my sister to AIDS. It was a turning point in my life when I was re-evaluating my life choices, the time when I realized I was a humanitarian (and a bit artistic) by nature and that someone like me should have nothing to do with anything technical and mechanical. I got my MA in psych, then went through internship, licensure, private practice.

Now, I am sort of at crossroads again, feeling like I might be better giving humanitarian service through teaching or doing counseling differently from how I was trained - more effectively, more ethically and more creatively. Still exploring various options of how to be of help. But, one thing is clear to me and that is that I definitely belong to a helping profession/occupation whatever else it might be.

I think, those of us who are drawn to helping professions have a naturally heightened sensitivity (empathy) towards someone else's pain, the desire to help and the need to have a life purpose. It may or may not be necessarily connected to personal traumas. Many people have had traumatic experiences of some kind, but not all of them have the need to help themselves through helping others. I think, it takes a special natural insight to understand that we are all connected on some level and to see someone else's pain as one's own. Of course, not everyone in a helping profession has a calling for it. Some of them should definitely change occupation.