Today was just too much and I need to vent.
I am a doctoral student in a Psyd program. What does that mean? It means I pay thousands of dollars to provide psychotherapy, take classes, do research, teach, organize, volunteer, and mentor others. We are not paid for our work. Our program is a full-time commitment.
During the course of the pandemic, my cohort of approximately 20 students has provided THOUSANDS of hours of therapy to our community. We have worked with the homeless, the sick, the poor, students, physicians, and our nation's veterans. Through COVID, we have literally kept suicidal people alive and out of overburdened hospitals. For no compensation. Many of the organizations we work for bill for our services at the same rate as licensed psychologists. Our supervisors and bosses are paid for our labor. Did I mention we pay thousands in tuition to do this? Tuition has risen each year since we entered the program, even when classes went to fully virtual format for over a year.
Despite the tuition costs, the Psyd program is severely underfunded. The administration of our university has spent millions on the athletics department. But our teams are not very good. I do dare question if these athletics programs are providing such a valuable service to the community as we are?
Some may say 'we signed up for this'. They are not wrong. We saw a need and wanted to fill it. There are still not enough psychologists to fill our community's needs.
That doesn't mean we deserve to be treated like this. We can't afford anything. We're exhausted from working around the clock. We're burnt out from helping people get through COVID. Our physical and mental health has been deteriorating and we continue to come into our sessions with warmth and compassion to serve those who need it.
We wanted to help, now we need help. Help.