Allison Mousaw, Master’s Degree Candidate, Intern
1. One of my favorite childhood memories is . . .
playing basketball with my dad every night during the summer. We must have played hundreds and hundreds of rounds of P-I-G and “Around-the-world”. Every afternoon at 3pm when he would get done work, I looked forward to getting to go outside and spend time with him.
2. I love being a mental health counselor because . . .
everyone has something the need to work through and I love being a witness to people’s individual growth. There comes a point in someone’s counseling journey where things start to “click” and when that happens, the progress that is made is truly amazing to see.
3. A life lesson I’ve learned from my clients is . . .
humans are resilient. With support and the proper tools, we can overcome even the biggest hurdles thrown at us.
4. Three words that describe my counseling style are . . .
Relaxed, ever evolving, and non-judgmental.
5. When I’m not in counseling sessions, you’ll find me . . .
either in graduate school at Cazenovia College working towards my degree in mental health counseling or hiking through the woods with my dogs.
6. Three people who inspire me are . . .
Each and every member of CNYMHC team!
7. A quote that I live by is . . .
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein. One of the things you can guarantee in life, is that at times, things are going to get hard. I really believe that there is a lesson in every difficult opportunity, we just have to be willing to search for what that may be.
8. One thing guaranteed to push me out of my comfort zone is . . .
doing things alone. I still haven’t figured out why doing things alone is uncomfortable to me but, hey, even counselors have things they need to work through!
9. My best self-care technique is . . .
reading. I can get lost from reality in a good book for hours and not even realize time has been going by around me. It’s my favorite way to unplug and have “me” time.
10. This is how I found counseling and how counseling found me . . .
I’ve always known that I wanted to help people in some capacity. I wanted to help people hands on. I wanted to go through people’s life experiences with them and help them work through some of the darkest times of their lives. In order to do this, counseling just became the blatantly obvious career path that I knew I needed to pursue.
11. One thing I could not live without is . . .
Chocolate milk. I swear, I have had a glass of chocolate milk nearly every day since I was a toddler. It all started when my grandma snuck chocolate syrup into my milk bottle. I’ve been hooked ever since. It has been one habit I just can’t seem to break.
12. If I were to tell a friend about mental health counseling, I would say . . .
It’s worth it. Yes, things are going to get uncomfortable at times and things that you have worked so hard to bury and forget are going to come to the forefront but it’s all part of process. You have to trust the process.
13. The approaches I draw from in my counseling practice are . . .
person centered therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and motivational interviewing.
14. Clients that challenge me the most have this in common . . .
they have had previously not so great counseling experiences. When this happens, the client usually has a hard time trusting me as their new counselor and are more hesitant to really embrace the counseling process. This is okay though! It just means that we have to both put in more work to build a solid foundation of trust so that our therapeutic relationship can naturally grow and then together, we will be most effective at meeting our desired outcome form counseling.