I don't know where else to go with this, and I figured this community would understand.
I graduated from a counseling masters program about a year and a half ago. I got a job fairly quickly at a large company that was opening it's first location in my state. 8 months later, they shut the location down with no warning.
I fairly quickly got hired into a different large company. It was inpatient work, and the company couldn't support me in learning how to do my work effectively when people are usually only there a couple of days. I didn't even feel trained enough to keep myself and patients safe in the event of a crisis. The workload was impossible to complete in an 8 hour day, so I was staying late every day. I asked for more support to learn the ropes and was told they were too short staffed and it wasn't going to happen. I got out after about a month of working there.
Next, I got hired on by a very small, family-owned organization. Long story short, it was a long drive and I'd be scheduled to work only 1 or 2 hours at a time. I was also lied to about how many hours ii could expect. I was told at least 10 per week and then never actually hit 10 hours. And on top of this, the boss and admin staff were super condescending. I left this job after about a month as well, and started looking again.
It's been almost 2 months since I left that last job, and I can't get hired. I've not been listing the last 2 jobs on my resume because I don't think leaving both after a month looks good, but then I'm left with a 6 month gap. I have very little experience after finishing school. I'm good enough that several places have done multiple rounds of interviews with me, but so far I've always been ruled out in the final decisions. I've expanded my search to my whole state and beyond, and still can't get hired in my field despite hearing constantly about a current mental health crisis in the US.
I am so angry. If the first company hadn't shut down, I think I'd still be working there, and not in this position of being unhireable because of a lack of experience and either leaving 2 jobs quickly or a 6 month gap. To some extent, I did this to myself by not sticking with the small org longer. But they screwed me over on hours and it was getting really hard to justify making the drive in my old ass car that I was about to replace when I was first laid off.
I'm looking into starting a private practice. I think I could make it work, but it's still terrifying to have to invest so much upfront without knowing how things will play out. I hadn't wanted to consider this so early in my career. I wanted to have more experience first. I would have to pay a clinical supervisor, so I wouldn't be totally without support in continuing to learn.
I just hate that my options are horrible workplaces like the second company, where turnover is so high they don't care about anything but me meeting the basic requirements to hire, or strike out on my own. I'm running out of options. Any advice or support would be very welcome.
Tl;dr: Laid off and then left two shit jobs too quickly and am now unhireable. Options are take the risk to start private practice or go somewhere horrid that just wants a warm body. Advice or support welcome.