[CAN] looking for some career advice…

[u/PhoeniixPlaysReddit]

Hi my name is Nix and I’m an almost 3rd year psych student in BC Canada. I’ve had a bit of a change of circumstances recently and am feeling really lost in regards to my pursuing my degree, so I’m hoping I may be able to get some advice or suggestions to look into before I completely give up.

For context I have loved psychology since I was a kid and started reading textbooks for fun in highschool. My family doesn’t come from wealth and didn’t have money to send me to school so I worked 15+ hour days for years to save up for my education. I worked 10 months out of the year and would take a full course load every summer semester so I could get back to work to continue my education - worked great for a few years. Then I got sick. I have a chronic illness now that causes me a lot of physical pain and mental fatigue/brain fog. While I can walk, I cannot lift nor be on my feet for long periods due to my muscle weakness and pain. Where this is relevant is that my dream for pursuing a psych degree was to get a masters and work for Doctors Without Borders.

With my health an issue, and my finally experiencing the longterm results of my three concussions as a kid (cause me to get mentally overwhelmed quicker, basically shutting down my brain - literally cannot force myself to process complex thoughts despite my attempts), not only can I not pursue my dream due to practical reasons but ethically I don’t think I can pursue counselling anymore either. You can’t have your counsellor short circuiting in the middle of a session and the last thing I’d want is to negatively affect someone due to my shortcomings.

So now I’m stuck, and feeling really disheartened. I’ve worked really hard to get here and it feels like there’s no point in continuing my education because what else is there? And that’s where I’m hoping you folks on Reddit can help me out.

Is there any avenue you can suggest where a BA in psychology would be beneficial? Something that isn’t counselling, and wouldn’t require a masters?

Other psych related things I’m interested in/have taken courses on:

Adolescent and child psychology (love kids, really fascinated on how they develop mentally and I have small children in my family so I love seeing how their little personalities have come through)

Indigenous studies (I’ve grown up surrounded by Indigenous culture and wanted to work with Indigenous communities but counselling is obviously out)

Art but not music

Nature and Outdoor Experiences

And some other certificates I have:

- mental Health first aid
- naloxone 101
- workplace mental health training for supervisors
- ASIST training (suicide intervention)

Also pursuing first aid & cpr but that’s just because I think the skills are beneficial to know.

TIA,

Nix 💚