PHD Counseling Psychology Personal Statement LGBTQ

PHD Counseling Psychology Personal Statement LGBTQ

I like to think that I am defined by my capacity to love, and that love is ultimately what drives me forward to give myself first and foremost to doctoral studies, love for myself, the human mind, Psychology, and most of all the power of counseling to improve lives. I am also driven by my love for women who share my experiences as a woman, children of immigrants with whom I share generational issues, especially other Asian and Asian-Canadian families, as well as the activist LGBTQ community.. I am also very much in love with Toronto. Thus, I could not be more fully convinced that I am the best fit with the PHD Program in Counseling Psychology at the University of ____.

My experience as a queer woman of colour combined with my extensive observation of and interaction with numerous first and second generation immigrants, dovetails nicely with my extensive studies into sexuality and sexual health in immigrant communities. Becoming a professional psychologist and being able to provide counseling services to communities I deeply care about and am committed to serving, would represent a very special professional triumph for me as a member of the community. The fact that LGBTQ+ youth are greatly overrepresented in the ranks of those struggling with mental health issues in North America, with suicide rates continuing to rise, highlights the need for counseling that is not only culturally competent but also relevant to the patient. I would consider it a great privilege to assist people in navigating difficult life circumstances or recovering from trauma, and collaborating with them in a clinical relationship, working with them on goals that are meaningful for them.

My intended PhD research is largely inspired by my membership, activism, and work within racialized LGBTQ+ communities in Toronto. As a member and activist, I feel a profound sense of social accountability in ensuring diverse voices are heard and that principles of health equity are honored. I look forward to continuing to serve racial, sexual, and gender diverse communities as a PhD-trained counselor dedicated to health and social equity

I hope to contribute to ____’s work on diverse scholarship by contributing my perspective as a woman, a Chinese-Canadian, and someone with experience as a sexual minority within faith spaces, and also as a budding scholar who has contributed to the intellectual energy of these spaces. Becoming a Counseling Psychologist is for me a response to a spiritual calling, quenching my intellectual curiosity, and providing me with an exciting career that responds to several of my primary interests and commitments. My determination to pursue the study of counseling on a professional level dates from an early curiosity about volition and identity formation. Another prominent factor that set me on the course of professional counseling was understanding the stories of a number of friends who have confided in me about trauma resulting from interpersonal and institutional interactions. Being a keeper of these stories ignited my passion for holistic wellness as inclusive of mental health and also influenced by systemic factors. I have also studied Women & Gender Studies on a graduate level. It is my intention to include this subject in my research.

Love is the singlemost salient element in the connections that I have traced between psychoanalysis, critical feminist studies, queer/rainbow theology, and my personal experiences. Love, is the ethic and politic that defines how I exist in relation to the communities of which I form a part, within which I am embedded, and whom I serve. As such, love for me is not just a relational sentimentality, but also, an intellectual orientation, sacred force, and socially-conscious dedication to the broader community.

I have three primary goals that I am committed to achieving through graduate school: i) become competent in providing multicultural counseling and trauma-informed care to underserved populations (particularly racialized LGBTQ+ people); ii) produce and disseminate scholarship that will inform clinical interventions and help to narrow mental health disparities for said communities; and iii) remain involved in social justice advocacy and community building.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have served the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape (TRCC/MWAR) in capacities as both Counsellor and Advocate. In my first year at TRCC/MWAR, logging over 200 hours as a Crisis-Line Counsellor, I have gained valuable experience and insight in providing trauma-informed care, counselling, and referrals in accordance with survivors’ personal, legal, and cultural needs. Working with survivors of diverse backgrounds, across diverse interpersonal settings and varying circumstances, led me to see that active listening, meditation techniques, and conflict-management techniques were helpful to many of them, hence I felt compelled to learn more to to provide improved care to survivors.

I began taking classes again a year ago, and earning certifications in acute mental health first aid, conflict-management for high-emotional states, as well as advancing my understanding of the barriers most acutely experienced by immigrants and refugees. I was grateful to have grounded all of my work in anti-oppressive, feminist, trauma-informed frameworsks, deepening my feminist theoretical roots and practice, and connecting this to the practice and science of counseling psychology.

Since publishing a piece that addressed queer liberalism in the context of coming out narratives, people started to reach out to me for counseling and advice. This helped me to better appreciate how important it was for me to continue to challenge the way that cultural and academic discourse has an impact on how people understand themselves.

At Church, I serve as the Women’s Ministry Director, and as a planner and writer of spiritual meditations, I am invested in articulating different ways of being that are still aligned with the main tenets of Christian faith, but without replication of what I see as harmful dogma. This is one of the first points at which I came to better understand the power of writing, and in particular, how my own experiences and words can contribute to somebody elses experience of self-compassion, and self-acceptance in relation to their gender identity and sexual orientation, in a way that does not contradict or depreciate what are for them important cultural, religious, and social influences. 

I am most interested in creating space for women to express their thoughts about religion, facilitating a safe space for them to challenge and voice their doubts, because often, I find that questions of faith are ultimately a journey to better appreciate both our humanity and multiplicity.

PHD Counseling Psychology Personal Statement LGBTQ