“Yes, I do,” I answer earnestly when a new client asks me if I like my job. I really, really do. I am a psychologist and I have been working and volunteering in the Australian mental health space for more than 10 years. What I do not share with my new client is that I am growing increasingly worried about the proportion of people whom I am seeing less frequently than their treatment plan requires. It has left me feeling depleted, but that is something that I take to supervision.
A psychologist’s role is to support people through situations, relationships and to connect or refer them to various health and welfare services if and when required. But we are just one component of a person’s recovery. There are many integral elements to the therapeutic relationship and outcome that we cannot control.
