Natosha Monroe

Oftentimes we identify an area of life or a personality that could use some improvement, right? So we discuss what needs to take place to replace it, or alter it. And so a vow is made to change it for the better. And sometimes that works…

If you read my last blog, you know that I was preparing myself for a long wait in getting my temporary LPC license. Well, good news! It only took EIGHT days from the day I mailed it until the day I was granted my LPC-I number with the state of Texas! I think that must be a new record or something, right? It actually happened so fast that I didn’t know until days later. I want to share some tips with you so hopefully your license will get to you quickly as well.

After one Army tour in Afghanistan and three years working at the Pentagon and the FBI, I’m finally back in the great state of Texas. Home sweet home! I’m spending time with family and old friends again. Excited to start my life in Dallas. Happy to be only months away from my PhD. I’ve been invited to join the most amazing DFW counselors at the LifeWorks Group. I’m can’t wait to meet my first new client…but I’m stuck waiting on the state licensing board. Oh yeah…that.

I’ve been in Ghana, West Africa for the past two weeks on an exploratory visit in hopes of learning from professionals here and setting up collaborative relationships to benefit one another. While they face outrageous challenges to include blatant societal stigma and lack of funding, respect, and support, the mental health professionals I met in Ghana clearly demonstrate best practices I wish were more prevalent back in my own country. I’d like to share some of these with you.

Congratulations! You’re at the point in your graduate program where you get to choose a topic for your doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis. Yea! All those classes…all those dollars spent on tuition…the pages upon pages of mind-numbing journal articles…now you finally get to choose a topic for the final requirement necessary to hang that degree on the wall! You’re energized. You’re ready to get started on your research. You have some interests in mind. Now to choose your topic…easy right? Not always so, as I learned this past year.