We recently connected with Carissa Lataillade and have shared our conversation below.

Carissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How’d you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?

A year after the pandemic in 2020, and several months after graduating, I landed my first paid job with my supervisor Eve Sturges at her private practice MagpieLife Psychotherapy. I had been volunteering at a community mental health counseling center (so I could still collect my hours towards licensure) while fervently scouring the internet for any job leads I could find. I applied to several positions listed on Indeed and prelicensed.com. Sometimes I would get a call back and sometimes I would do an interview but nothing was panning out the way that I thought it would. I didn’t want to continue volunteering, I needed to at least make enough money to pay my bills and living in Southern California is not cheap! After many interviews, I was finally offered a job, but with very low pay. I asked if they could take my experience into account and they said no that was the standard rate for all associates. I weighed the pros and cons of taking the low paying position at the treatment center, which would have required me to drive to two different locations (at the time I didn’t have a car, so I would have had to share my spouse’s car for us both to get to work). I did the math, and the pay wasn’t enough. I also wanted to follow my aspiration of opening my own private practice someday. I knew that this was the time for me to be picky about who I wanted to work with and why. I wanted to work with a supervisor that supported me and my goals. I wanted to work with someone who was more than just my boss/supervisor. I wanted to work with someone who could be my mentor and show me the business side of private practice, someone that could help guide my professional development into the clinician that I envisioned myself to be in 3-5 years. Thus, I decided that working at a treatment center did not align with my professional goals. I was really scared that I made the wrong decision to turn down that job offer, because at this point I had no guarantee that I would get another job opportunity. I wiped my tears and logged onto several mental health groups on Facebook and made a job seeker post. Through those posts I got several responses, one of which tagged me to my supervisor Eve’s post that she made looking to hire an associate. I sent her a message, emailed her my resume and attended my zoom interview with her. It wasn’t until almost two weeks later that I got the response from her that I had gotten the job! I was so excited! I also wasn’t done with my job search yet. Due to my contract with my new supervisor, I was responsible for bringing in my own clients, which meant that even though I just got a job I was STILL not making any money. It took me several months before I finally was able to build a caseload of clients under her practice. In the midst of my steep marketing learning curve, I was able to land my 2nd paid job at the new app Cerebral. Now I was finally making enough money to pay my bills while also being aligned with my professional goals and aspirations. Looking back, I am very happy I ended up where I did! Although I no longer work at Cerebral, I still work at MagpieLife and another private practice that I joined later that same year.

Carissa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hi, my name is Carissa. I am passionate about empowering clients to be their best selves and to thrive. I enjoy collaborating with clients to facilitate strength-based discussions where clients can build insight and develop skills that enable them to grow, challenge their maladaptive thoughts, and create their preferred story. I am looking forward to learning more about you and the experiences that have shaped who you are today.

As an African American therapist, my therapeutic approach is based on authenticity and a cultural lens to develop meaningful connections with clients. I use various theoretical approaches including Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Solution-Focused, Motivational Interviewing, and Narrative therapy.

Currently, I am a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist as well as a Registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor working under the supervision of a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist. I have provided individual, couples, and group therapy to under-represented populations within Los Angeles County since 2019. I graduated with my Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage & Family Therapy from Pepperdine University in September 2020. I love to dance and I enjoy playing video games with my family!

Currently, the thing that I am most proud of has been a dream of mine since before I even began my graduate studies at Pepperdine University. My long-term career goal is to open a family practice and I am excited to share that I have completed the process (filed with the state of CA) for starting my private practice. Although it is currently inactive, since I am still working towards completing the licensure requirements, I am still very proud and cannot wait! Once I have passed the clinical exams and have received my new license number from California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences, I can officially open my private practice. Until then, please keep an eye out for updates for the announcement of me passing the test, receiving my new licensed number, and the opening of my private practice Paladin Psychotherapy & Family Counseling Inc. on my website www.paladinmft.com

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Yes, I would have to say that the cohort of clinicians that had to work in the mental health field through the 2020 pandemic are just built differently. So many things were happening all at once. I remember right before the shut down, I was still a student trainee running a weekly group and a long time client of the center (who had never missed a group meeting) had died. I remember having to inform all of the other group attendees of their passing. It was so painful, it was so sad. It was shortly after that, when everything was shut down. I remember being told by my university that I wasn’t allowed to work on-site, in compliance with the government shutdown mandate. While also being informed by Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (my practicum site) that I was not authorized to work from home since I was a pre-licensed student/trainee mental health provider (which was later approved 2-3 months later). Like so many others during the pandemic, I too was laid off from my part time job since they hadn’t yet defined who qualified as an “essential worker.” I also didn’t have enough hours to meet the graduation requirements of my university due to the shut down and the 2-3 month delay in authorizing me to provide services to clients via telehealth. Therefore, I had to find a second practicum site that would allow me to do telehealth from home or delay my graduation and pay tuition for another quarter at my university. Since my work life had ended and my school life was intense, I guess the universe felt it was only fair that my personal life also be stimulated. While this was all happening, a close family member of mine was struggling with their own mental health and had been placed on a 5150 hold for observation in a mental health facility after several suicide attempts. To say that I was overwhelmed is an understatement. I remember thinking I chose to be in the mental health field, I want to be a clinician! Yet, here I am feeling like I could never leave work; there was no “going home,” it followed me. I talked about mental health at school, I talked about mental health at work, and I talked about mental health at home. It felt like a never ending cycle. I even asked my supervisor if I should not work anymore because of everything I was dealing with and she said “if you come in and it’s too much you can leave (go home) but you won’t know if it’s too much unless you try.” And so I kept showing up the next day, and the day after that because I didn’t know what else to do and I didn’t want to abandon my clients. It wasn’t until after speaking with the police regarding the wellbeing of my family member, my mind finally said, I just want to lay down, I’m beyond exhausted. I made an appointment with my academic advisor and I told her that I needed to know how to drop out because I didn’t think that I could continue anymore. The funny thing is that she refused! This conversation occurred over three years ago so I’m paraphrasing, but she said, “Carissa, you have one of the highest GPAs that I have ever seen, you have only a few weeks left of this quarter and only one more quarter after that until you graduate, I’m not helping you quit.” I remember ending the zoom call angry crying. For some inexplicable reason, I was determined to change her mind so I made three more appointments with her over the next few months. At each appointment every single time she told me no. As the time continued on, I was in my final quarter and I had decided if I don’t finish the hours for graduation then I just won’t register for the additional quarter and I would truly be done. So to recap, a client died, the pandemic lockdown began, I had lost my part-time job, LA county delayed authorizing me to provide telehealth to my clients, I didn’t have enough client hours to graduate at my university on time, I had to find a second practicum site to hopefully help me achieve enough hours to graduate, I was working with crisis-level of clients, and a close family member of mine was on constant suicide watch. In addition to all of these events, I had found and started volunteering at a 2nd practicum site, LA County had finally approved for me to continue seeing all my clients via telehealth, I had maintained a high GPA at my university, and I completed the client hour requirement to not only graduate but to also meet qualifications to pursue dual licensure as a marriage & family therapist as well as a professional clinical counselor in the state of California. If you were to ask me how I did it, all I can tell you is that I didn’t stop, I kept walking one foot after the other. I kept advancing, I cried but I didn’t quit. I stopped looking for answers that I didn’t have and stayed on the path of what I can do today. I kept showing up and when I looked up, I had finished school, my diploma was in the mail on its way. A supervisor once said to me, “Carissa I would never wish for you not to fail. Because if you do not fail, then that means that you did not take that leap of faith to pursue your career aspirations because you were too afraid to move and remained still.” I may not have the exact answer for what precisely illustrates my resilience but I can tell you with confidence that the opposite of resilience is to be paralyzed with fear and I am elated for every day that I choose to keep advancing.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Training and knowledge is important, you need to know how to diagnose and deal with crisis clients and situations. What’s even more important, though, is building your therapeutic alliance with your clients. Do you have good rapport with your clients? Do your clients feel seen and heard by you? Do your clients feel it’s safe to be vulnerable with you? Do your clients look forward to your sessions? When you have built good rapport with your clients and have established a strong therapeutic alliance, that is when you will witness an increase in your clients achieving their therapeutic goals. When our clients are able to grow in therapy and achieve their goals, that is the definition of success in our field. Those clients will tell their family and friends, “Hey, I had a therapist and he/she was great!” Our work will speak for itself. Of course networking is the foundation of success as a business but so is giving back to the community! This is not a career that you do for the money, you have to really enjoy what you do on a daily basis because this career is not for the faint of heart. If you love what you do and you are genuine, and care about the wellbeing of your clients, the rest will follow. Success will follow!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.paladinmft.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/paladinmft
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Carissa.Lataillade/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/paladinmft
• Other: https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/826933