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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.
SubscribeWe recently connected with Jessica Smith and have shared our conversation below.
Jessica , appreciate you joining us today. Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?
When I decided to go back to school two years ago, I knew it would be a challenging journey. A journey I was ready to embrace as I knew that 2022 would be my year career-wise, so last year I decided to go through training to become a Certified Peer Specialist for Mental Health. While in training to complete my certification, I had a vision that the organization I was training with would be the same organization where I transitioned into my mental health professional career.
At the time, I was experiencing major burnout with my previous job. Without any job prospects lined up, I decided that I would resign on January 21st, 2022. I don’t know why, but that was the date I had chosen. I knew it was time for me to make the transitional decision for my career.
When I applied for the job with the agency on December 19th, I had just completed the training. The state exam wasn’t scheduled to be taken until January 10th, and the position required certification from the state.
I didn’t hear back until January 4th when they contacted me to set up an interview. My interview was scheduled for January 19th. Although I took my exam on the 10th of January, the results were not expected until the end of that month. On January 21st, I received an email stating that I had passed the state exam, and a phone call offering me the job position.
Our passion often lies within our purpose, our gifts and even our pain. So for me, it meant so much because everything aligned just the way I prayed and hoped. I knew my new job was where I was meant to begin my career in mental health.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My passion has always been to advocate, inspire, counsel, support, and encourage those who have mental health issues; in addition to educating our community and dismantling the stigmas of mental health.
In my professional career today, I represent Mental Health as a certified peer specialist, speaker, author, advocate, and crisis counselor on staff. I am also a DBSA Certified Facilitator for the Atlanta Metro Chapter (Depression Bipolar Support Alliance), a Wellness Peer Support facilitator, a NAMI volunteer Helpline Specialist (National Alliance on Mental Illness) and soon will teach NAMI Peer to Peer classes.
Additionally, I will be launching my online Mental Health Educational courses
in December and relaunching my podcast “Jess Real Talk.”
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
What is most helpful for succeeding in the Mental Health field is having a heart of genuine compassion, true empathy, understanding, and authenticity. It is vital that we have a true willingness and passion to help others, to grow as a community and to unite together in humanity.
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