Annual Symposium in Los Angeles, California on September 25-26, 2026
& Virtual Speaker Series Ongoing through Summer 2026

Graduate students and new clinicians in the mental health field are rarely taught how to build a career,  they are taught how to do therapy. The result is a profession in which many talented clinicians feel trapped between burnout and the narrow path of agency work and private practice, unaware of the vast professional landscape their training has actually prepared them to enter.
This presentation addresses that gap directly. Using a career design framework rooted in values exploration, Blue Ocean Strategy thinking, and transferable skills identification, participants will move through a structured and interactive 90-minute session that expands their professional identity and ignites their career imagination.
The session begins where all good career planning should begin - with values. Participants will clarify what they actually want from their professional lives before exploring what is possible. This foundation ensures the session is personally meaningful rather than abstractly informational.
From there, participants are introduced to the Blue Ocean Strategy concept as applied to therapy careers, the idea that the most fulfilling and sustainable careers are not built by competing in crowded markets but by creating new professional spaces that combine clinical expertise with individual passion, creativity, and vision.
A transferable skills activity invites participants to take inventory of what they already know how to do and see those skills through a broader lens. Active listening, psychoeducation, crisis assessment, group facilitation, and motivational interviewing are not just therapy skills,  they are leadership skills, design skills, community skills, and innovation skills.
The session then surveys a wide range of non-traditional career pathways including nonprofit leadership, program development, technology consulting, therapeutic product and game design, and community building. Each pathway is connected back to the values and skills participants have already identified, making the possibilities feel attainable rather than abstract.
Participants leave with a personal career design sketch, a list of their most transferable skills, and at least one concrete next step. The overarching message is simple and powerful: your license is a launchpad, not a limitation.

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Educational Learning Objectives:

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1. Participants will be able to identify three to five personal career values and describe how those values can be used to guide professional decision-making as a therapist.

2. Participants will be able to name at least five transferable clinical skills and apply them to at least two non-traditional career pathways outside of direct client services.

3. Participants will be able to describe four non-traditional career options available to licensed clinicians, including opportunities in leadership, technology, product development, and community building.