Marianna Jaross “I’m giving up my registration,” was not a sentence I had expected to say last year. This career was and is a huge part of my life and identity. Not-for-profit work. Private practice. Project work. Trying to carve out a role within psychology that expanded beyond one-to-one work and into the conversations I thought that we needed to be having within healthcare. I had thought that seeing 5-6 clients a day over a few days a week would be my life. And it just

Marianna Jaross I remember telling my psychologist at seventeen that this was the profession I wanted to pursue, and this led me to a range of interesting and varied experiences. I studied a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in psychology), and padded my degree with other interesting subjects; including those from the cinema and cultural studies department. I was probably never going to fit into a conventional path. I took a break. I worked in call centres. I travelled. I wrote fo

Marianna Jaross Since I started studying psychology, my training included lab-reports, statistics, cognitive psychology, and the brain. After having worked across several sectors over the last decade; my interests have pivoted towards trauma-informed and humanistic care, understanding the systems in which we operate; and how we are going to create services, environments, and attitudes that actively promote healing, lessen isolation, and help us to survive the challenges of th

Marianna Jaross My first placement when completing a Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy was co-facilitating a Men’s Behaviour Change Program in a group setting; as well as working with men individually who were involved with Corrections. Often, this was because they were choosing to use violence and coercive control towards the women closest to them. This client group was usually mandated to see me or participate in the group. I was in my early twenties at the time, and

Marianna Jaross I started working as a counsellor when I was twenty-three, and became a psychologist years later. I have taken a break from my registration as a psychologist for the last few months and have been thinking about the field, my training, and the direction we are heading in collectively. Personally, I think one of my best and worst traits is my curiosity: Instead of following a straight and narrow path to complete my training as a psychologist, I deviated several

Marianna Jaross I built a life throughout my twenties that was based on adventure, learning, and travel. I was also working towards a career that ‘made sense’ (psychologist), while also being deeply uncomfortable at times with how we went about and conceptualised healing. I have taken a break so I can think about and work in different arenas. Growing up, I learned reiki and how to read tarot at around the age of eleven. My mother was a minister I was separated from. In my fir

Marianna Jaross Each developmental period brings about unique challenges. For many people, your twenties can be about experimenting, trying to meet the milestones you feel pressured to; and looking around to see what everyone else is doing. You are navigating young adulthood, the call of independence, ideas around study and career, and milestones you are filtering through. Dating? Marriage? Babies? Travel? A degree? By your thirties, you may have accumulated a whole lot of ex

Marianna Jaross I have spent a lot of my life in higher education, chasing opportunities and degrees with the thought that I would finally land in the place that felt right. The life I built hasn’t been sustainable. It has been characterised by burn-out, periods of rest, and not being able to function in the same way I am used to. I have gone from someone high energy and ever-curious to someone who still has these traits, but cannot maintain this pace in this season of life.

Marianna Jaross I have existed in a range of arenas pertaining to healing and spirituality. I was exposed to the New Age as a child, trained in Reiki around the age of 11, learned to read tarot, and my mother was a minister; with whom I have not lived since I was child. I trained as a psychologist, and I was also running off to ‘woo-woo’ workshops and women’s circles in my spare time throughout my studies; which had both opportunities for healing, and challenges. I have retai

Marianna Jaross Late last year, I allowed my registration as a psychologist to lapse, and it wasn’t because I was jumping into something new and shiny. It was the quiet space required for me to think about my career, and to recalibrate my body and what I want moving forward. I reflected on the fact that I had tried to make this career work for me in a variety of ways over several years, and how clinical practice did not always seem like the right fit. My body was also giving