15. Owning Being a "Generalist" and Boring CEs (ft. Candice Fraser, LPC)

This week Jazmin shares about a recent experience when trying to confer and refer, specifically how the attitudes of some counselors seem to be overly abrupt, curt and - dare we say - pretentious. In our discussion on this, we highlight our frustration with what seems to be a counterproductive counselor culture of mistrust, competitiveness, and dulled personality expression in conversations between what should be like-minded professionals, particularly in the private practice arena.

Today we’re sharing our interview with Candice Fraser! She’s a Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas with a Bachelor of Behavioral Sciences from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas and a Master of Arts in Health Psychology from Texas State University - San Marcos.

Candice currently works in private practice in Georgetown, Texas and is the host of her own podcast, The Couch Next Door! With Candice we find out about her unconventional path into both counseling and podcasting, as well as her deliberately identifying as a “generalist” in her practice. Candice shares how her practice has shifted and changed as her personal life experiences have changed, which is something that helps us feel a little more normal.

We also dive into with Candice the realities of continuing education in the counseling field, including how boring traditional CEs are, how useless some of those additional letters after your name can really be, and how difficult it can be to articulate what “rapport building” actually is.

We’re so excited to introduce y’all to Candice’s podcast, The Couch Next Door, and announce that we’ll be getting interviewed by her on her podcast soon! We’ll keep y’all posted on when that comes out.

Resources mentioned:

• The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile
• Barbie (2023 film)
• America Ferrera’s Iconic Barbie Speech: https://youtu.be/CBqlDWHkdHk?si=KmiHmhGUEToOJWy2
• The Couch Next Door Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285228/about

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Disclaimer: This podcast is not therapy and does not establish a professional, therapeutic counseling relationship. All statements made on this podcast by hosts and guests are their individual personal perspectives only and are not necessarily shared by anyone else. The hosts and guests on this podcast are not speaking on behalf of all mental health professionals or the profession as a whole.