Shvetali Thatte
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland (41.4° N, 81.6° W)

featuring Judy Huang, Therapist, Telehealth, Los Angeles (34.0° N, 118.2° W)

Values. Although a vague and often ambiguous term for many, values are critical to finding a worthwhile career. As my conversation with Judy Huang showcased, understanding our values helps us determine our priorities, after which we can reconstruct our perspective and reevaluate our happiness.

Judy is a marriage and family therapist associate at the Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Center in Los Angeles. With a BA in Psychology from Rice University, followed by an MS in Marriage and Family Therapy/Counseling four years later from Fuller Theological Seminary, Judy’s educational and career path has been unique, allowing her to gain valuable experiences.

In between getting her BA and MS, Judy worked at Deloitte Consulting, where she focused on learning business skills through the strategy and operations sector. Early on, she realized that a business background was critical because any issue in the world, even one in the therapy industry, requires knowledge in business to develop a solution. However, while Judy learned a great deal from her career as a consultant, the profession didn’t fit with her values.

Judy recognized her privilege in having the choice to do meaningful work. She had the desire and responsibility to give back to the community, and she wanted to find a profession that would better enable her to do so.

Given her interest in psychology and therapy, Judy pivoted to graduate studies for her masters in family therapy. After completing her degree, she began her training and is now a full-time employee for a counseling center, where she works with families, from adults to kids.

The recent pandemic has given Judy a new perspective, as she has begun working in telehealth. For some, telehealth is a far better alternative compared to in-person visits, as it is more affordable and accessible. Unfortunately, no solution is perfect, and while telehealth addresses some needs, it effectively creates separate problems. For people facing unemployment or a lack of income, access to therapy is still not possible, regardless of whether it is in-person or online. For those lacking technology and Wi-Fi or the means to acquire it, telehealth creates issues of access. And for the most vulnerable, an online connection simply does not compare to in-person.

Judy says that the transition towards telehealth has been interesting but not easy. She’s learned new ways of forming connections with her patients and is constantly looking for new methods that can facilitate the therapy process.

Therapy is the “on the ground” work that Judy was looking for. With each session, she can see herself making a tangible impact on families.

In light of being asked what advice she has for current college students, Judy’s keywords were, “Be open to different opportunities and experiences. Know what your values are and stay close to them. You can be in any role, any industry, as long as you stay true to your values. Be happy, wherever you are.”

Being a college student myself, I recognize how easy it is to lose sense of your values and priorities in the face of what your peers and the rest of society may deem more valuable. What you choose to do with your free time, your summers, and the opportunities at hand is up to you.

When choosing clubs to join, leadership positions to take on, and internship or research offers to accept, we must continuously check in with ourselves to make sure that is what we want. Take the time to identify your values before deep-diving into a field that may not truly pique your interest. Everyone requires different amounts of time to discover themselves, and it’s okay if you learn your values and choose your career at a later time than someone else.

Most importantly, Judy reminds us that no decision is final. As we grow older, we will change, and perhaps so will our values. Our perspectives will broaden and what once made us happy may no longer be the case.

We have to accept that such a change is okay; we can always choose differently as long as we keep our eyes open.

Highlights from the interview:

What took you on your career path, which took you from consulting to therapy?

I was always really interested in something that had to do with social impact and social justice. Earlier on, I tried to do an internship in microfinance, and it just felt like the main messaging in industry was pretty much that you have to learn business skills to make any impact. Which is why I joined Deloitte, I thought that I could make changes from the top down. But part of what I realized that in consulting was I was a bit disillusioned with the skills I was learning, and disillusioned with kind of where I was spending my time and where I was actually helping, and it didn’t feel like I was making an impact. And it felt more like guilt-appeasing than impactful.

So then I transitioned into looking for more on-the-ground type of work. Psychology and therapy had always interested me. Then I pivoted to graduate studies to learn therapy and counseling. And that’s what helped me go down the path of graduate school, and down the path of working with the most at-risk and lowest income families just to feel like the things that I was doing was actually making a difference. So yeah it’s been a whirlwind, it’s been very different. And it actually utilizes a lot of the same skills of building trust and rapport, and listening and solving problems. It just feels more meaningful and on-the-ground.

How do you think passion has played a role in choosing your career path and sticking to it?

It’s been a huge motivator for me. I think working just to work is something that I’ve had the privilege to not have to be confined by. And beyond working to put food on the table, I’ve been able to be like, “I want a choice in what work that I do. I want choice in my work to be meaningful.” And I recognize that it’s a privilege, and part of that privilege comes with feeling the responsibility and the want to kind of give back and to make sure that there’s more equality in the playing field for everybody to be able to pursue something that’s interesting, something that’s meaningful, something that feels purposeful.

I wanted to do something that felt more meaningful for me, and I think for me, I also needed to see more immediate change and more concrete change. So that was a big driver for me to know that, “Okay, I’ll actually be working with individuals on the ground, I’ll actually be making a difference in people’s lives, and I can actually see the changes happening while it’s happening, rather than working on something vague and more higher level. So all these things have been big motivators for me.

It definitely sounds like you’ve been following what you value and what you care about the most, and not being sucked up into the work place itself, which is inspiring.

Yeah! It’s hard to stay true to values. Because there’s a lot of temptation of other things, and so yeah, I think knowing your values and reassessing how your life is aligned to them every couple of months, and keeping yourself accountable, is a good way to check in with yourself. Because I think that I probably stayed too long in my first career. I got to a point where I was like, “I need to either make a decision or I’m going to be stuck in this forever, because I won’t be able to get out.” And so that’s something that I had to do, but only because I know myself. It might be different for other people, but that’s my own journey.

Given that you’ve kind of transitioned to virtual therapy, how do you find that different from in-person. What obstacles did you have to overcome?

I mostly did in-person through an agency. So I either went to schools, or homes, or they came to the office depending on what their situations were like. There’s something about connecting in person that allows you to be present and sit with people in their emotions. And there’s that heaviness and tenseness in the room that it’s nice to have somebody physically in the room with you. And I do miss that part. I think part of the transition is I’m now on a platform that’s more affordable for people, but it’s still expensive for people without income. There are needs that are met for the low-income folks because those are covered by Medi-Cal and the government will pay for services through that. So those people are covered. There’s the people with private insurance who can pay out of pocket, or who have good insurance who will pay for access to healthcare or mental healthcare. And those people are covered. And then there’s these people in the middle who make too much to qualify but they don’t have enough to actually pay for services cause they usually run $150 to $250 per hour. And so, it’s been more about being open to taking a pay cut to be on a platform that allows for access for more people. It’s enough and fairly paid enough for me to be like, “Okay, this is fair, this is okay.” And I am more available, more accessible to more people, even if they’re not the lowest on the totem pole, they’re still people who are getting lost in the cracks. And so I can meet them here.

What changes do you think could be made to telehealth to mitigate the difference that arises from the shift from in-person to virtual?

I think part of it is that it just takes a little bit longer to build that trust and that connection of, “I’m here with you.” Cause when I’m physically there with somebody, then I’m already physically there. Whereas virtually, I might have to be more explicit, like “I feel your pain,” or “I hear you,” and be more explicit in what I say or how I breathe and things like that. So I think having more awareness of my own body cues and how I communicate with the other person so that they know. So that they feel as supported as if they were in-person.

I think there’s a lot of access, and that’s great, that more people are willing to try it and able to actually use it. I think there’s a big gap for the people who don’t have Wi-Fi, who don’t have access to consistent internet, things like that. So those people will kind of be left behind. Because if we go only virtual, then it will be less access for them. A gradual transition will be helpful and for those who might fall through the cracks and put things in place so that there are still agencies that kind of can go in person.  

Do you have any last words of advice to share for college students?

I think the advice I would share is to be open to different things and opportunities, be open to different experiences, and all the while, know what your values are. Stay close to your values and check in with yourself because you can be in any industry, you can be in any role, you can be in any job. As long as you hold your values, I think you can be happy wherever you are. And so just to make sure your values stay consistent, your identity feels consistent, and that you’re able to check in with yourself every couple of months.

I think another thing to remember is that no decision is final. That you always have the opportunity to change, always have the opportunity to take a different path. And just because you choose one path today doesn’t mean you’re locked into it forever. And so to give yourself the freedom of always reassessing, of like, “Do I want to continue down this same path still or do I want to try something different?” and to make it an intentional choice rather than a passive choice.

Interview excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability and approved by the interviewee. This article only aims to share personal opinions and learnings and does not constitute the interviewee’s current or former employer(s)’ position on any of the topics discussed.