The in between: post graduation-pre license

After graduation, life should feel like the start of something new. It doesn’t. Now is the time where you have to convince a practice or agency to pay you for something you have been doing for free for the past year or more. In some cases switching populations. The three years in between seem easy enough: find job, find supervisor, stay at job, complete application.

Unless it doesn’t go that way…

find job

In some cities it is easy enough to find the employment of your choice with your ideal population. In other situations a few agencies control the flow of provisional and non-licensed individuals. Despite a counselor’s desire to work with a specific population, depending on the city in which you live, that might not be possible during this three year period. If you are lucky enough to work with the population of your choice, then great. If not, its going to be a long three years.

find supervisor

In my graduate program, supervision was explained as a requirement. After going through this process, I am grateful to have had good supervision. I wish that the process of having people other than our faculty to depend on post graduation was clearly stated. We have professionals in the field who can answer our questions and make sure that we are not going to impede the client’s growth or our own. The part of this situation that new and future counselors get hung up on is that supervisors charge for services. Also some agencies provide free supervision to employees. I believe that any professional should be paid for their time unless the meeting is stated to be pro bono. Supervisors are seeing us when they could be seeing clients. Even though I have met individuals in the same situation as me who prefer to have their clinical supervisor in the same office I always suggest (if asked) that counselors find outside supervision. What if your main issue that month is literally where you work?  I assume that a person will not make that the topic of supervision when getting fully license is contingent on steady employment. Bottom line is get outside supervision so that there is an outside perspective to the wide variety of issues a new counselor may face.

stay at job

This was strangely hard for me to do. I was laid off from my first job after I already quit my back up job. The company where I worked decided that the counseling center did not fit their overall mission. Which meant my employment was expendable. I had left my part-time job due to patients regularly fighting and questionable practices by other staff members. My second full time job ended poorly due to my own behavior. I learned that it is not in my best interests to act defensively with combative coworkers and clients. I finally found a third job and I was able to meet my time requirement to submit my application.

complete application

This monstrosity could have easily been put online. Some of it could have been pulled from my APC application. The internship verification, citizenship affidavit, and list of completed courses have all been submitted three years prior with my provisional license. Two of these documents had to be notarized. I am not sure why Georgia is still holding on to paper. I have read GA rule 135 more times than I would like to remember. As I have put my application in the mail (FINALLY!!!!) A number of thoughts go through my head:

• I am saddened at the loss of my supervision group. I know that I am welcome to drop in but my supervisors time is best served with those counselors who still need her.
• A stack of paper in an envelope is the culmination of 5 years of work and is waiting for the approval of a group of 10 people who can change my life.
• What do I do while I wait? What do I focus on?
• Can I take the next steps?
• Will I add value? Will I be successful?

Well time for #licensewatch

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