We recently connected with Wale Okerayi and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Wale , thanks for joining us today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

There have been many defining moments in my career but the biggest one was starting my own private practice. The year was 2020 and I had been working remotely with 3 different practices. After a life changing year, I decided to take the leap and start my own practice. This has given me the ability to create the life I have always dreamed of. Naturally, I was terrified of branching out on my own but I also had a lot of support from the few mentors I have in my life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Wale and I’m a first generation Nigerian American woman (she/her) practicing as a licensed mental health therapist in New York State and Texas. Therapy found me as recently graduated babysitter who took an accidental year off after Undergrad.
Throughout my short time babysitting, I met a few Mothers who all had a Masters in counseling. From there, I started to do my own research and fell in love with the possibility of becoming a therapist.
After years of grad school at Teachers College Columbia University followed by internships, I started to form my new identity of being a therapist.
My main belief is that therapy can not and should not look the same for everybody. In my practice, I like to structure therapy around my clients needs, identities, interests, and goals.

Being that I am First generation, therapy with me is always from a Multicultural space addressing issues such as: race, culture, identity, marginalization, capitalism, and oppression. I think that identity is important to how we understand ourselves in the world and it is equally important that identity is always a part of the therapeutic work.

The thing I am most proud of when it comes to my work is the fact that I share identities with my clients. There’s a certain level of acceptance and comfort knowing that my clients don’t have to over-explain their experiences to me due to the fact that we share so many identities.
I also really enjoy being the representation I needed when I sought out therapy for myself many years ago. I am glad that the therapy space is changing and I am so proud to be a part of that change.

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

Yes I would. I can genuinely say that being a therapist is the only profession that I feel connected to. Before I discovered the possibility of becoming a therapist, I truly didn’t know what I wanted to do. I have always been naturally curious so people thought I should pursue law. I attempted to do so and even took the LSAT but, law didn’t quite resonate with who I was then and now.
It is such a joy and honor to be a therapist and I would choose becoming a therapist over and over again.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The biggest pivot in my career so far has been the shift from in person session to virtual sessions. At first it was supposed to be short term (cue March 2020) so it didn’t seem like too much of a hard shift.
But then, the end date didn’t exist and I had to create trust with my clients virtually. So much of my training had only taught me how to be a therapist while sharing space with my clients but, there was no preparation on how to do sessions virtually.
Fast forward to a few years later and my practice is solely virtual and has not impacted my clients or our work negatively.

Contact Info:

• Website: waleokerayi.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/becomingselfish/

Image Credits
@raetayphotography