Counseling vs. Genetic Counseling
I hold an M.S. in Clinical Psychology, and my career experience includes counseling, academic coaching, supporting individuals with disabilities, and teaching. Currently, I’m a GC student at Boise State and I direct my LLC as a certified KonMari home organizer, specializing in serving individuals with ADHD. Throughout my professional career, the two main threads have been a passion for supporting individuals as they navigate complex and stressful decisions and a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Introspection has led me to genetic counseling. Currently, I encourage my clients to visualize their ideal lifestyle and space. While reflecting on my ideal career, I realized that organizing does not reflect all of my passions. Genetic counseling will allow me to realize my passion for helping others as they face significant questions that impact them and their families.
I developed crucial counseling skills while answering hotline calls from individuals in crisis, providing individual therapy sessions, conducting intakes for new residents and counseling clients, and facilitating support groups for victims of domestic violence. Counseling this population included a non-directive approach, which emphasized the effectiveness of creating and holding a supportive space for another individual. I noted a similar counseling approach after observing genetic counseling sessions and completing several informational interviews.
As a genetic counselor, I hope to bring a humanistic and person-centered perspective to my interactions with patients and encourage other professionals to do the same.
Virtual shadowing, informational interviews, webinars, and reading portions of "A Guide to Genetic Counseling" have given me a glimpse into the field. Although I considered further graduate study in Psychology, the less subjective diagnoses provided via genetic testing are more compelling.
Additionally, the GC application process has contributed to my life-long learning and piqued my interest in contributing to psychiatric genetic counseling. Although genetic testing for psychological disorders is not providing conclusive results yet, the methods practiced by Vancouver's Adapt clinic have demonstrated positive effects. This holistic approach allows patients to understand their symptoms and the interactions between environmental and genetic contributions. Therefore, I am interested in learning more about psychiatric genetic counseling and neuropsychopharmacogenomics and contributing to research in this specialty.