Before the Stories: My Career as a Mental Health Clinician

I want to start by talking about how much I had been invested in the psychology field — learning to diagnose people, conduct assessments, make observations, and work with individuals in a county crisis unit. At one point, I arranged for people to be involuntarily hospitalized on a 5150 hold in Solano County, California, for two of their crisis units. This was back in the late 1990s.

People would come in, and I would assess them, talk to them, figure out what was going on, and determine whether they were suicidal, likely to harm themselves or others, or gravely disabled. Those were the criteria for involuntary commitment to the psychiatric hospital at Napa State Hospital. I worked at both the Fairfield and Vallejo sites. At the time, I was a temp, but they offered me a permanent position.

I declined because, after working many months there, I learned through the grapevine that the place was infiltrated by a clique of staff who manipulated the system. They would get people fired, avoid doing their work, and hire their friends — often people without any training in psychology. For example, the supervisor’s former girlfriend brought in her own friends, none of whom had backgrounds in psychology.

I also worked at a residential treatment home in Oakland, CA, through a nonprofit. I was the mental health clinician for people with severe mental illness, many of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia and co-occurring substance use disorders. I ran groups, created curricula, provided one-on-one therapy, conducted assessments, wrote daily progress notes, and wrote treatment plans.

Although I already had my master’s degree, I was still earning hours toward licensure. The woman who hired me was a licensed therapist who promised to meet with me once or twice a week as my clinical supervisor. I needed 3,000 supervised hours. But she failed to show up consistently. In return for her supervision, I had taken a huge pay cut — much lower than what I had earned as a social worker — because I thought the trade-off was worthwhile. Unfortunately, she didn’t keep her word, so I resigned.

Later, I was hired at a psychiatric hospital near Sacramento as a discharge planner. Human Resources promised me a certain pay rate, but once I started, they gave me much less. When I confronted them, they denied ever making that promise. It was fraudulent, so I resigned. I had been running the groups for seriously mentally ill patients.

I also became a patient’s rights advocate for a Sacramento nonprofit as well as a hospital representative in Certification Review Hearings where I represented psychiatric hospitals.

More of my work continued as I worked in a methadone clinic in Sacramento. There were always problems with the staff that I worked with, being very unprofessional and untrained. I vowed I would never work in treatment facilities again.

The truth is, a lot of people I worked with in the psychology field should not have been in those roles. Many weren’t truly qualified to do therapy, counseling, or assessments, or to work in drug and alcohol treatment centers. They might have had master’s degrees, but they lacked the skill, knowledge, or even the integrity needed.

Over time, I worked as a case manager making home visits for three and a half years, did social work with foster kids, and worked with people experiencing homelessness in Sacramento. I was also a volunteer crisis line counselor — my very first role in the field — supporting victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. I became certified in California, volunteered for about a year, and received significant training.

Beyond that, I pursued doctoral studies in psychology. I attended Saybrook Institute (now Saybrook University) and also enrolled at Walden University. At one point, I even traveled to Florida to continue my studies but had to stop because of personal struggles with affordability and lacking the funds to finish my doctorate degree.

That is my professional history.