Niche, Where art thou

Dear New Therapists,

Have you ever felt unsure, panicked, or pressured to find your niche in graduate school or as a newly minted professional? Most people have, and it’s ridiculous.

A niche is a population or modality that someone “specializes” in. Some people focus on having a “population niche” while others put more weight on finding their “modality niche.”

Either way, please take your time in finding your niche! It’s not a race and it’s okay to want more experience prior to “picking a niche.” It’s also more than okay to change niches throughout your career!

I was confident from the moment I started graduate school that I wanted to work with the LGBTQIA+ community but I began by refusing to work with teenagers and said I only wanted to work with adults.

Thankfully, I had an internship supervisor who said, “Alright, you’re going to work with teens.” She checked on me during every supervision to make sure I didn’t hate it, and therefor not providing good service, but I absolutely fell in love with working with this age group.

Now, a modality took longer. I personally believe that people focus way too hard on modality and can even become territorial and believe that their modality is the “best,” when in reality, the most important thing is if the client can connect with the modality in use.

I consider myself a narrative therapist. I love stories and believe in the power of storytelling and narratives. That comes in many shapes and forms in session like using books in session or as homework (bibliotherapy) and I love having clients create characters similar to creating characters for D&D!

But, it took me a while to find my groove, mainly because of all the different messaging I was getting around what modality I “should” adopt.

During graduate school, I was forced to use Adlerian by a professor who ran the national association, another was convinced I should be Gestalt, and another begged me to take up CBT. All of them are great, in the right practitioner, but not for me.

I am happy that I gave them, and many others, a chance because it helped me learn about them and understand what is and isn’t authentic to myself as a professional.

But, it was difficult to set boundaries and not rush to find something as quickly as possible.

The skills and abilities a therapist has don’t come from their niche, specialties, or expertise. It comes from your ability to know what works authentically for yourself and what you feel you can authentically offer to those you work with.

Trust yourself, try new things, learn as much as you can, and always continue to grow.

Thank you for reading my lovelies.

Ryan Dillon, LPC-S (they/them)