AM22

Thank you for your response. I would agree with your thinking. A few schools also have asked for personal experience (among academic and work experience) in relation to the decision to pursue graduate studies in this field and I feel as though that would be my answer in that regard as well. Probably just overthinking it!

I had finished writing my Statement of Intent and had a friend in a Clinical Psych masters program read it over for me. In my statement I had written about how I was inspired to pursue this line of work from a childhood experience with anxiety and the previous misunderstanding of how mental health could affect children etc. I touched on how CBT helped me and so forth. In short, I was building on the fact that my own experience inspired me to create a positive and lasting impact on children (the area I hope to specialize in). This was just a small section of the statement and I connected it to how I have gone on to work with children with special needs etc. When my friend read it, she said that in clinical psychology it is not okay to disclose a mental health issue in a SOI. I looked into it and it seemed this was more in relation to using mental illness as a "justification" for grades, showing that you are currently "unstable" or not dealing with illness appropriately, or coming across as if you are pursuing this education in order to support yourself or loved ones. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this subject matter and could steer me in the right direction. Thanks in advance

I had finished writing my Statement of Intent and had a friend in a Clinical Psych masters program read it over for me. In my statement I had written about how I was inspired to pursue this line of work from a childhood experience with anxiety and the previous misunderstanding of how mental health could affect children etc. I touched on how CBT helped me and so forth. In short, I was building on the fact that my own experience inspired me to create a positive and lasting impact on children (the area I hope to specialize in). This was just a small section of the statement and I connected it to how I have gone on to work with children with special needs etc. When my friend read it, she said that in clinical psychology it is not okay to disclose a mental health issue in a SOI. I looked into it and it seemed this was more in relation to using mental illness as a "justification" for grades, showing that you are currently "unstable" or not dealing with illness appropriately, or coming across as if you are pursuing this education in order to support yourself or loved ones. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this subject matter and could steer me in the right direction. Thanks in advance.