Today we’d like to introduce you to Yasmine Khoushab.
Yasmine, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am originally from a small town outside of Philadelphia, PA where I was born and raised. I went to Penn State University where I entered as a Digital Arts major. During the start of my time at Penn State, I took my first psychology class and all of a sudden, I felt this “click”. In the past, I remember telling myself being a therapist or counselor is the last thing I’ll be! Something within me changed that day, it’s like that saying, “When you know, you know”. I fell in love with how the mind works, the power of therapy, and what it can do for people.
Having some personal triumphs of my own, I became passionate to help those in need. However, I remember almost finishing my Bachelor’s Degree with no knowledge of what I wanted my next steps to be, what I wanted my future to look like after all this. I got up one morning and impulsively said, ” I want to get my Master’s Degree.” By the time I decided on my next step, the majority of schools were no longer taking applications to start until the following year except for two that I came across. I only had one month to study for the GRE’s, apply to school, and pray I get accepted to one of them. After many ups and downs, I got accepted to Pepperdine University. Graduate School of Education and Psychology. I flew to LA, where I experienced the best years of my life and finally received my Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology with an Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy.
After many disappointments of looking for work, I was starting to lose faith in myself. I started to keep my options open and I landed a job, as a psychotherapist, at an addiction treatment center in their Intensive Outpatient Program. Again, something I never thought I’d be doing. It has been one of the most eye-opening and most rewarding experiences I could have ever been given. Today, I am the Lead Clinician to their Detox and Residential Program.
In between my time there, I decided to open up my private practice where I work with individuals dealing with trauma, anxiety, depression, and grief. I also wanted to give back to my culture and be active in the Iranian community to help bring awareness to mental health.
Figuratively speaking, I discovered you’ll find the missing pieces to the puzzle as long as you don’t stop playing along and I couldn’t be happier with how my life turned out! I learned to trust the process. It really is about the journey and not the destination.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I believe in order to be satisfied with what you do, smooth roads cannot be a part of the equation. My journey to being where I am today definitely consisted of ambivalence, mistreatment, anxiety, along with facing many disappointments in the field. I sometimes questioned if I even went into the right field. My favorite poet, Rumi, said “Hardship may dishearten at first, but every hardship passes away. All despair is followed by hope; all darkness is followed by sunshine.” All things considered, do not go without purpose. I had to think about the kind of person and clinician I wanted to become and allow myself to be guided by all the things that would get me there. I am so humbled by every drawback, grateful for every experience, and honored that it has given me the strength to be where I am today.
Please tell us about your practice.
In my practice, I see individuals who suffer from trauma, anxiety, depression, and grief. I am certified in Greif and Loss through Our House Greif Support Center in LA. I carry my practice through existential and psychoanalytic modalities to help those find deeper meaning and understanding within their life experience.
I believe therapy is not about treating the symptom, it’s about treating what’s causing the symptom. There is always more than what meets the eye. I love looking inward and walking along with my clients to find parts of themselves they never knew existed. That to me is true empowerment and the best gift I can offer my clients!
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
You know it’s funny, as we’re talking in the midst of a pandemic, I would love to say what my future plans are. Overall, I hope to one day buy my dream home, start a family, give back to my community, and progress in my career but who knows what’s around the corner. My experience in life has taught me time after time, you can never plan. That’s the beauty of it, you can have a life better than you ever imagined. It’s like what Woody Allen said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” LOL! The bottom line, my future plans are to remain open to receive whatever beautiful opportunities come my way!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sayyastotherapy.com
- Phone: 818-581-2186
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sayyastotherapy
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/SayYasToTherapy
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