Earlier this week, I took my first midterm in fifteen years. It was open book, no time limit, and I missed 3 questions for a score of 85%. I felt disappointed, and then I said my newest mantra—Good enough—and got back to work. My professor then deemed a few of the questions to be misleading or out of the scope of our learning, so she eliminated them from the midterm and my grade raised to a 95%! GOOOOOD ENOUGH!

The first month of my Master’s program in Clinical Psychology has absolutely flown by. So far, I’ve attended 10 class meetings on Zoom, written 25-30 discussion board posts and 3 shorter papers (1-4 pages in APA format), and read hundreds of pages of materials. I have learned, been affirmed and challenged, and noticed a thousand things about who I am now/have always been/am becoming.

This month will be busy, busy, busy. I have longer papers due mid-month and early December, and a project that involves interviewing a parent about their tween’s early years. (Thank goddess for ’s ’s Discord and the friends I have made there!) I’m being asked quite quickly to embody the role of a clinician, to observe people, systems, structures, ecosystems, patterns, habits, compassion, connection, trauma, harm, love, respect, trust and healing from a place of psychological curiosity and understanding.

I’m finding it same same but distinctly different to the work I’ve done as a writer and spiritual practitioner, and I truly feel as if I’m in the right place, which is a blessing to behold after years of life, death and rebirth.

The main difference? If you’re reading this right now, chances are you cannot be one of my future clients. I will need to draw strict boundaries between my clinical practice, and any work I do with clients in the spiritual/witchy space as to not create dual relationships. Ultimately, I feel a lot of freedom in this separation, and the good news is I can still share tons of juicy information with you as I learn!

In the fun, feedback form I sent out last month, over 80% of you said you’d like to read Learn Along missives from my program! How very 9-coded of us. And I’m so tickled—this is a great opportunity to both share knowledge and wisdom, and do some reflection on my own work and learning.

The breakdown of my classes, with my notes and takeaways, plus links to a few of my favorite readings or videos from my classes, will be for my paid pals under the cut (if you subscribe to read, thank you!!, and please consider doing it from a computer or browser—the iOS app eats all our money, honey!), but I wanted to share a few major, major lessons we could all use, especially now.

Showing up imperfectly is all we can do.

Repair is a necessary process that is vital to both the individual and the community.

Everyone is susceptible to influence and inappropriate hierarchical thinking.

Change takes time, patience, sustained efforts, and a whole lot of love and grace.

Healing, like everything else, is a constant arrival, without ever arriving.

If you’d like to continue reading this Learn Along, plus access all of the paid pal perks, hit the button below! Thank you! I am so happy to be connected. Please consider subscribing from a computer or browser — the iOS app eats our $$!

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