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Episode 9 - A Journey To And Through A Doctoral Program with Dr. Ayli
70 Plays1 year ago
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From Intern to Entrepreneur is the podcast for counseling graduate students (and other grad students in mental health fields) to start planning their journey to private practice while they're still in graduate school! Host, Cori White, started planning her journey while she was still in her graduate program and it paid off BIG to start planning EARLY.
In this episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur, Cori interviews Dr. Ayli Carrero Pinedo! This woman has a POWERFUL story, and so many *gems* about how to approach a doctoral program, from picking one to making it through! It's a must listen for anyone interested in continuing their education post master's!
More about Dr. Ayli:
Dr. Ayli Carrero Pinedo is a formerly undocumented Peruvian immigrant, first-generation student, APA Minority Fellowship Program (MFP) fellow, advocate, and an award-winning counseling psychologist. Her work is guided by liberation psychology and public psychology, where she specifically addresses the intersection of trauma with culture and race while acknowledging the compounding impact of structures of oppression. Her advocacy work on behalf of underserved, immigrants, and rural people caught national attention and she was selected as the August 2019 Fellow of the Month by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). When she was the student chair of the Trauma Psychology Division (Division 56) of the American Psychological Association, she developed the Cultivating Healing, Advocacy, Nonviolence, Growth, and Equity (CHANGE) Grant. This funds student’s and early career professional’s trauma-based projects. In 2021, she also founded #PsychGradWishList, an online mutual-aid movement for incoming psychology interns and graduating trainees of color. Her dedication to the present and future of the profession was recognized in December 2022, when she was awarded an American Psychological Association Presidential Citation for her commitment to eradicate racial trauma and her leadership in supporting early career psychologists and graduate students.
Connect with her:
@draylicp (instagram)
Email: connect@alliyanapsych.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
This is from intern to entrepreneur, the podcast for counseling and therapy graduate students who want to start planning their journey to private practice while they're still in grad school. I'm your host Corey White. And within three years of graduating from my master's program, I had a six figure thriving private practice in large part because I started planning my path while I was still in grad school.
00:00:21
Speaker
This podcast is full of stories and information meant to give you ideas about how you can carve your own path to the therapy career that you want. Please note that when you're listening to this podcast, licensure laws and requirements vary from state to state. So check with your state board about what you can and can't do on your journey. And without further ado, enjoy this episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur.
Interview with Dr. Ailey Carrero-Pinedo
00:00:45
Speaker
Oh, hey there grad students. This is episode 9 of From Intern to Entrepreneur. And on today's episode, I interviewed Dr. Ailey Carrero-Pinedo, who is a formerly undocumented Peruvian immigrant, a first-generation student, an APA minority fellowship program fellow, an advocate, and an award-winning counseling psychologist. She is a badass.
00:01:10
Speaker
I love this interview it was a little bit different than a lot of the previous interviews because we were not talking about private practice we actually spent a lot of time talking about her experiences leading up to going through a doctoral program so anybody that's listening to this that's considering going through a doctoral program
00:01:29
Speaker
might want to perk their ears up right now and get some of the tidbits that Dr. Eily talks about in this interview. Also, I said this before on a previous podcast, and I'll say it again, learning about culture by talking to people who are from a different culture than you is just such a rich experience in actually learning about culture. It's an experience that you can't get by reading a multicultural book.
00:01:54
Speaker
And so I'm very grateful that she was able in this interview to share some of her cultural experience and how that collides with her experience in becoming a counseling professional.
The Importance of Mentors
00:02:08
Speaker
Another thing that I want you to really perk your ears up to in this interview is how intentional
00:02:13
Speaker
She is about honoring the people that have mentored her, that have helped her, that have showed up for her and a theme that just came up over and over again in her interview was around her relationships and how much she really seems to value them. She also gives advice on how to find a doctoral program that's right for you, what you should keep in mind when you're trying to pick a program and you know how you pick a program that's actually in alignment with what you're doing.
00:02:40
Speaker
She said so much in this podcast that are just juicy nuggets of things that you all should absorb. I'm going to stop talking though. Listeners, meet Dr. Riley.
00:03:31
Speaker
Hi, Dr. Ailey. Nice to have you on the podcast today. How are you? Hi, Corey. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. I'm excited to get to share a little more about myself and always glad to be supporting graduate students in any way that I can. Yeah, awesome. Well, thank you. I want to jump in and I want you to give our graduate student listeners a bit of an idea about what your life and career look like today before we talk about your journey.
00:03:56
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, right now I am in based in Los Angeles, California. And definitely, this was not the place where I saw myself at all. But I'm really glad of the decision that I made on coming here. Currently, I am a government psychologist. So what that is, is that I am employed
00:04:18
Speaker
by the federal government. And I still get to do a lot of really great work, community work specifically with veterans. That's really cool. And what is your title? I'm not sure what they have in California. So I'm LPC, licensed professional counselor. What are you? Yeah. So for California, we are licensed psychologists. That's like the fancy title that we get once we become licensed. Yeah. Okay, great.
00:04:46
Speaker
That's where you are right now. Sounds super cool and interesting.
Journey to Psychology
00:04:49
Speaker
I have a lot of questions about that, but take me back and help me understand what your journey to becoming a counselor and to getting where you are, what was that like for you? Yeah. One of the things that I always think about and reflect on is how I always knew that I wanted to be a doctor.
00:05:09
Speaker
And very early on, education was something that my mom really prioritizing my upbringing. And then when I immigrated to the United States, when I was an adolescent, there were different hiccups that we went through throughout that time. And I really do think that psychology actually found me and it really nurtured the professional that I am today.
00:05:35
Speaker
When I think about psychology, right, it's one of the most common majors, particularly for undergraduate students. But then a lot of people don't really know what to do with that degree. And
00:05:47
Speaker
If it wasn't for a professor that actually pulled me to the side and asked me, have you considered graduate school? I don't think it will be here today. So I'm always very grateful for my mentors and the people who have supported me. And the funny thing is, is that when, you know, her name is Dr. Karen Walker-Leeper, and it's always so important for me to name the people who have been there throughout this journey. When she brought that up to me, I said,
00:06:16
Speaker
What is graduate school? So the first generation student, first generation immigrant. And at that time, I only was a green card recipient. And because of that green card is that I was able to attend school, specifically higher ed. At that time, too, DACA wasn't a reality yet under the Obama administration. So given that I was formerly undocumented,
00:06:47
Speaker
I didn't really think about so much into the future. It was kind of more of a day to day, week by week, just hoping for the best. So when the seed was planted coming to graduate school, I was like, huh, maybe that's actually a possibility for me. You know, one thing led to another in regards of
00:07:07
Speaker
I originally was a biology chemistry double major, then I really made the switch to psychology. I was very intrigued actually by a sociology class that was called social problems. That's when I really also became exposed to a lot of the inequities that a lot of people experienced throughout the United States.
00:07:31
Speaker
And I really think that those are the courses and the support from those professors, they really continued to mold what I wanted to do. And when I became an interpreter at a rural Nebraska hospital, that's when I was like, you know what? There's so much more that I can do as someone who is bilingual, who knows English and Spanish.
00:07:57
Speaker
by just stopping at the psychology and sociology degree, I'm actually going to be limiting myself. And it wasn't until I actually witnessed a death of a patient while I was interpreting that I was like, you know what, there has to be more that I can do, both at an individual, like systems level,
00:08:17
Speaker
Um, and little by little is when I started to kind of just Google more things. I remember going and using the resources of, um, the career center on my state college. And I very vividly remember grabbing this encycloped, it was like this encyclopedical looking book, um, I guess you want to call it. And I started going through all the different types of psychology programs around the country.
00:08:44
Speaker
And because one of the sessions that I interpreted was a therapy session, I became really intrigued about that process. And that's when I saw Counseling Psychology.
00:08:54
Speaker
And I was like, huh, I wonder what that is, because I often would only hear about clinical psychology. And that's when I started to kind of research the differences, trying to get a better sense as to what the training programs will look like, what type of supports people will get, both financially, but also in the college or university campus itself.
00:09:18
Speaker
I decided to take a leap of faith and apply to some graduate programs, both in and out of state.
00:09:30
Speaker
You know, this is me also, right? Somebody planted the seed of going to graduate school. But then I kind of, the rest of the process of putting together a resume and doing a personal statement, all those things, I kind of just gather information from the internet because I didn't necessarily know how to approach professors or who to approach on campus to help me with that process.
Overcoming Academic Setbacks
00:09:55
Speaker
Little did I know at the time that
00:09:58
Speaker
it was probably going to be a good idea to have some research under your belt to apply for doctoral programs. But I kind of just went cold turkey, like people like to say, and applied anyway. And then throughout that process is when I better understood, actually, you know what? There are certain steps that you need to take it. You're not there yet. So my first round of applications to doctoral programs, I was actually rejected.
00:10:25
Speaker
from them. And as someone who considers herself very accomplished, that was really hurtful because it gave me the message that you're not good enough, you're never going to be able to achieve what you want, you're never going to become a doctor, et cetera, et cetera. But then a couple of those programs offered me a spot in their master level class, or I should say cohort.
00:10:54
Speaker
And I said, you know, I can either go out of state to the University of North Dakota to start or I can stay in Nebraska and do in-state tuition because finances were definitely something that were in the back of my mind. Absolutely. And so I decided to pursue that in my master's in counseling psychology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
00:11:17
Speaker
And then I learned that it actually, it was one of the old established counselors and college programs in the country, and I had no idea. So it was in a way this serendipitous experience for me. And I do think that I met a couple of people in there that truly supported me. One of them was actually a graduate student himself who was now a professor. I believe in California now as well, but
00:11:45
Speaker
those are the people that are just really always keeping mind and I try to give back to the supports that they um and the ways that they showed up for me um in those moments. Yeah and if I could just pause you for a second I think that that's a really important point that it's important for grad students to hear when you have people that are supporting you whether they're professors or other mentors or your classmates
00:12:09
Speaker
the people in your cohort, find a way to give back to them, whether that's just saying their name on a podcast, right? Or whether that's sending them referrals or whether that's sending them articles when you think of them or like any way in which you can create and cultivate a mutual relationship. Those are the relationships that are going to sustain your professional life. In my opinion, it sounds like that's like what's carried you as well.
00:12:37
Speaker
No, absolutely. And there's been some, there's been a couple instances when I ran into some of these folks in conferences. But I don't even think I've actually like verbalized how grateful I am. And obviously, you know, we have to think about the pandemic. And I took a personal break from attending any sort of like social things before, you know, more safety regulations were rolled out. But I do
00:13:02
Speaker
I do wholly agree with you, whether that is like naming them or just having the reciprocity of saying thank you is so, so important to foster those relationships because that's how we are able to make it. Absolutely. Especially in this career, I feel like mutual support and reciprocity is so necessary. Okay, I paused you. What feels important next about your journey?
00:13:32
Speaker
Well, how I ended up at a PhD program where I ended up. So I was, I was mentioning that I had the option of either going to North Dakota or going to, or staying in Nebraska. So when I was a master's student of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I decided to apply for this, like my narrative fellowship program fellowship just rolled out that year fresh. It was 2015, the fall of 2015, first call for applications.
00:13:59
Speaker
the graduate student that I was mentioning to you. He was an advanced doctoral student, actually, who happened to be teaching one of our classes. And because he happened to also be one of my supervisors, I kind of took a leap of faith and asked him, I was like, hey, would you like support me with this application? And I was like, we're gonna have to navigate this together, because I'm also learning about this. And he was like, of course. So
00:14:26
Speaker
That application led to me being awarded and selected as part of the first cohort ever for the master's level fellowship, which was huge because it opened up so many doors
Pursuing a PhD
00:14:39
Speaker
for me. And I'm so grateful always, both financially, but also the incredible mentorship that I was able to receive through the minority fellowship program. And this is where the irony of this story comes.
00:14:53
Speaker
I had no idea that the person that I wanted to work with when I was in North Dakota was one of the mentors of this program. And we ended up being matched together. Wow. And I told myself, I was like, this woman came back into my life for a reason. And it was absolutely meant for both of us to cross paths again.
00:15:22
Speaker
And this professor is Dr. Rachel Navarro, that's her name. So then I decided to apply again, take another leap of faith, essentially bet on myself. That's the way that I like to really reframe that. So the second round, she had an opportunity to get to know me better. I, of course, got involved with research, got involved with publications, just I think became a more well-rounded applicant to the rigor that it really requires.
00:15:52
Speaker
right to put yourself out there, especially because of how competitive counseling psychology programs are, given that there's a smaller number of them nationally. So yeah, and that is how I ended up at the University of North Dakota for my doctoral program. So question for you.
00:16:10
Speaker
Any grad students that are interested in one day being in a doctoral program, what advice do you have for them about how they, something they might be able to do while they're still in grad school? Like how can they prepare for it while they're still in grad school, even if it's just a small way? Yeah. So you mean from like going from like a master's program to a doctoral program, like that transition? Absolutely. Yeah. Your best resources are going to be fellow students.
00:16:40
Speaker
They're going to be the ones that tell you what the one-on-one interactions look like when it comes to working with people, working with teams, right? A graduate program can have many great things that make them attractive on their website, maybe the type of work that they publish, the classes they teach.
00:16:59
Speaker
But at the end, what type of relationships and what type of supports are going to be there available? Are they going to show up for you and advocate for you when maybe life gets in the way and you're not able to complete the program in a traditional way, which means it's straight through. I think about many students who
00:17:17
Speaker
we wanted to become parents throughout that journey and that's typically frowned upon or maybe when they wanted to make a special request to medical reasons and then either the program or the school didn't support it. So those are the key things that are really make a difference and of course the other component is
00:17:39
Speaker
What are also the other ways that they're going to nurture like who you are as a person, like your culture, your values? Are these things that actually match? Are they gonna help you grow? Are they gonna help you kind of just be stuck and then maybe even resentful because of the choice that you made?
00:18:01
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's great. So you're saying be very intentional about About who you surround yourself with who you ask questions to what questions you ask and what you're really looking for Yeah, that's great And also, you know if there's undergraduate student asking the same thing for from you about your master's program then do that too, right just be transparent about what the experience has been like Yeah, and I also think about
00:18:32
Speaker
recruitment by retention of people of color or other folks who have been minoritized, how does that look like? If that is something that they continue to, they say that they have a good attraction rate, but actually at their graduating in the time that they're supposed to, what are the support systems in place for them to be able to not only just graduate, but also thrive and how well prepared actually they are to be in the field afterwards?
00:18:58
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of graduate students are interested in doctoral programs and they just don't know what kind of questions to ask to get a really good idea of like what that experience would be like, should be like, what resources the programs have. So yeah, it's more than just going, I want to be a doctor. And so I will go into a doctoral program and I'll throw a dart.
00:19:24
Speaker
Oh, I want to live in this state, right? Exactly. And personally, I made the choice to stay in the Midwest, both for family, but financial reasons as well. I was very grateful that I was able to get financial support
00:19:46
Speaker
to not have debt after graduation. So that, for me, was a driver. There might be other personal reasons people will have. Sometimes people decide to stay in one state. Sometimes maybe they have a spouse or a partner or just a circumstance that requires them to stay. I also know there are people that are caretakers themselves.
00:20:04
Speaker
so that you know they also have kind of limited options and we have to do what's best for you and I think it's also okay to take a break after your first graduate program and then try again later. Right. Like my goal was to you know get my doctor before 30.
00:20:23
Speaker
That was my goal, but I also, my goal is to cannot be realistic with somebody else. So doing what is best for you and finding people that are going to support you through every decision is so critical. Such good advice, such good advice. Okay, so you become Dr. Eily. How do you end up working in the setting that you do? Maybe there's eight steps to that, but... Yeah, listen.
00:20:49
Speaker
I still ask myself the same question and at the same time, I do not regret my choice. Yes, so I first became kind of like exposed to the Department of Veteran Affairs when I was a practicum student and I completed a practicum training at the Fargo VA.
00:21:10
Speaker
Um, a lot of people know Fargo because the movie never seen it myself, but, um, and that's when I was like, huh, you know, they're actually really cool things that I can do in this setting above and beyond what maybe others have shared with me. And of course, although, you know, like each VA is going to have their own culture at the end of the day, it's a federal entity.
00:21:34
Speaker
It actually is the largest healthcare system in the world, believe it or not. I had no idea. That's interesting tidbit. And it also, the VA has a long history of leading care when it comes to like telework, telehealth. So they were very well prepared already in a way when the pandemic hit, but rewinding to your original question,
00:22:03
Speaker
Part of the process of becoming a psychologist in the United States is that after you complete a certain number of hours, you know, for practical training, then you are required to apply for what we call an internship. An internship is essentially the residency version for us. You could end up anywhere in the country. The only thing you can really have control of is where you apply. So, you know, I applied to community centers, academic health centers, and like a number of VAs.
00:22:31
Speaker
where I knew that I could work with veterans of color that was really important to me, where I knew that I could provide services in Spanish that was also very important to me, or also where I knew that I could have different cultural experiences, given that I've been in the Midwest for so long, then I was also intentional about expanding my reach as well, right? A wide net.
00:22:56
Speaker
And that's why I ended up in actually basically the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas at the VA there. And I had the opportunity there to work with both like brown and black veterans.
00:23:12
Speaker
And so far, it was the Fargo VA. I worked with predominantly white veterans. Then it kind of really was a switch, which I really did appreciate that because that was one of the main reasons I came into the field is to work with people of color. And it really also helped me learn a little more about the Southwest culture and how as an immigrant myself, how people view
00:23:40
Speaker
right, have different views and experiences and expectations of what people do and who they are. And then that year, either was you look for staff position, or you do an additional year of training. And I decided that to do an initial year of training. Again,
00:24:02
Speaker
And I don't know if it's like fate, I don't know if it's the ancestors kind of setting things up for me, I'm not sure. But that year, this brand new postdoc came out, which was a postdoctoral fellowship in trauma and diversity. And I was like, hmm, what are the odds that the year I'm looking for a postdoc, something like this comes up, right? It reminded me, I went back to that fellowship, right, that I was telling you about. It's like, when I needed something to kind of like
00:24:31
Speaker
propelled me forward, that fellowship came up. And now when I'm looking for this next opportunity, this fellowship comes up and I just really aligned very well with my values and my professional identity and kind of like the efforts of who I want to be, who continue to be as a professional. And the great thing about it too is that it was in the women's health clinic at this particular VA. So I had already had, you know, a lot of hours, a couple of years under my belt working with predominantly gnosis gender men.
00:25:01
Speaker
And now it was going to give you an opportunity to work with trans folks. It was going to give you an opportunity to work with cisgender women and just have a different type of experience working with trauma in general.
00:25:15
Speaker
Thankfully, things panned out for me. And I was offered that position when it came to Match Day as well. And that's how I ended up in California. So when I think I was like, I was in the Midwest, the Southwest, and I was strictly the West. And I was, you know, maybe I'm supposed to be back at the Pacific Ocean because when I think about home,
00:25:39
Speaker
Peru, that's the ocean where I essentially grew up next to. So it was a way, although we know we're different hemispheres, it was, I think, just a little way to be closer to home. And I enjoyed my time as a postdoc fellow in that clinic. And then I decided that, you know, I do want to stay as a staff and see where life takes me from there.
00:26:09
Speaker
And now I have a really wonderful opportunity to run like racial trauma groups, mostly in the works of developing men and masculinity group as well because I see a lot of those things coming up with a lot of the male veterans that I work with.
00:26:25
Speaker
So having some sort of introductory class where I'm still able to instill liberation psychology principles, public psychology principle is just so important to me because when I see those aha moments with the people that I work with, it makes it really worth it.
Aligning Opportunities with Values
00:26:40
Speaker
Yeah. Something I really love about your story and your journey is that you seem to always be really in tune and in touch with opportunities that were presenting themselves to you. And I think sometimes I talk to grad students who are just like going through their program and they're just checking boxes and they're not really being intentional or paying attention to
00:27:03
Speaker
The opportunities that there might be out there for them to mold the career that they actually want to have right, so it sounds like whether whether there was some divine intervention for you or Or whether it was whatever happened you were paying attention to the opportunities that were around you and how they were actually aligned with the kind of career that you wanted to have and I just think that's so important for people at the graduate school level and
00:27:33
Speaker
to be thinking about, hmm, if I make this decision to go to this internship, what impact might that have on my future? Or if I make this decision to take this easy class or this class that everybody says the professor's really hard, how will that impact where I want to go in the future, right? So I just think it's really cool how you're kind of like telling the story of, yep, and then this opportunity was here for me and I knew it was great.
00:28:01
Speaker
As I hear somebody else kind of give me that perspective, I'm like, you know, I did that and I think I still do that too. It's about seizing the opportunity while also making sure that it's aligned with who I am.
00:28:21
Speaker
Because the opportunities can be there, the financial package can look really great and shiny. But if I'm going to lose myself in the process, I'm also very intentional about...
00:28:32
Speaker
paying attention to that as well. Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. And how cool that it's like, I love that it's like also taken you geographically like all over the place and, um, and yeah, to be back at the Pacific ocean. So very cool. So you have, um, so there's so many aspects to your story that I love. What other parts of your story do you think it'd be important for graduate students to hear?
00:28:58
Speaker
Absolutely. As you're mentioning those geographical relocations, essentially, I'm always transparent because I've also worked through being transparent with this because it's definitely sometimes not easy to share unless you've done some personal work on this. But I remember when I was in El Paso,
00:29:25
Speaker
This was around the time where there were a lot of border crossings happening, a lot of child immigrants coming on their own. And from where I used to reside, I could see Mexico. I could see that. And 10 minutes away from me were detention centers. And I always reflected on how any of those children, any of those families, it could have been mine.
00:29:56
Speaker
And I think it also helped me kind of like realize, I was like, you are here for a reason. And although there were days that were really hard when I thought about, you know, there are people essentially freezing themselves to death, what they're called eletas. And I'm here 10 minutes away, comfortable in my bed. So I think there was some sort of kind of survivalist guilt that I had and navigated that.
00:30:25
Speaker
were also kind of like thinking about the population that I served as well. So it was kind of this like back and forth as I like reflected on my time there. And although
00:30:42
Speaker
I was able to blend in more as a brown woman. There were still aspects of the Southwest that weren't familiar to me because I was one used to the Midwest, but also on Peruvian. But a lot of people see someone like me in that context. They make assumptions about my cultural practices, et cetera. So navigating those things were sometimes very interesting.
00:31:10
Speaker
Hey, grad students. Real quick, before we get back to this interview, if you are loving the idea of being a part of a community of like-minded graduate students who want to own their own private practice one day, then you need to head to Facebook and join my Facebook group from intern to entrepreneur. There's already a community set up of graduate students who one day want to own their own private practices and be entrepreneurs just like you.
00:31:36
Speaker
So head over to Facebook, join that group, and stay in the loop and get connected with people who are doing things that you want to do. Back to the interview. One of the many ways that I've navigated this, I think even from the moment I stepped foot right in the U.S. till now, it's been almost 20 years at this point, is how small decisions lead to long-term solutions.
Personal Experiences Shaping Professional Path
00:32:07
Speaker
And what I mean with that is really thinking about what were the things that were within my control in that moment, but to also allowing myself to feel the emotions as uncomfortable as they were.
00:32:25
Speaker
And I remember that sometimes when I would have this type of conversations with others, my lip would quiver. I would have tears kind of, you know, fill in my eyes. And now I feel absolutely okay talking about this, which I think is also a testament of the growth that has happened and the crucial importance of telling our stories and normalizing that although a lot of people see the degrees, a lot of people see the success. There's a lot of
00:32:55
Speaker
painful moments that have transpired as well. But I do think that also my family and back home kind of telling them step by step of the journey, but also the incredible relationship that I have with my mother were absolute, you know, what I like to call my solid ground where my knees were shaking.
00:33:20
Speaker
So those are definitely ways. So community being just very mindful of what are some of the values that I learned early on that I can continue to foster and nurture. Particularly, you know, as a Peruvian woman, as an indigenous woman, and those were just reminders. So, you know, like I told my friend one time,
00:33:48
Speaker
if there's anything that people can remember about me, I was like, I want them to know that I'm Peruvian and it's okay that they forget the rest. I love that. And I just like, I'm listening to you tell this story and answer that question. And there's just so much vulnerability that I think it's really refreshing to,
00:34:13
Speaker
Maybe what I mean by is, I think it will be really refreshing for graduate students to hear the vulnerability coming from a doctor, right? A doctor in our field.
00:34:27
Speaker
We have to model while we ask for our patients. Yeah. Well, and also you were, you were telling that and I'm thinking, oh my gosh, spoken like a true therapist, like, um, like, and spoken like a true therapist who has done their own work, um, and who is just aware of themselves and, and the way that they're working. And so, yeah. Um, thank you for sharing that.
00:34:50
Speaker
I hope that, you know, some of the words that I share resonate with others or help them get to the next step and normalize again, that there is nothing wrong with them. And that we are fighting, I guess, the system that didn't really want us to be part of in the first place. That's definitely something else that I continue to remind myself, both when I was a graduate student, but not as an early career professional.
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's a really important message. Anything else you want our grad students to know? Anything else? Let's think. Something that I was taught by a colleague, and in hindsight, I was like, you know what, I'm really glad I followed her advice, was to celebrate all the moments.
00:35:48
Speaker
whether that is getting done with your first semester of graduate school, whether that is getting done with a big project, passing your comprehensive exams, getting done with applications, whatever moment that you may have celebrated. Because oftentimes we get so caught up on wanting something to be perfect.
00:36:14
Speaker
that we miss the progress that we are making as we go through the journey.
00:36:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think anybody in a master's or doctoral program probably needs to hear that because we're usually people that are just so outcome focused in terms of like, okay, I have to get to the step, the step, the step. Yeah, it's really refreshing to hear you say, yeah, no, we should be celebrating every time that we do something, every time that there's a milestone. Yeah, but also show up for others.
00:36:45
Speaker
Even because I've had also colleagues who they didn't want to celebrate themselves. And I was like, no, we are going to celebrate you because this is so important. Yeah. So that's about the community piece that I'm also talking about. And when I say celebrate, that doesn't mean, you know, like spend a lot of money on it. It could be like have a movie night with somebody or go on a walk, go outside. Like just it could be a small actions or behaviors or moments that are
00:37:15
Speaker
You want to really make a difference, you know, giving yourself the 10 second pause of just sitting with it on that feeling of accomplishment. It's so critical. I cannot stress that enough. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I really do. So if you had one piece of practical advice to offer our listeners who might be interested in some type of entrepreneurial life, what would that be?
00:37:44
Speaker
It is never too early to ask questions. Oh, that's such a fun quote. That is such a fun quote. You should put that on a shirt. I love that. No, I really, cause you hear like, oh, it's, it's never too late or you know, you can, um, you're, you're never too old to do something, but no, it's never too early. Like if you want to do something, if you see yourself doing something in five years, ask some questions now.
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah, that's a Dr. Eily quote. You should put that on. Okay. And then what's one piece of mindset advice that you might offer to people? Prioritize moments of pause throughout this journey as well. Yeah. Say more about why that's been important for you. Because moments of pause allow you to process on what's working for you and what can be done differently. And also it's going to help you shape the type of questions you can ask. Yeah.
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah, great. You're very wise. I feel like I could listen to you talk about like theory and just like life principles forever. So hopefully we stay in contact and maybe in the future we can have you back to talk a little bit more about some of the other things that you do. Cause I think that your voice, first of all, you're very, you're very great to listen to, but also you have so many
00:39:11
Speaker
insights that I think are just an important voice. So thank you. Thank you. If our listeners want to find you, to contact you, to ask you questions or reach out to you anyway, how would they best contact you? Yeah, no, thank you so much for asking. So I do have a couple social media pages that I am
00:39:34
Speaker
you know, almost ready to officially launch. So the first one is on Instagram. And that is Dr. Aili C.P. So C.P. being Cara Rupinello for both of my last names. So that's both Instagram and Twitter have the same handle. So that's going to be the best way to reach me there. If you want to connect via email, then that would be connect at AliYanaPsych.com. So that's spelled A-L-L.
00:40:01
Speaker
I-Y-A-N-A, psych.com. And I'm sure hopefully I can also share that information with you. Yes, I will share that all in the show notes. So anybody that wants to connect with you will be able to just click, click, click, and they'll get sent to wherever they want to connect with you at, and that will be wonderful. And thank you for offering that to the people listening. Absolutely. Thank you again for joining me today, Dr. Aili. I was really, really, really
00:40:31
Speaker
And yeah, I just really enjoyed this interview and I hope that maybe you can join us again in the future. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I'm always more than happy to talk about my journey because I do think that telling our stories can really help liberate others when they might be stuck or when they might be in circumstances where they don't see the light.
00:40:57
Speaker
I hope that you loved this episode of From Intern to Entrepreneur, and if you want to learn more about what we talked about, check out the show notes. If you love this podcast and you want to support me in continuing to create content for entrepreneurs, then please share this with a friend, a grad student who you think might want their own private practice one day, and also like, subscribe, and review this podcast wherever you're listening to it.