Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Diana Sun. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Diana, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.

To be honest, I found it hard working as an Asian American Mental Health Counselor. I believe there to be a high demand of it within the Asian population. During my Graduate school studies, I was looking for an internship site for my Mental Health Counseling Master’s program and was given a referral from my own therapist. It’s rare that you get amazing support and help from your own therapist so I was very grateful to them for it. Lucky enough, I was accepted into a small Christian counseling center that works heavily on a sliding scale, catered to those who could not afford high counseling rates. I had only seen myself as a Christian therapist who was just going to be there for the year to cumulate my hours, graduate and move on to a different site.

Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic hit right when graduation hit and I had no where to go. I was fortunate that the site I was already working with had let me and my colleague at the time stay on board. With that, I kept working there for another year and a half or so. However, during those years, I was left with a lot of questions about my own career and goals. My main modality at the time involved Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Christian Counseling which I was not satisfied with. I wanted to provide more. I wanted to move on to secular things and work with different populations, as I felt it was my calling to be elsewhere. So, I found myself leaving this center and moving onto other places.

At the same time, compassion fatigue was also a raising problem during those years. I found myself in constant burnout and lacking in my own self care needs. That was when I realized I had to take action and be kinder to myself. Thus, I also started working as a freelance UGC content creator – as an self care advocator. My content mainly contains things I enjoy such as video games, anime/cartoons, attending pop-ups/events, etc. Providing self-care content has been an amazing outlet for me and keeps me in check with my own profession as I love to remind my own clients to practice self-care daily too.

Diana, 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?

Hello! My name is Diana Sun, M.A. MHC-LP. I am currently a Pre-licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Mental Health Coach/Self-Care Coach. For those of you who are also in the counseling field (I’m going to be honest with you), when I say I am pre-licensed, I’m stating that I am still struggling in obtaining my license. I have failed the state licensure exam about six times now as the examination has been unforgiving/difficult and even though it left me feeling down in the dumpster, I know not to give up because obtaining that license will come eventually.

When I provide my counseling services, I specialize with anxiety, depression, stress management, women’s issues, church hurt, life transitions and self-esteem challenges. I love to build rapport with people and ensuring that good relationships are built.

I’ve always been asked, “Diana, what go you into counseling in the first place?” You can thank NCIS and Criminal Minds for that. I grew up watching those two TV shows and was in LOVE with the idea of forensic psychology and how the human mindset works. To tell you the truth, when I was in college, I never took school serious. I had always cut classes, did the bare minimum and couldn’t keep up with my grades until I was put on academic leave. That was when I had to put my ‘A-game’ on and actually think about my career path. That was when I thought about “Ducky” from NCIS and “Spencer Reid” from Criminal Minds and their profession. So I studied harder and earned my Bachelor’s in Forensic Psychology. Additionally, I have my own mental health struggles too and felt like I wanted to do something to help individuals as well.

“If I’m always asking for help, others has to be asking for help too.” – That was the mindset I always had when thinking about my career path. This helped me understand that becoming a counselor was something I wanted to do. Being honest, congruent, and showing unconditional positive regard to clients are all attributes to a good counselor. What makes me be the “right fit” for my clients is letting them know that I empathize with them and having them feel heard/understood.

As for how I obtained my Master’s, it started when I attended a worldwide Christian conference that was held in Missouri back in 2015. At the exhibition hall, I was introduced to one of the Christian Universities that held the Mental Health Counseling master’s program. So I decided to study that from 2017-2020 (Unfortunately this school has now closed down as of 2023).

During my journey as a Mental Health Counselor, my confidence has been extremely shaky. Through the numerous failures from the state license exam, I felt like I was not competent enough to be a counselor. However, through the amazing support from my colleagues (now friends), they reminded me that the exam does not define me in which those are absolute truths. I would like to personally thank all my amazing friends for their constant support and believing in me when I’ve been at my lowest.

With self care, I am a person who loves to play video games and watch anime. I especially love to create content on social media just for fun. The purpose of self care is to do the things you enjoy without having to feel any form of stress. I also provide self-care coaching to help individuals find their niche and get a better understanding of their hobbies/needs.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

If I had a magic wand to go back in time, I would probably tell my younger self to decide on a career path a lot sooner. Now if it was to become a counselor, I’m not sure about that. I remembered contemplating on becoming a pharmacist. I actually don’t know why or how being a pharmacist came into my mind back then, but I remembered being intrigued with the profession at some point. Perhaps that would be the path I’d taken if I could start all over again.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Two words – Good rapport. That’s it. All it takes is forming good relationships with your clients/colleagues/friends and let the networking do it’s magic. Sometimes people will give in a good word of mouth and you won’t even realize the positive things that’s been said about you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://book-byou.com/profilepartnerCopy?expertRef=OI1G5tJ1zlOWW7XmDTRbPwz758r1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/self.care.rin/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianasunlinkedin/
• Other: https://selfcarerin.my.canva.site/https://fingertip.com/selfcarerin

  https://www.tiktok.com/@self.care.rin

Image Credits

Image taken by Diana’s personal friends, family or herself