About Joe
From Engineer to Therapist: Joe’s Career Journey
When choosing a career path, I, like most people, was told to combine my talents with what I liked. I loved science and was good at it, but I didn’t want to be a scientist, so I became an engineer instead. Thus, the first 10 or so years of my career were spent designing integrated circuit chips, the little brains inside just about everything these days.
I was decent enough at it… saved thousands of people by deploying their air bags on time, helped invent the LED light bulb, and even earned a few patents along the way…
There was only one minor issue: I was MISERABLE. After a few years of crippling anxiety, soul-crushing and energy-depleting depression set in. Of course, I blamed everything and everyone around me, so I constantly changed various parts of my life. Not satisfied in engineering, I earned an MBA and went into management. Making a very long story very short, nothing I did really helped.
Around age 27 (about 20 years ago), it happened – I had a “bad month”, and that’s putting it lightly. It became clear that I had to change something, or I wasn’t going to make it. So, I started reading everything I could find on the problem of human happiness and suffering, I had to find a way to understand why I was so miserable and deal with it. I started seeing various counselors and meditating (so much meditating, which was awful for me, especially without an instructor). As challenging as it was, it worked, and I am now one of the most peaceful and happy people I know. I learned the power of the human mind and heart to alter one’s experience and heal. We don’t have to suffer, we just have to be brave enough, and love ourselves enough, to seek the help we need and do the work of healing.
Most importantly, I learned who I really was and what I’m supposed to be doing here on this planet. I’m here to crush suffering – it’s all I’m interested in doing. So, I had to change careers, for the third time, to something that better allowed me to wage my war on suffering, which led to a social work degree and therapy. These days, I LOVE my life, and I LOVE my work such that it’s a little strange calling it that – “work”.
So, that’s how I got here. Your journey will be different in some ways, similar in so many others. Let’s talk about what journeying together for a while might look like.
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