My last post before this one was January 22, 2024.

A lot happened in the time between. I finished my master’s degree, completed internship, and started working full-time as a therapist while earning hours toward licensure. Counselor’s Canvas had to become quieter while the rest of my life got fuller.

I am glad to be writing here again.

Life After School Felt Stranger Than I Expected

After spending so many years in school, I was used to semesters, syllabi, deadlines, grades, and a clear sense of what came next.

Working as a therapist changed that. The responsibility feels different when the work is no longer a case example or an assignment. These are real people trusting me with real parts of their lives.

I was excited to finally be doing the work I had trained for, and I was also learning how different professional life feels from being a student. Some parts are slower. Some are heavier. Most are much more human.

Finding the Kind of Work That Fits Me

At the time of this post, I was grateful to be working in a small private practice. I also had a role creating social media content, which gave me a way to combine therapy, education, and creativity.

That combination helped me realize that I did not want mental health education to sound detached from ordinary life. That idea eventually became a much bigger part of what Counselor’s Canvas is now.

What Internship Left Me Thinking About

My internship experience included working inside a larger corporate mental health system. I had a lot of feelings about what I learned there, including the ways those systems can support new clinicians and the ways productivity, time, and business pressures can shape care.

I eventually wrote more about that experience elsewhere on this site. At this point, I was still trying to understand what I wanted to carry forward from it.

What I Wanted This Blog to Become

I knew I wanted to keep writing about becoming a therapist, clear mental health education, books and journals, public conversations about diagnosis, and fictional characters.

I did not know yet how much those pieces would eventually organize themselves into the site you are reading now.

Looking back, this post feels less like a return to regular blogging and more like the point when Counselor’s Canvas started becoming the version of itself I actually wanted to keep building.

A Question to Carry With You

When you return to something after a long pause, do you actually want to pick up where you left off, or has the pause changed what you want it to become?