Sometimes we need to question our ‘training’
When I was an undergraduate student, I remember taking an intro to clinical psychology course. This course was influential in solidifying my interest in pursuing further training to become a clinical psychologist. I loved the way psychology concepts could be applied to better understand human behaviour and mental health challenges. And I loved the introduction to different schools of psychotherapy. The professor for the course was also a practicing psychologist, so it was great to have the opportunity to hear directly from someone working in the field.
While I know in general that I really enjoyed the course content, I couldn’t tell you specifically anymore what we covered during the course. I only remember these general, high-level ideas. But there is one thing that has always stuck with me that I learned during that course, which was one of my first examples of ‘socialization’ into the profession. It was:
If you are wearing jeans, you aren’t working.
To me, this meant, if you are working with clients, you need to present yourself in a professional way - and jeans are not professional.
And all these years later, I do agree with the idea that it is important to present ourselves in a professional way in the workplace.
However…
- Is it true that wearing jeans equals 'not working'? That is, is it true that wearing jeans equals not being professional? What does 'professional' even mean? (Karen's edit: A message she learned in graduate school was to dress in a manner that places the client at ease, and this may mean wearing a nice pair of jeans!)
- Is it even true that I learned this message during that class and from that professor? Maybe I learned it from somewhere/someone else?
- Maybe that wasn’t even the actual message? (It is certainly true that our memories can easily be incorrect and incomplete.)
Of course, wearing/not wearing jeans is somewhat of a trivial aspect of professional socialization. But hopefully you can see my point - it is so easy, especially early in our careers, to receive a message about what it means to be a part of our professional group, and then to never question that message!
In this case, the consequences of not questioning are not no severe. Although, I have in fact questioned this message - I now do wear jeans when I am working, because I work virtually!
But what if the socialization message was something more impactful? Maybe something like: You need to see x-high-number of clients per day to prove that you can handle this work. That is a message that certainly deserves questioning. Not only about the message itself but also perhaps about the motivation of the person sending that message.
And of course professional socialization doesn’t end when our training ends. It continues throughout our careers. And we can each help contribute to more helpful socialization messages by first becoming aware of what messaging we have taken in, pausing to question if it really applies in our work and lives now, and then gently challenging it if it no longer applies in the same way.
We would love to hear about any outdated professional socialization messages you have received, that you have found the courage to challenge!
Where will your reflactions take you?