We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meet Dr. Jasmine Tyson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Tyson, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
I had what I’d consider an idyllic childhood, which I fully attribute to my parents. We enjoyed yearly trips to Disney World, family beach vacations, and Christmases brimming with gifts. My parents worked extremely hard to give me and my sister the lives they never had while growing up in the projects of New York City. A lot of sacrifice, patience, love, and energy went into building such a life for us. They instilled the importance of a strong education and put us in private schools, hoping that one day we would be able to build such a life for our children. As many Black families in America can attest to, we did not have land, houses, or money that was passed down to us within our families, and like many people in general my parents did everything they could to build the best life for us within their means.
While education was strongly impressed upon me, I think that the most important life lesson my parents instilled in me at an early age was a deep understanding of what unconditional love looks like. When my mother’s sister, my aunt, was 7 years old their mother and my aunt’s father died within a few months of each other. My aunt was an orphan and was headed into state custody if it wasn’t for the intervention of my parents. They were in their 20s, didn’t have kids of their own yet, and were still dating when they decided to adopt my aunt. I’ve always seen the way that they love not just in the way that they changed my aunt’s life, but in the respect that my parents showed one another as spouses, in the way they emphasized the importance of family time with nightly dinners and annual vacations, in the times that they attended our volleyball matches and took off work early for some of them, and so much more. No life is perfect, and I can’t fit the entirety of my life’s scope in the span of this article, but what I can say is that I believe that the most important thing my parents did was teach me how to love. They were and continue to this day to be remarkable examples of true love.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I was one of those weird kids who knew what she wanted to do at a young age. When I was 13 years old we had a career day at my school. The moment I learned that I could make a living helping people through an understanding of human behavior, made me fall in love with the idea of becoming a psychologist. I majored in Psychology during undergrad, went on to get my Master’s in Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and then finished up my schooling with a PhD in Counseling Psychology.
I currently own a private practice called Changing Tides Psychotherapy where I work with teens and adults who struggle with trauma, relationship concerns, anxiety, depression, and more. Maybe it was the way that I saw how trauma intimately affected my aunt’s life after losing her parents within 3 months of each other at such a young age, or maybe it was a desire to break the mental health stigma within the Black community, or something else entirely unknown to me that got me so invested in the field of psychology, but the reason as to why I became a psychologist never really mattered to me. I love what I do. The most rewarding aspects of my job are the moments of healing, self-understanding, and personal triumphs I get to have the honor of witnessing therapy helping people to heal. My practice is both in-person (just outside of Atlanta in a city called Johns Creek), and Telehealth, which allows me to reach more people throughout the state of Georgia. I work to create a non-judgmental environment where my clients feel heard, understood, and safe enough to share some of the most vulnerable parts of their lives. The time that my client’s spend working with me will not only include moments of vulnerability, but that of laughter, insight, a sense of accomplishment, and more.
The name “Changing Tides” came to me after spending a year living in Boca Raton, FL where I completed my doctoral internship. I was lucky enough to have gotten matched at a program just a few minutes away from the beach, which I visited almost every weekend alone connecting with my thoughts and nature. The beach quickly became my happy place, and just like the tides of the ocean which are always changing, I realized that we as humans and our emotions are no different. I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about being human. The choices we get to make allow us to change for the better if we wish it, and our emotions are never stagnant. We aren’t always sad, happy, or angry, which reminds me that nothing lasts forever and that hope for a better life is just around the corner.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I graduated in 2018 and have been working toward my licensure ever since. The licensure process includes 4 separate very expensive and time-consuming exams. The first hurdle has been the most difficult journey I’ve ever been on in my career thus far. I’ve taken the first licensing exam 3 times and have missed passing by 1-5 points each time. I’ve learned that the moment I give up is the moment I truly fail. It doesn’t matter that the test has been proven through extensive research to not be an effective indicator of therapeutic competence, or that psychologists have been trying to get the test thrown out over decades because of that reason, or that 39% of African Americans don’t pass on the first try compared to the 14% of their White counterparts. It’s simply part of my journey, no matter how difficult and unfair it feels. I’ve been blessed enough to meet other clinicians who are a testament to the profession who happen to also be multiple test-takers just like me. I don’t share this information easily because it’s not something many people know about me, but I’ve had to learn not to be ashamed of my attempts to pass. I now know that it simply shows my resilience to relentlessly pursue a dream I’ve had of independently practicing as a psychologist since I was 13 years old, and I won’t fail that 13-year-old me.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I’ve had to unlearn how I view myself after not having passed the first part of the licensure process yet. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve learned not to be ashamed of my multiple attempts. After a lot of self-discovery via journaling, my own therapy, and talks with family and friends, I’ve been able to alter my outlook to see it as part of my journey and as a sign of my resilience to pursue a lifelong dream. Sometimes you have to fall on your face a couple of times before you learn a different way to get back up and stay up. I’ve learned that I need some extra help with this exam process, so I’ve gotten a study coach who taught me not to put my life on hold, to travel, to spend time with my dog, and stay connected to the important people in my life. So now I go on more regular long walks along the river with my dog, I’ve traveled and pursued hobbies like surfing, and I’ll continue to live my life to the fullest as I learn to maintain this newer mindset that includes both pursuing the life of my dreams and living it to the fullest. My mindset has never been more hopeful and positive and my motivation has never been higher. I only fail if I give up, so I’ve learned that I haven’t failed and don’t plan to start now.
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Image Credits
Kylee Kelly, Maui photographer (surfing picture only).