Written by Chelsea Petersen, LMFT
In high school as I thought of my future and what I wanted to do with my life, I knew that I wanted to be in the helping profession. That really narrows it down, huh?!? I was also athletic and was very involved in sports so I thought I might become an athletic trainer. However, I had taken a Psych 1010 class in high school and really enjoyed learning about the brain and different personalities. As I entered my Freshman year at Utah State University I declared Psychology as my major, still unsure how I was going to move forward with the degree once it was completed.
I was in my Junior year of school work and working on my capstone hours for the degree when a Ph.D. student who was heading up the project asked me what I ultimately wanted to do with my degree. I went on to relay to him that I wanted to open a family treatment center, as I had been exposed to various models of youth treatment centers and saw how ineffective they really were. I always felt that the most effective way to treat the teenage issue was with the family.
Now, I’m going to back up a little and share a bit of my back story. I was raised on a family farm and grew up learning the value of hard work. I grew up around horses and often felt the connection that I made with animals when it felt like people just didn’t understand. My big idea of that family treatment center turned into a family farm where families come to heal and grow together, despite their various challenges.
Flash forward back to undergraduate and that gentleman who asked me what I wanted to do with a degree in psychology: he asked me how I planned to get there and I told him I wanted to start with a counseling degree of sorts and figured that I would do licensed professional counseling. He encouraged me to look into marriage and family therapy (which I had never even heard of!) and to go speak with Dr. Scot Allgood.
As I looked more into Marriage and Family Therapy, it just seemed to click and was exactly in line with what I dreamed of doing. I managed to get into the masters program at USU in the fall of 2009. As we learned about the various theories and approaches to therapy, the model of Emotional Focused Therapy stood out to me. As I reflected on my goals and dreams, I knew that if the couple, and in turn the parenting unit, can become strengthened, many of the issues that youth have in life certainly don’t disappear but they have a much more supportive system around them to help them through it.
My desire to help strengthen the couple relationship continue to grow and blossom and I knew by the time I graduated with my masters that I wanted to become certified in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT).
To learn more about Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) click below
After graduation and working with many, many families with teens struggling from issues with the juvenile justice system to severe mental health issues such as schizophrenia, my passion grew stronger for helping the couples stay together and stay strong for their children.
After becoming a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, my focus set on deepening my understanding for helping strengthen the marriage and couple relationship by using the EFT model. This is where my passion began all those years ago (I can’t believe it’s been 11 years!) and where I continue to believe that if we can strengthen the couple/marriage relationship, many lives and families will be happier and more easily able to find joy.