04 Nov Interview with Catherine Auman LMFT by Jesse Mounts
Interview with Catherine Auman, LMFT
Jesse D. Mounts
American Public University System
May 22, 2020
PSYC498: Senior Seminar in Psychology
Introduction
There are many professionals in the field of psychology, and each job varies in unique ways. Counseling psychology is a very popular option for individuals wishing to help others elevate their mental wellbeing. Catherine Auman, LMFT, combines the popular field of counseling psychology with a unique specialization in transpersonal psychology. She provides a grounded practice of psychotherapeutic technique along with incorporating key spiritual assessments and assistance to clients. She earned her Master’s in Psychology from Antioch University and later became a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has been working in the field of counseling psychology for over thirty years, working as a counselor, consultant, and director in several different healthcare and mental health establishments. Additionally, she has taught at three different educational institutions teaching both counseling and psychology. I contacted Catherine Auman, LMFT, to gain more understanding into this unique specialization for the purpose of understanding how psychology and the transpersonal meet in reality and how one goes about incorporating transpersonal techniques into practice.
Interview
What drew you to your current profession originally?
I was really interested in spirituality. I was searching into everything, and I noticed while doing astrology readings for people I didn’t have the skills to help them. At the time, JFK University in the Bay Area was the only accredited school where you could study transpersonal psychology. As soon as I saw the ad for that school I knew what my whole life and career were going to be. I could see that I could do accredited mainstream psychology in addition to all the other things that are my passion.
What education prepared you most for your job in Transpersonal Counseling?
All the personal growth work I’ve done. I’ve explored and looked into all kinds of things: Rolfing, polarity therapy, and all kinds of somatic practices. I’ve been a meditator. I’ve looked into different occult systems like astrology and magick and those kinds of things. I’ve participated in a lot of Tantra groups, and lived in an ashram in India for a year meditating and doing Tantra. Voracious reading, being in therapy, and all the personal work added to what I learned in school.
I think what you learn in school is quite limited. I know a lot of therapists who have never been in therapy which scares me, basically. It’s not enough to have done work on yourself, but I think the work you do on yourself in addition to your schoolwork is what potentially can make you a great therapist.
What licenses to practice do you currently have and are licenses transferable (portable) from state to state?
I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Half of all marriage and family therapists in the U.S. live in California. We have the most stringent qualifications — I don’t know if that’s still true but it was ten years ago. Most states have a reciprocal agreement with us because our license was more demanding than any other state. If you pass it here you can likely pass it elsewhere. For online tele-therapy, licenses don’t go out of state.
How long have you been working in your current job, and in the field?
I’ve been in the field over 30 years. I’ve had my counseling center for 16.
What are your main responsibilities as a Transpersonal Counselor?
I provide therapy, carrying a caseload of about 20 individual and couples sessions a week. I administrate my Center. At one time I had three interns who I was teaching and supervising. I do the marketing that is required to be in private practice: public talks, social media, I send out a newsletter, I run my website, I teach online courses and webinars.
Is that the appropriate title I’m using, Transpersonal Counselor?
I refer to myself as a licensed psychotherapist specializing in transpersonal psychology.
What does a typical day look like and what are some common issues you handle?
I don’t know if there is a typical day. I go into my physical office to see clients two days a week. I have online sessions with clients another two days a week. All the rest of the time I am on the computer doing my social media, marketing, writing articles, getting them published, writing books.
Are there any negative aspects of your job?
I was unprepared for how long you have to sit still. That is something people should take into account if they are thinking about becoming a therapist, because you sit still for long, long periods of time.
What are some positive aspects of your job that you didn’t consider prior to starting?
Everything about my job is great. I get to do what I love; I get to spend all day talking about things that are important to me. I get to be around people who are genuinely interested in personal and spiritual growth. You know, the other negative is that being in private practice is very isolating. You don’t really get out to interact with people. It’s just you and your clients. For introverts that’s not so bad, but it does take its toll. In spite of that, everything about it is great.
How do you incorporate a holistic approach to mental wellness through your services?
During the initial assessment all clients are asked questions about their physical health, their exercise and food habits, and their spirituality. I ask about their medications — some transpersonal therapists are against medications, but I am definitely not. I’ve seen meds be very helpful for some people, so I am an advocate under the right circumstances. If the client is not in good health, then I talk to them about how that may affect their mental health and make referrals or suggest they see a doctor. I talk with them quite a bit about how depression and anxiety disorders can be diet or exercise-based.
How do you combine conventional counseling practices with transpersonal, spiritually-based, practices?
I’m quite traditional in that I use the frame of therapy, where we start and end on time. We aren’t “wishy-washy” about that. People are charged for late cancellations and so forth. We have what’s called a “strong frame.” The décor in my office is that of a traditional office, and we have waiting rooms and call lights. My staff and I dress professionally; we don’t dress like hippies. The frame of therapy, signing paperwork and so forth is traditionally-based. It’s the content that is transpersonal in scope. We talk about things that other therapists and clients would not talk about. I might make an intervention concerning chakra work, or maybe a person wants to speak to me about their spiritual practices. Together we might do a meditation in the session. I believe that the traditional frame of therapy is very helpful and containing. A lot of my clients are people who have come to me after they haven’t felt helped by new-age transpersonal therapists. Their experiences with them have been “loosey-goosey,” — you just kind of sit around on cushions and talk about this or that and so on. I’m sure there are people doing very good work, I’m not trying to say there aren’t. But I feel that as a licensed psychotherapist it’s really helpful to act like a licensed psychotherapist.
I don’t think we should throw mainstream therapy out – it’s just, unfortunately, not even that it’s leaving out the spiritual dimension, it’s actively against the spiritual dimension and that is what I have an issue with.
How do you balance work and home life?
I’m not really an advocate of a balanced life if you’re passionate about what you do. I mean, I work out and eat well, and I have my interests, but most of my interests have to do with transpersonal subjects. I’m just super into it. I don’t feel unbalanced, but most people would consider my life unbalanced and that’s okay.
How do you handle compassion fatigue (emotional burnout) as a counselor who often must help others deal with problems?
I’ve never felt it except at the beginning of my career. I have very strong boundaries, and I’ve learned how to not take cases home. I find that keeping a strong frame around the sessions helps a great deal, not allowing clients to call me during the week or bleed into my personal life. I also feel it is important as therapists to remember we’re doing a job and that’s it. We’re not on some sort of spiritual mission from god, or some other ego-inflated nonsense. We basically show up, do our work and go home. I try to help, and if you’re not helped then please go work with someone else. I’m doing my best. I think that a lot of compassion fatigue comes from people who don’t understand we’re just doing our job, and we’re little tiny plops in the water. I love my work! I don’t feel burnout or compassion fatigue at all.
How long does it take to get in the flow of things working in your position?
At least ten years. I tell all my students it’s going to take ten years to become a good therapist. That’s doesn’t mean you aren’t helping some people at the beginning because you will. But, to get over imposter syndrome, or that feeling that “I’m not really sure what I’m doing,” that’s because you don’t really know what you’re doing at the beginning. It takes about ten years to build that strength of “I’ve made enough mistakes so now I know what I’m doing.” The business part of private practice is the same. Your business will go up and down, in and out, and then after about ten years you’re like, “Okay, I have this solid core now so it can go up and down and it’s not going to affect my paycheck.”
What kind of skills, attitudes, abilities, and mindset are essential for success in the counseling field?
It depends on whether you’re going to be in private practice or not, because if you’re going to be in private practice, you have to be entrepreneurial. A lot of students come and want to work for me who love transpersonal, but they have no business background. You’re not going to make it in private practice unless you understand how to grow a business. If you want to work in a clinic, that’s a totally different story.
You should work toward having the best possible technical skills, memorize the DSM, the best practices — we aren’t reinventing the wheel here. People have come before us who’ve figured out how to treat common disorders. Then do your own personal work, always be working on yourself. Always be curious about what makes you anxious, or why am I depressed, or why am I being crabby to the people I love? Examine yourself on all these things about personal and spiritual growth. What happens when I meditate and go deeply? How can I have more of that in my life? All these types of questions help you stay alive, and that way you’re fresh with your clients and not treating them with a cookie-cutter approach.
For someone entering the field, what education would you suggest prior to beginning a career?
It’s a minimum to get licensed. It doesn’t guarantee that people are good therapists, but it is a basic qualification for the public to be able to distinguish who’s gone through the required training and who hasn’t. I would suggest the whole bachelor’s degree, master’s degree. There are good careers you can have with a bachelor’s degree. I have clients with a bachelor’s who worked for alcohol treatment facilities where you’re not going to make a ton of money, but you’ll have a good career helping people. But if you want to be in private practice, go the licensing route. Do the traditional thing which might seem at times a little stupid like reading about rat studies and so forth. But, all the other points of view are helpful.
After that, work anywhere! That’s the one thing I did that I think makes me an effective therapist and contributes to my success is that I was willing, at the beginning of my career, to take any job that would hire me. I worked with all kinds of issues we consider undesirable. I worked in psych wards with psychotic people — that really helped a lot. I worked with men who’d been arrested for domestic violence, that really helps a lot because they will eat you alive if you don’t learn how to work with them. I interned in drug and alcohol treatment facilities. This type of thing, working with difficult clients, really hones your skills and teaches you things that a lot of garden-variety therapists have never been confronted with. Then, whoever walks in your office won’t surprise you or scare you because you’ve already been there.
What type of hands-on experience or on-the-job training should be expected when entering the field?
You’ll do an internship, and as I said it’s not always with the most desirable populations. People might think they want to have a nice middle-class practice, with nice middle-class people, or they want a Beverly Hills practice with people who are thinking about spiritual things. This does not happen for a long time, if ever. Mostly when you start off you’ll be working with juvenile delinquents or other low functioning people. That’s what’s to be expected at the beginning of your career. You’re going to pay your dues, and that’s good because the whole social network system is set up in that way because nobody wants to spend much money to help the low functioning members of society, so interns can be very helpful.
Could you recommend books, magazines, journals or other material that could assist me in future professional development?
Read my books, haha. Then read Ken Wilbur who is kind of hard to read, but he’s the big philosopher of transpersonal psychology. There are just so many good books in transpersonal psychology. Some of the reading is dense, but if you stick with it, it’s profound.
Do you subscribe to the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology? Is that a good one?
Yes, and it’s really good to join the organization and then you’ll have access to the journal articles online going back the last fifty years. The ability to be thinking about meditation and therapy and go back and read an article written in the 80’s, and another one from 2010 — I find that really helpful.
What is the average salary range for entry-level counselors?
Probably $50,000 or less. They did a study of LMFT’s in California 10-15 years ago and the average therapist was making $80,000. I make in the six figures, well into the six figures. So, it really depends on how you run your business.
What are some current issues or trends in the field of Transpersonal Psychology that someone looking into the field should be aware of?
There’s a big emphasis right now on the potentials of psychedelic medicine. Transpersonal psychology has been interested in the topic since the beginning, but it’s gone massively into the mainstream with the publication of Michael Pollan’s bestselling book, How to Change Your Mind, about checking out psychedelics for mental health reasons. I get several calls a week from people who want to do psychedelic therapy which, as I’m sure you’re aware, is illegal. But there is something called psychedelic integration, which is the counseling before and after, which we can do as licensed people. That’s made my practice explode in the last couple years.
MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, has been involved in doing legal government-approved research into the effects of MDMA for the treatment of PTSD. They’ve been having amazingly positive results, and they’re expecting that MDMA will be approved as a legal treatment for PTSD by 2021. Ketamine has already been approved. This is the cutting edge of transpersonal and of psychology in general.
What is one suggestion or piece of advice you would give someone entering the field of Transpersonal Counseling?
It would be to get really stable training. There are enough people in this field calling themselves “transpersonal” who are just kind of, I would just say hippies or new age people. They have good intentions, but their egos are like, “I’m this great healer.” Where is your grounding in real science? Where is your foundation in what’s been proven to work? You didn’t invent healing. There are some things that work better than others, and just because you like doing something doesn’t mean it’s helpful. Especially here, in Los Angeles, every person you meet is a healer of some sort. I think it’s good to go into the field saying yes, science exists, and we want to study methods with measurable outcomes. We’re not just trying to help people feel better, we’re trying to get measurable results so that people’s lives actually improve.
Conclusion
A lot of useful information was collected during the interview which will help guide my future decisions while seeking a career in counseling psychology and incorporating transpersonal psychology into practice. Catherine Auman, LMFT, provided excellent discussion on how one should go about pursuing a career in counseling and how one is able to include spiritual aspects of humanity into professional mental health counseling. She excellently detailed the importance of education, self-development, and continual progression along with licensure for the psychotherapy field. She covered negative and positive aspects of the job and addressed how burnout can be avoided in the psychotherapy field. She covered how she incorporates a holistic approach with her clients along with how traditional counseling methods and transpersonal counseling methods combined. She also detailed expectations for those entering the field, how long it will take to get comfortable, key abilities and skills to work on, and what internship opportunities to seek out. She emphasized that more difficult internships will typically provide more in terms of experience leading to more confidence when practicing. Finally, she provided insight into reading and educational materials for personal development along with trends and future perspectives in the field of transpersonal psychology. As a concluding question, I don’t think she could have answered it any better. She summarized the interview very well with the main takeaway from this whole experience. The most profound message I received from this interaction was the importance of remaining grounded in science while acknowledging that science may not have all the answers yet.
Jesse Mounts is a twenty-eight-year-old member of the United States Air Force working in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Jesse has been married for five years and has a three-year-old son. Jesse has worked in the Security Forces field for over nine years and is planning on staying in the military for twenty years. This interview was conducted as part of a culminating project for completion of the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from American Military University. Though not fully decided, Jesse would like to pursue his Master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology or a related field. His passion for psychology originated from his childhood where he was fascinated by understanding human behavior and motivation behind the behavior. As Jesse progressed through his Bachelor’s program he began to find interest in human consciousness studies and how individuals incorporate spiritual elements into their understanding of the world. Jesse is hoping to begin applying for his Master’s program sometime in the next two to three years. In the meantime, Jesse will be enjoying extra family time and catching up on reading.
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