When I was a newly minted psychologist, Ph.D. and license in hand after so many years of training, I felt pretty insecure. For the first five years, I would sit across from my patients, and at various moments think to myself— “I wonder what a real psychologist would say right now?”. I imagined one of my teachers, who always seemed to know what to say or do. Now, he was a real psychologist! --not me, despite my doctorate.

Slowly that thought faded, but it took much longer than I ever imagined to actually consider myself a real clinician. I compared myself with my mentors who had 10-... Read More