Now 24 years old, half Cuban and half Spanish, Miami has always been my home. I invested much of my time growing up dancing ballet from the age of 2 until I was 15. I also played piano and tennis – both very well, still do; but, it was ballet that was my central dream. My performances were always lauded and I was told that I had great potential to be the very best. In truth, however, there were always a handful of other girls who were one little step ahead of me; and in ballet only the very best of the best continue. My consolation has been psychology, which I had already embraced as my career choice by the time that I was finished high school. 

With one semester left before graduating with my Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from XXXX University, my dream career is now unfolding before my eyes and I am convinced that I will find the deepest possible professional fulfillment in the near future by earning the MA Degree in I/0 Psychology and serving as business consultant, helping organizations to make their workplaces more efficient by placing a priority on the welfare of the workers and their families, particularly in terms of worker satisfaction.

Probably the greatest strength of my application is the fact that my city, Miami, is arguably the most bi-cultural, bilingual Spanish/English city in the world, and I am a fully bicultural and bilingual woman who feels strongly that she has a lot to give to her community and is very determined to do so. I want very much to continue on and also earn the Master’s Degree in I/O Psychology at XXXX, simply because I am so comfortable studying here, happy and engaged with the academic community. I feel like it is our university, XXXX, that is inspiring me to strive for perfection, and that the superlative nature of your graduate as well as undergraduate programs will provide me with a crucial edge in a very competitive professional environment. I am highly dependable with a great work ethic and a broad variety of experience. My attention to detail is impeccable as are my organizational and problem solving skills.

Since I will soon be entering my final semester at XXXX, I have developed advanced analytical skills and enhanced problem-solving abilities. I have always been a very determined and studious individual; most of all, I am a really hard worker who has distinguished herself in several challenging work environments. I now hope very much to be accepted to your Master’s Program as the next step along the way to becoming an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist.  I consider myself to be particularly well suited to a career in I/O Psychology since I pay a great deal of attention to detail and take intense pleasure in the analysis of social issues and controversy on the one hand, and conflict resolution on the others – always taking note of how people’s opinions and memories are influenced by external factors. My reading of Maslow and Herzberg have left me enormously excited about the prospects of harnessing the power of their theories for the enhancement of the quality of the workplace; and, hence, the professional relevance of I/O Psychology. One of my career highlights so far has been working on a research project entitled “Can money buy happiness” facilitating my exploration of practical applications for Business Psychology to be found in the works of Rotter as well as Skinner, with respect to the role played by cognitive processes in finding happiness in particular.

Working at a law firm for the past 4 years has helped to build my confidence and enhanced my communication skills since I am in constant contact with clients and colleagues. It has also helped me to refine my time management skills balancing work with school. I have learned a lot about how to run a law firm since the owner has entrusted me with a great deal of responsibility, greeting and interviewing clients and prospective clients, pleading preparation, scheduling hearings and mediations, drafting motions, gathering all information necessary in a timely fashion. I also do the billing for the firm, prep invoices, and prepare checks for closings as well as being in charge of commissions and bonuses paid to associate attorneys and the management of real estate owned by my employer.

Nevertheless, the above is just a job. I am not at all attracted to the idea of law school because I do not want to be an attorney. My heart lies more in investigation, public debate, administration, and education. I have volunteered at an Elementary School as an Assistant Teacher and I have a passion for research, statistics, and finding practical applications. I am civil notary public and also have an insurance license

10 years from now I see myself as a professional I/O Psychologist fully engaged in cutting edge research designed to ultimately address important social and ethical questions that emerge in the workplace of tomorrow. The principal foundation for my career advancement will be earning the Master’s Degree in I/O Psychology at XXXX. I feel strongly that the training and experiences offered by XXXX University is the perfect match for my career goals.

Education is and has always been the basis of the individual that I am striving to become. My specialty is making strategy happen: prioritizing goals, defining outcomes, aligning stakeholders, and executing against strategic initiatives.

I see your Master’s Program in I/O Psychology at XXXX as the optimal intellectual springboard to propel me forwards towards the greatest possible fulfillment as a mover and a shaker in the Miami workplace.

I thank you for considering my application.

“Everyone should be in therapy”. Do you agree or disagree which this statement? Please state your reasoning

I think that long term happiness and well-being most often occurs as a result of planning, making a serious effort to address one’s issues, and this is especially true when one has the added burden of dealing with a mental health challenge. In fact, I tend to see therapy as an integral part of human development in the modern age and quite useful for achieving the fullest of lives and the highest levels of development personally as well as professionally.

I am especially excited about the prospect of using therapy for preventive purposes, like a health screening that occurs routinely, geared to the prevention of issues, just as we routinely look for indicators for cancer in asymptomatic people. Another analogy that I enjoy is that of therapy as a sort of flu shot geared towards the prevention of flair ups of mental health symptoms, to prevent potential illness. Just like Rome is not built in one day. Mental illness is not developed in one day. It will be much better to detect those distorted thinking patterns at an early stage when they are more easily and successfully dealt with.

I have always categorically rejected negative labels or stereotypical thinking about people who see a therapist. I do not see those who go to therapy as either lazy or weak, rather, it takes strength, drive, determination and most of all courage to put in the investment required for a successful therapy experience. Life is full of challenge, failures, and sometimes suffering, and therapy helps on to cope with life in all of these areas. It is important to acknowledge and account for the significance and value of falling down, being challenged, and even – perhaps particularly - facing up to failure. Untreated problems only get worse over time. Therapists help us to recognize our blind spots and overcome our negative feelings such as anger and jealousy digging deeper in a journey towards self-discovery that leads towards acceptance and greater tranquility.

It is important to note that some of our finest, most biographically significant moments, often occur when we are quite uncomfortable, not feeling happy at all. Our therapist encourages us to confront our uncomfortable feelings, take them on and work through them, thus snatching victory from the jaws of defeat by finding and implementing workable solutions.

Mental illness usually takes many years to develop in the absence of adequate coping skills and the presence of maladaptive beliefs. If we don't pay attention to what is happening to us early on, what makes us feel drained, harmful thoughts can become so deeply embedded in our minds making them resilient to change as a result of many years of reinforcement of negative behavior.

A friend of mine who is a licensed counselor once invited me to attend an art therapy session with her. All participants sat in a circle. After a brief icebreaker and introductions, we were each asked to create a fairy story and were given 30 minutes to decorate a mask for the main character we created. We then were separated into three groups, introducing our stories to group members and selecting one story to perform a role play in the form of mime: acting without using words. The author of the selected story would serve as a director, choosing actors and designing all the actions. In one of the role plays, a girl played a puppet and was controlled by another girl who played manipulator standing behind her. The puppet was forced to move her legs and hands under the manipulator’s instructions. Then, another girl playing a pair of scissors came up and tried to squeeze between the puppet and the manipulator, using her two arms. However, she failed. The manipulator pushed over the “scissors”. The puppet stood on her knees and bent her head down stiffly. At that moment, a forth girl who played a grown-up puppet wearing a colorful mask made by the author came up to the stage to fight with the manipulator and eventually beat her.  After helping the author direct the mime, the counselor asked the author whether she wanted to role-play the grown-up puppet with the mask. The girl nodded her head and went up to the stage. She fought with the manipulator, pushed the manipulator onto the floor and pretended to keep hitting her until the manipulator gave up resisting and was “dead”. When we discuss about how each role makes us feel, it is eye opening to adopt various perspectives to better understand the complex situation. How does it feel to be a manipulator, seeing the original puppet surrender to the manipulator and the grown-up puppet fight so hard against the manipulator? One of the touching moments is seeing the manipulator smiling and happy even though she was beaten down. She said it felt good to see the puppet growing even though it means she failed for whatever her purpose is. The ability of letting go is very inspiring. So is the importance of forgiveness, both of which can be taught most effectively through drama, providing a chance to explore something painful or difficult in one’s heart from a safe distance. The workshop I attended was predominantly composed of Chinese international students and young professionals. The therapy helped us to explore ourselves through acting out our thoughts and our sharing reflections.

I see my own generation as quite distinct from those that have gone before, especially with respect to Chinese culture. We are given more freedom to choose what we want in our lives. We are more willing to accept job positions that pay less but are truly what we want and feel passionate about. We care more about how we feel and we place a higher priority on being happy.

I feel strongly that psychotherapy can be highly effective in easing symptoms associated with mental health issues and generally results, as numerous studies have shown, in heightened self reporting of feelings or levels of happiness. I spend a lot of time reading in the area of positive psychology and thus I appreciate the way that psychotherapy is best not seen as a place where only troubles are discussed but also  strengths discovered, positive emotions cultivated, and gratitude and optimism are fostered. For me, psychotherapy is much more than symptom reduction, it also helps us to nurture courage, kindness, modesty, perseverance, and emotional and social intelligence.

I do not, however, necessarily feel that my generation is necessarily happier than generations that have gone before us. Perhaps we have yet to learn to fully translate our greater levels of freedom and self realization into more contentment and inner peace. I like to focus on the way that human beings are incredibly resilient creatures capable of adapting rapidly to environmental and demographic changes, at least with a little help from some kind of social support system and sometimes a positive intervention. I do not see happiness as equivalent to the absence of unhappiness and I am an advocate of positive interventions that are able to extend the benefits of psychological science even to those who are not suffering from a clinical condition. I am particularly fond, for example, of one positive intervention designed and put to use by Seligman who asked clients to write three good things that went well that day and also reflect upon why they went well, which helped clients to end their day remembering the day’s positive rather than negative events.

Many people think therapy is not necessary, since they can turn to the abundant self-help literature, including many national best sellers. However, one problem about self-help books is that they are trying to give one solution fit for everyone. In reality, everyone has unique problems to some extent and situations also vary according to te individual. Therapists can better lead you to what you want through individually tailored approaches. While self-help literature may offer numerous tricks such as ‘‘do aromatherapy once a week,’’ and ‘‘every morning repeat six positive affirmations,’’ these strategies lack scientific rigor. Self-help strategies for all may also serve to reinforce the misperception that there are quick fixes or short cuts for everything, including mental illness and personal growth. Because personal growth and recovery from mental illness require one to look deep into oneself, it generally takes a long time to finish the journey to make sense of our past and how that leads us into a future of promise.

Some people may contend that they get enough emotional support from friends and family members and thus do not need therapy. It is true that friends might provide you sound advice and invaluable emotional comfort. However, therapists are trained professionals who help one to look deep inside to find one’s own solutions. Lessons learned through therapy help many people to live more rewarding lives, including how to value and appreciate one’s friends in healthy and positive ways.

Therapists also provide a client with the all important factor of confidentiality and the benefits of a professional vs. personal interaction. Unlike some friends, who often have vested interests, the therapist is not judgmental and is open to and can help a client to come up with novel and creative ideas concerning behavioral modification. One can feel comfortable with a professional in a way that they cannot with someone with whom they have a personal relationship. While everyone is not yet ready for therapy, by working together as a professional group to help to lower the stigma attached to seeking professional help, we can contribute to making mental health services more widely available and utilized as well.

By earning my Master’s Degree in your comprehensive program at XXXX, I look forward to a long lifetime as a professional therapist working to promote well-being and personal growth, especially by fostering and facilitating help seeking behaviors among clinical populations and culture groups where mental health services tend not to be highly valued. 

The PsyD Program at XXXX University is my first choice for study at the doctoral level because of your location and the fact that I see my interests as the best fit for your program. A husband of 28 years and a father of a 23-year-old daughter, I am also a cancer survivor and a recovering alcoholic for more than a decade; thus, I feel that I have developed wisdom that will be useful for helping others. In particular, I look forward to continuing to help young men caught up in the juvenile justice system to avoid some of the pitfalls that snare so many young substance abusers, especially teenage alcoholics. I also look forward to helping others to face up to the battle against cancer.

A graduate student in a Clinical Mental Health Program specializing in Reality Therapy, I am a responsible self-starter who communicates well and is dedicated to caring for the mental health of my clients.  Team-oriented with a strong record of establishing solid relationships with clients, co-workers and administration, I pay great attention to detail and documentation and I am well read in the area of professional ethics and public policy.

The internship of more than 700 hours that I completed at XXXX Department of Corrections (DOC) has been formative in my career direction and I have simply become addicted to the challenge presented to our society by teenage substance abusers. I am especially enthused after this experience with the power of group counseling to change the way that young people think, helping them to achieve greater levels of control over their behavior.

I spent most of my adult life in the restaurant business in which I was highly successful; now financially independent at 53 years old, I have turned my full attention to what I love most: the study of psychology, healing, therapy, and most of all counseling. My special passion for counseling which drives my application to the PsyD Degree Program at XXXX University is born in part from my own highly positive experiences over the last couple of decades with counseling for myself, an alcoholic in recovery currently celebrating very close to one full decade of sobriety. Thus, it is easy to see why I am so dedicated to helping others. I have been actively engaged with AA and NA for many years now and have went to our local hospital’s detox and dual diagnosis units to help out as a volunteer on frequent occasions. I am fully focused on salvation and redemption and enjoy nothing more than talking the talk and walking the walk of sobriety. I feel that I can make my strongest contribution to my community in the therapy and rehabilitation of young offenders in the juvenile justice system. I am experienced in this area and I have found that when I share with these young men about my own struggle years ago and the problems that alcohol caused in my life, they listen to me much more intently than they would do so otherwise. From my experience, counseling that comes from the heart and stays close to the bone is the most effective.

As a young business man, earning my BS in Business Marketing back in 1985 was a natural choice. My interest in psychology and mental health - my calling and vocation - was something that developed over time. This coming year, however, in 2017, I will earn my Masters Degree in Clinical Mental Health from XXXX University. Alcoholism and substance abuse are only part of the issues in the psychology of healing in which I look forward to continuing to immerse myself for the balance of my professional a lifetime.  The way I have dealt and continue to deal with my own addiction is to look at myself attentively in the mirror every morning and saying to myself everyday that I'm an alcoholic, mindful of my condition at every moment. I keep my Disease in front of me at all times. This clearly works; otherwise, I would not be maintaining my 4.0 GPA at UXX.

My long term goal is to make a positive change in human lives through the DOC, especially with young offenders. These teenage offenders come from a broad variety of backgrounds with all different types of obstacles in their path that they must overcome. I feel very strongly that juvenile offenders are in a separate moral category than their adult counterparts and that they deserve special consideration and investment. Everything that applies to the adult offender in terms of deserving another chance, a shot at rehabilitation and re-insertion into society: much more so does it apply to the offender who is a legal minor. They deserve a special chance; an education and the assistance that they need to overcome the obstacles that stand in their way to becoming a productive member of society. I firmly believe that some will be very successful if they follow a well put together program that has guidelines and parameters that effectively prepare them for re-entry into society. I firmly believe that many if not most juvenile offenders could become very successful members of the community if they were to follow a program that had well designed guidelines and parameters that effectively prepared them for re-entry.

Several of the clients that I have worked with stand out in my mind and I continue to reflect upon them and their situation. I had very intense conversations with AH, for example, who was in a sexual offender group at the age of 19.   According to him, his victim was 13 years old and he was 18 and he was set up because she never told him her real age and he never asked.  Throughout all of our long sessions he went into great detail on what actually transpired.  For the first few sessions, I could not put my finger on it.  But then, after reviewing my notes, by the third session I could see that things just didn’t add up and I realized that AH was a chronic liar.  Almost every single thing that he told me was contradicted by something else that he said in a group or in a subsequent session. I reflected on the possibility that AH has Extreme Narcissistic Personality Disorder.  I have heard that one cannot change a narcissist, that they must change themselves. In the fourth session with AH I began to expose his discrepancies.  I thought that he might either shut completely down and/or feel rage at being exposed; most likely continuing in his narcissistic way of thinking and interacting. AH was one of my first clients in the DOC and he was not my greatest success. Nevertheless, with AH I became aware of the fact that my age was an asset, and that I was shown at least a minimal amount of respect because of my real life experiences. He left me with the impression that I had resources that a younger counselor may not have, at least with AH. 

Another inmate I will never forget is MJ, a 17 year old inmate sentenced to life.  During my fifth week in the DOC I learned that MJ’s mother had passed away unexpectedly.  Since I had already met with him on several occasions in regard to behavior incidents, I was selected to tell him that his mother had passed away.  I was a nervous wreck because there is no easy way or text book example on how to handle a situation such as this.  When MJ walked into the meeting room in cuffs and shackles, he asked why he was meeting with me.  I said to him: “I have some bad news for you.” MJ screamed “what happened to my mom?”  I looked at him and said nothing, only staring into his eyes.  At that point, MJ fell on the floor and began sobbing.  I went over to him and sat down next to him to show support.  MJ never knew his father, his mother was a crack addict and he grew up on the streets of Philadelphia.  As I sat with him on the floor for nearly the entire session he finally asked me what had happened to his mother.  I told him that it was a tragic accident involving a tractor trailer and that she passed instantly.  MJ looked at me and said: “That’s a relief to know that she wasn’t shot and she didn’t suffer.  She died with some dignity.”  I was assigned to counsel MJ for an hour every week and I tried to see him about three times a week and it usually worked out.  After about a month of grief counseling, I saw MJ in the general population and he came up to me and said, “Mr C I just want to thank you for the way you told me of my mother’s passing.  I knew it was hard for you but I’m glad it was you.  Thank you.”  That was the most rewarding experience I’ve had in counseling so far and I want more. 

I believe that many of the problems our society faces today are a direct result of negative behavior that is learned from parents as well as society as a whole. The reason that I want to earn my Psyd is to learn by experience with a hands-on clinical approach. I firmly believe that the best way to learn is through experience, being there, putting what one preaches into practice.

I thank you for your consideration of my application to XXXX University.

I write the following in support of my transfer from the MLIS Program to the PHD Program in Behavioral Science at the University of XXXX. Earning my PHD in Behavioral Science in your dynamic program at UXX will enable me to fulfill my long-term dreams, which have taken shape more recently- hence the transfer. In particular, I want to do research on role-playing as a form of interactive group therapy and study the psychological peculiarities of online interaction in depth. I’m prepared to put my computer skills to work at the service of research in psychology

An avid aficionado of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOs), I have found myself increasingly intrigued by connections between these games and human psychology and what these games can teach us about  human nature and the way that we habitually tend to interact. I see these interactions are pulled into stark relief by the relative anonymity of cyberspace and cyber barriers to emotion and moral clarity. I am interested in the nature of the escape mechanism provided by assuming an avatar personality and the extent to which it can be either harmful or beneficial in video game fights, team raids, quests, and other simulated activities. I desire to study the biological connections as well; learning everything that I can about biofeedback and then applying what I learn to discovering therapy-biofeedback combinations.

I could not be happier than I am at XXXX University studying towards my Master’s Degree in Library Science. I enjoy everything having to do with information and how it is used and I shall always stay abreast of cutting edge development in information systems and organization; especially insofar as these systems are useful for applied research. Nevertheless, as I have matured over the course of the last few years, I have become increasingly immersed in my study of Psychology, especially with respect to application to computer and information-related possibilities. Most enamored by the vast potential of new technologies to aid us in understanding human behavior, I look forward to the development of new virtual arenas in which patterns of behavior can be deciphered. I am also very much enthralled with your distinguished faculty and the extremely exciting, pioneering research being undertaken in the Behavioral Science Program at UXX.

I especially admire the inspiring work of Dr. XXXX in the area of human avatar interaction as well as Dr. XXXX on stress management through the use of creative writing mechanisms. It is my sincere belief that my undergraduate minor in English and my writing skills will propel me to special excellence in this topic.

The other reason why I want to transfer out of my MLIS program at UXX and into your doctoral program in Behavioral Science is strictly financial. I do enjoy what I am studying and see it as relevant to my central objective of harnessing developments in technology to ground-breaking research ends. I am still young and in no great hurry; thus, if it were not for financial considerations I would probably finish my MLIS degree before beginning full time study in Psychology. My source of funding for my graduate study, however, is my grandmother and she is only willing to fund one graduate degree and she is encouraging me to transfer directly into your doctoral program.

I hope to earn the PHD at UXX so as to devote myself to a lifetime of applied research. I look forward in particular to learning how to best interpret and improve the virtual social interactions of children and adolescents suffering from mood and anxiety disorders—especially since they represent such a vast and vulnerable sector of the world’s online population.

I thank you for considering my application.

I ask for acceptance to earn the PsyD Degree at the XXXX Institute so that I might add the final and most important professional hat to my repertoire of historically interconnected or culminating roles. First, I gave my all for my country as a soldier; then I became an Episcopal Priest. Since June of 2014, I have served as the Director of Admissions at the XXXX School Prior to this position, I served for two years as a parish priest at XXXX Episcopal Church in XXXX. The cause to which I have decided to vote the balance and hopefully by far most significant part of my professional life is that of helping our veterans to heal. My comrades have been thrust into questionable moral situations for a very long time, forced to engage in many morally questionable activities, and with all too great a frequency fall into moral decay, as a result of stress, violence, and in some cases their own moral failure. I see the Wright Institute as the best fit for my interests, an academic community in which to find support and ideas to empower and inspire me to write a doctoral dissertation on the subject of Moral Injury and how it is related to PTSD.

I look forward to many decades to come fully immersed in an exploration of the ways that Moral Injury has, in the words of Rut Gubkin: "biological, emotional, neurological and spiritual and/or existential dimensions." As a priest of ecumenical formation, I believe that I have education/training/experience that will prove to be of great value in the development of models for healing that incorporate spirituality from a diverse body of religious backgrounds with a central focus on spirituality itself, rather than spirituality as it exists within any given religious tradition. I am especially interested in first studying, perhaps even helping to perfect or contribute to the development of Moral Injury Event Scales (MIES). I am pleased that there is already an extensive body of literature with which I have to work as a foundation, helpful data regarding moral injury resulting from transgressions by others, transgressions by self, and transgression by betrayal, resulting in stress, PTSD, feelings of hopelessness, pessimism, anger and rage.

I look forward to connecting some of the dots from my own experience as a soldier, with Moral Injury Theory which suggests, for example, that those who suffer Moral Injury as a result of the transgressions of others rather than their own are especially susceptible to PTSD. I saw this to be glaringly true of the poor fellows who I interacted with in the mortuary affairs unit overseas. They are the ones who process the bodies of those killed in action. They processed both Americans and the local Iraqi population who were killed in action (KIA). It's a terrible thing to see a mother and father lying on a table next to their children, the entire family KIA. It is even worse to see this several times a day, almost every day, for long periods of time. As if this were not yet tragic enough, these soldiers were well aware that many if not most of these casualties of war that come from air strikes that are not reported on the news and sometimes not reported at all. The transgressions of others often occur by people making simple mistakes with deadly consequences; these transgressions are also the most heavily correlated with PTSD.

Transgressions of self, on the other hand, have been shown to be more strongly associated with hopelessness, pessimism, and anger. One young marine from my unit was the gunner on top of a vehicle and the driver fell asleep and lost control, flipped the vehicle, and the young marine was crushed and mangled beyond recognition. Despite the fact that what happened was an accident, the driver of this vehicle is likely to experience more trauma than would have been the case if he had fallen asleep in civilian traffic and taken a life—due to the sheer chaos and ambiguity of combat. Adrenaline, fear, and a desire for revenge can be most lethal combinations resulting in soldiers all too frequently transgressing their own sense of morality in the heat of battle, making split-second decisions that will haunt them for a lifetime, leaving the with invisible scars that are sometimes not easy to detect.

I am especially concerned with the variety of ways in which Transgressionsof Self in warfare can have deadly consequences. One suicidal young marine that I dealt with in my office stands out in my mind. He had been standing guard on a dirt road in Fallujah when a car was approaching his checkpoint. The car was not slowing down so he aimed his rifle at the driver and pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the driver in the head and the car came to a slow stop. There was a 5 year old boy in the front seat covered in his father’s blood. The young boy was crying uncontrollably as the driver was still grasping for his last few breathes. Radio communication was not working properly and the marine who pulled the trigger spent 2 hours with the young boy and his now-dead father before backup arrived. This had happened 3 months prior to our conversation. I glanced down at his boots and noticed that the bloodstains were still there.

Finally, I seek to excel in Moral Injury Theory and PTSD treatment in my research concerning “Betrayal.”  The damage that occurs from the perception of being morally betrayed is especially evident among Iraq veterans who feel strongly that they were betrayed by their government because they were required to fight an unjust war, and that the blood that has been spilled in Iraq has been spilled in vain. The struggle to recover for these veterans who suffer from a sense of Betrayal is compounded by the fact that evidence has continued to emerge that they were indeed sent to war on the basis of false intelligence (no weapons of mass destruction). Many joined the military because they felt that they were serving a greater purpose after the country was attacked on 9-11. Now they have to deal with the fact that Saddam/Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11. They are left with the unsettling question about the atrocities of war they participated in and what was it all for? 

My central objective in life has always been to serve others, first in the military, followed by the ministry; these days I mostly serve the needs of prospective graduate students. My experiences as a priest in the Episcopal Church have given me a platform for making connections with groups on every level, from the Bay Area to internationally. I have valuable connections to important people that will help me to excel, with the leaders of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) for example, an international relief and development agency that is currently operating in over 40 countries. This is also why I feel strongly that I am an especially good fit with The XXXX Institute since your motto is "Educating Clinicians to Society.” 10 years from now I hope to be serving as a psychologist with ERD, working on an interdisciplinary team of medical doctors, nurses and social workers.

My ideal roles and responsibilities include that of educator as well as clinician providing psychological services in the various parts around the globe served by ERD to populations that have been displaced by war, within refugee camps, and areas affected by natural disaster. As an educator I want to be a valuable resource to the leadership of ERD concerning the needs that exist for psychological services in crises areas around the globe, in addition to attending to the psychological needs of the staff and volunteers of ERD. Over the course of the last 2 years, I have come to increasingly recognize a calling to pursue a new career direction in clinical psychology, meeting twice a month with a therapist about this career change. I feel confident that I am making the right decision and have the support of my wife as well, an attorney with an established practice here in XXXX, and most certainly one of the most valuable of my social connections and human resources.

I appreciate XXXX’s commitment to diversity, social justice and equality and how you require students to be in a field placement getting real world experience each year of the program, including the first year. I want to gain as much experience as possible and I believe that getting real world experience while in the midst of academic study is an effective strategy for creative learning. The therapist whom I have worked with for over a year about my career change is a Psychiatrist and Marriage and Family Therapist and he suggested the Wright Institute. I very much admire the research endeavors of your faculty, most especially the work of Dr. XXXX and his research into anxiety disorder. A former Lutheran minister, I particularly look forward to comparing notes with and learning from Dr. XXXX.

In addition to Moral Injury among veterans, I am also looking forward to an in-depth study of the extent to which Moral Injury occurs in non-military, even non-violent situations. I want to study the history and range of both PTSD and Moral Injury in an exhaustive fashion, especially in light of ethical transgressions, attorneys who make poor life/death decisions for their clients, negligent doctors or nurses, financiers that have committed fraud; at least theoretically the possibilities are endless, hence the search for the best way to define or delimit definitions of these terms in psychology that have become increasingly important to our efforts to diagnose and cure, especially our veterans returning from the field. I thank you for considering my application. 

I am writing on behalf of my application to earn the Masters Degree in Mental Health Counseling at XXXX because I see your program as the optimal institution in the world to help me learn to make my optimal contribution to the practice of Mental Health Counseling in my country, Nigeria. I feel comfortable at your historically black institution, and confident that your distinguished faculty, with a special interest in black issues, will guide me in the right directions so as to make sustainable intellectual progress through sharpened intra- and intercultural sensitivities. I hope to contribute to our discussions as someone who is also a medical doctor, underscoring the importance role of physiological factors in most mental health illnesses, especially in a developing country such as Nigeria with widespread, abject poverty, and high levels of civil unrest and violence.

Nigeria faces enormous economic, political, and social challenges that are complicated by both poverty and violence, threatening a downward spiral into social chaos, with human rights abuses rising dramatically primarily as a result of the Boko Harem insurgency and a brutal state response, especially in the countryside, most particularly broad swaths of the north. Since the insurgency’s principal weapons of choice is planting bombs in marketplaces, however, this most indiscriminate form of terrorist violence in now beginning to claim victims in almost every corner of the country, speaking to the way in which we need new mental health care initiatives at the national level, especially for victims of terrorist violence, most particularly, the children.

I like to think of myself as a feeling and compassionate young woman who happens to be a doctor as well. Still only 29, I have the maturity that comes with struggle and the hope that comes with compassion. Deeply touched and moved by the enormous suffering in my country that occurs as a result of little-to-no access to mental health counseling. I feel strongly that much of the psychological suffering of Nigerians could be at least mitigated to the extent to which adequate mental health counseling support services were to be made available. It is also my opinion that the presence of adequate mental health counseling services would radically raise the standards of living of most Nigerians, especially those who are members of underserved communities.

During my training in medical school, I was exposed to a lot of mental health related problems and I also did a mental health posting which further exposed me to many of the challenges confronted by mental health professional in Nigeria. After graduation and working as a physician, I also came into contact with a lot of patients who had mental health issues, many of them chronic. In fact, it is most of all my patients who have inspired and motivated me to pursue graduate study in the area of mental health counseling. Thus this has greatly influenced my interest to study masters in clinical mental health counseling as i really want to improve the health care services in both my country and worldwide most especially in the area of mental health. I hope to build a lifelong specialization in several areas in particular, bipolar disorders, mania, anxiety, and depression, especially among women and particularly those that have been victims of physical and/or sexual violence. I personally attended to many women and girls who had been raped, since the number of rape victims in Nigeria is already staggering and now rapidly growing as political violence spreads. There are more and more victims of indiscriminant bomb blast victims that result in amputations of one or more limbs. Schizophrenia was widespread even in the absence of the violence which it exacerbates, drug addiction, bulimia nervosa in young girls, psychosis, etc., among child as well as adult victims.

I look forward to a lifetime of organizing advocacy programs, interactive sessions and educative forums which will target the underserved for therapeutic as well as preventive measures. I intend to at least manage if not create one or more non-governmental organizations for this purpose.  I seek to raise awareness concerning risk factors involved for various mental health related issues such as substance abuse, and better educated young people about the adverse and hazardous effects of drug abuse, as well as providing sex education to boys as well as girls. The NGO that I have in mind would begin working with children as elementary students and progress through high school. I hope to engage the state as well as the federal government bureaucracy and make it work to the extent to which this is possible in Nigeria, in a never-ending search for creative ways to move our governments in progressive directions. I also look forward to working closely with UNICEF and the International Labor Organization ILO. I also want to work to increase asses to libraries, equipping them with mental health resources. Serving as a group leader of research projects throughout my medical training has helped me to cultivate my leadership skills which I will continue to do as a student in your program since we are in desperate need in Nigeria of leaders in this field.

The bomb blasts now going off in Nigeria with increasing frequency leave entire families in a state of confusion with lasting consequences for the community. I personally treated a girl who lost her entire family at once in a bomb blast at one of the markets in a northern state of Nigeria. She started having symptoms of bipolar disorder and I made a diagnosis of neurotic depression admitted her, and did what little I could. I look forward to studying trauma and the psychological problems that it generates, even for those who are not physically injured themselves but only exposed to or caught up in the violence.

These days, most unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of Nigerian families find themselves caught up in crises generated by the cross-fire between the Boko Harem terrorists on one side and the extrajudicial execution of detainees by the military on the other, with people left terrified by both sides. Fear of the unknown has also resulted in millions of internal refugees, especially from the northern states of Nigeria. Many homes are destroyed in the conflict, adding homelessness to the burden of terror.

I have always had a special fondness for and interest in children, the future of tomorrow. Most cases of violence end up affecting them directly or indirectly. Orphans, rape victims, ex-combatants, those infected with AIDS, the indigent, especially the girls, I seek to help them all in one way or another. They confront challenges that will always be with them, with us all, as a society and as humanity as we pull together to help those who have the greatest need. I thank you for considering my application.

My mother’s illness in 2007 provoked a career shift for me, from business to psychology. Once I found out that she had brain cancer, I immediately withdrew from my MBA Program and threw myself entirely into the study of this new enemy. At the same time that I struggled to adapt to the increasingly dementia-like symptoms that resulted from the tumor, I began to realize that I wanted to study for professional advancement in this area. By December of 2011, I had earned my Post-Graduate Certificate in Dementia Studies along with my Adult Training and Development Certificate. Since then, I have been completing the prerequisite courses for acceptance into the XXXX.

The XXXX is my first and only choice for graduate study because I share XXXX’s priority focus on the human ability to create positive social change. I am a good fit for your program because I am convinced that your curriculum, both didactically and experientially, most fully encompasses my areas of greatest interest, particularly structural community intervention. Dedicated to the empowerment of older adults to become active citizens in their community, I very much to devote my life to reducing levels of social isolation for elderly people in my community.

I speak Hebrew as well as French. Born in Canada, I spent some of my most formative years in Scotland; later, we returned, first to Montreal and then Toronto. For me, relationships are the foundation of our humanity and our connection to our communities is an especially critical part of the process of healing. I am most engaged with the psychology of older people, women in particular, and their special need for community support and sense of belonging. Being Jewish, I have a strong belief in the power of the Jewish philosophical concept of healing the world through community engagement and social action. I have had many rich life experiences that have helped me to grow personally and professionally, challenging my own personal fortitude and ultimately reaffirming my belief that relationships are the foundation of our humanity and our connection to community can bring about healing.

I am at a stage in my life where I am well poised to fully appreciate the opportunity to return to graduate school. Even as an MBA student, I was most interested in business issues related to psychology. I was in France in the Spring of 2007 when my mom called with the news, participating in a practicum and working to complete my graduate research study investigating the brain’s response to anti-smoking advertising. We went on to share the last three years of her life together, adapting to the new realities of what we were facing, together and as individuals. At first, I felt wholly unprepared for the challenge, as a caregiver and as a daughter losing my mom. I responded by seeking the advice of a counselor and drawing strength from my beliefs in Jewish philosophy. Through the process of introspection and practice of reflection in counseling, I learned to cope with my fears, feelings of sadness, frustration and stress. Little by little gaining a sense of acceptance, I became more open, learning to focus almost exclusively on the positive.

I believe that my professional experience will also help me to excel in your program. My strong belief in the Jewish philosophical concept of “tikkun olam”  (healing the world through social responsibility and community engagement) led me to serve from 08/07 through 06/08 as part of the devoted team at XXXX Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, teaching an integrated kindergarten class—“one that invites able-bodied kids to attend a school for children with physical disabilities.” This was a pivotal experience helping me to focus on life with meaning, purpose and value. We created a parents’ support group that helped me to better appreciate the power and beauty of group therapy. From 10/07 through 09/09, I served as the Director of the XXXX Foundation, responsible for functions involving strategic planning and program development. I nurtured partnerships with key Canadian, American, and Israeli allies to ensure mutually beneficial, productive, and sustainable working relationships. As a part-time Research Assistant with the Mental Health & Addictions Emergency Alliance, 08/11 through 12/11, I worked collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams investigating psychosocial vulnerability, helping to develop new initiatives and creating a web based application (QLAB system) for assessment over time.

I have learned that I love nothing as much as reaching out to isolated and depressed people, particularly the elderly. I was moved by the stories shared during intake interviews and resilience training, soon coming to realize that I have a very special soft spot in my heart for elderly patients, because of their vulnerability, isolation, and the fact that they so seldom take advantage of the mental health services that are available to them. Colleagues have invited me to collaborate in program initiatives in the areas of palliative care and support groups for patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. My understanding and appreciation of older adults’ mental health needs has greatly expanded through continuous reading of current literature, attending conferences, workshops, and professional rounds. I now have experience conducting cognitive and behavioural testing, co-facilitating group therapy sessions, and developing treatment plans for patients exhibiting challenging behaviours. Since January of 2012, I have been serving as a Research Project Coordinator for the Centre for Mental Health, XXXX, where I lead evidence-based health research in support of strategic educational and organizational innovations within the priority areas of cognitive impairment and mood disorders. I keenly look forward to further developing my research skills at Adler and contributing to our body of literature on the elderly in the future.

I connect with elderly patients; and my greatest joy is seeing what a profound and immediate difference I am able to make in their lives. The XXXX program is the ideal location for me to learn how to do best enhance the quality of education and support services for patients and family caregivers through in-service knowledge transfer training for clinicians, developing a seniors-specific mental health education website, and implementing a peer-led support group for caregivers of patients suffering chronic depression.

I thank you for considering my application.

I decided to apply for the clinical PhD program at XXXX because of the thoroughgoing nature of your curriculum and your dedication to research, helping students to decide on the best avenue of research for their interests and intellectual strengths. I hope to become a professional researcher as well as counselor, and I look forward to being prepared at the XXXX because it appears to be the optimal platform for me to begin a career in psychology here on the West Coast, in California, a lovely place which I am increasingly thinking of as home. Your program is very strong in the area of research into anxiety disorder and I am especially looking forward to studying under Dr. XXXX who is distinguished in this area. Nevertheless, while I do hope to focus on anxiety and depression, I want to study these maladies from every angle, both historically and theoretically. I am confident that your Ph.D. Program will give me an opportunity to explore the bigger picture in a cutting-edge program that will help me to think creatively and prepare me to realize my maximum potential.

Graduate Study at the XXXX will provide me with vast opportunity to explore not only the professional exercise and practice of psychology in the United States, but I am also very much attracted to the diversity of your student body and I look forward to learning from my fellow students from all over the world, exploring the psychological dynamics of international, multicultural and multiethnic issues. In short, I see the XXXX as my best option for training to be of service to multiethnic Asian communities here in California.

I decided to come to America to prepare myself for a career in psychology because I feel that your emphasis on research and publication is much stronger here than it is at home in Korea. I also wanted to continue to advance professional within a multicultural society, like California, since multicultural issues are where I hope to make my mark in the future as a PHD graduate from your especially distinguished program.

Naturally, I think my greatest strength and my principal focus will be on the mental health issues of Koreans, both at home and those who have immigrated at some point to the USA, especially the ‘Korea Towns’ of California. In particular, I want to pay a lot of attention in the future to the way in which Korean people tend to simply ignore, or try to ignore, the reality of mental health issues and needs, because of a stigma that surrounds mental illness in Korean culture.

I also hope to distinguish myself in the exploration of the myriad psychological ramifications of the way in which Korea achieved such rapid economic growth, the psychological aspects of Korean industrialization, transforming South Korea from a highly cooperative to a highly competitive society, with special attention to the fact that we have the highest suicide rate among 30 OECD countries, with our number of suicide deaths doubling over the course of the last decade. This is why I hope to focus my studies towards the PHD at the XXXX in the area of causes and treatments of anxiety and stress related disorders.

 Most specifically, I look forward to researching the way in which anxiety and stress are related to other disorders, particularly depression, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and eating disorder in the context of multicultural communities. I am attracted to the study of these areas, in particular, because of the prevalence of these conditions among Asians. Stress disorders are especially common in Korea which is a very hectic and competitive society with respect to business as well as education. Also, although some progress has been made, many people still are reluctant to see a psychiatrist or psychologist because of the traditional stigma attached to mental illness in our very conservative society. Finally, I learned a great deal about diversity issues from my experience as a multicultural counselor. I want to continue to learn everything that I can about ways in which we might foster more effective communication among members of multicultural communities.

My most specific interests at the XXXX include the biofeedback studies and training programs offered by Dr. XXXX. I keenly look forward to an in-depth engagement with Dr. XXXX's work with a focus on its relevance for anxiety disorders.  Studying under Dr. XXXX, in particular, would be an excellent way for me to enhance my research abilities and learn to be an especially creative thinker in the area of anxiety disorders. My long term goal is make important contributions to the advancement of our study of clinical psychology in the context of international culture and community. The rapid growth of the Asian population in the USA, especially California, combined with the tendency among Asian peoples to neglect or ignore their mental health needs makes me confident that I will be able to make important contributions to our mental health services here in California. I look forward to using my language skills professionally here in America, working and helping people to heal in Korean and Japanese as well as English.

I thank you for considering my application to your distinguished program.

I am applying to your competitive PsyD Program at the XXXX because I am convinced that my drive and determination will enable me to excel. I have a great passion for research in psychology, particularly in the areas of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Now 36, psychology is a career change for me, a new professional beginning. Married and divorced, I spent 10 years in the mortgage business with my family in the small California town of Visalia where I grew up. After my marriage failed, I completed my bachelor’s degree in 2 ½ years and then sold my home and moved to the city of XXXX.

I like to think of myself as a compassionate woman; and that my concern for the suffering of others is what has propelled me towards the study of psychology and the completion of both my Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in this field. I have found my calling in life helping those who suffer from mental health issues and challenges. Now, I keenly look forward to continuing on in my studies, completing the terminal degree in my field at the XXXX, and attaining a cutting-edge foundation upon which I will be able to make my maximum contribution to our discipline. I am especially passionate about therapeutic initiatives centered on the concept of mindfulness, most of all with respect to its potential for evoking positive changes in brain chemistry.

I am passionately engaged with the issue of how psychology professionals might best go about helping to erase the stigma that is all too often associated with mental health services, particularly among certain ethnic groups; most notably Latinos who figure quite prominently into mental health assessments and services here in California. I am working with my Rosetta Stone for Spanish and I hope to continue to make rapid improvement in my Spanish skills so that I might eventually be able to use this language to some extent in the professional arena as well.

I became a member of the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology because I am a thinker who loves to ask questions and a firm believer in the importance of balance between mind, body and soul for optimal health, studying our own past in order to prepare ourselves for the future, at the same time that we learn to savor each moment of the present. I am most fascinated with the human mind, its capabilities and limitations, and the debate between dualism and monism. At the center of my focus is the mind's ability to heal the body and the role played by spirituality.

A sense of debt that I feel to my community and nation has also helped to propel my interest in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially but not exclusively among our soldiers returning from combat in places like Afghanistan. The fact that I personally have no military experience or any military family members only reinforces the sense that I have of wanting to give something back to those who have sacrificed so much. For years now, I have invested a great deal of time, energy, and heartfelt reflection in the area of PTSD and I want to build a lifetime focus in this area of psychology, to practice and publish about the great challenges that PTSD represents for our society and to do everything that I personally can to respond to this challenge.

I will be finishing my Master’s Degree in December of 2014 and hope to begin studying in your program right away, in January of 2015. The focus of my Master’s Program has been in the area of Marriage and Family Therapy and I also want to remain engaged with this area as a lifetime focus. I feel strongly that mental health issues are best dealt with when one is not alone, and I feel special empathy for those who have to wrestle with mental health issues in the context of a failing marriage often aggravated by the stigma associate with mental health issues. I want to devote my life to helping each individual that comes to me for support to feel less alone in their struggle. If I could help them to save their marriage, this would be ideal.

Several years back I was struck by an image of the “Marlboro Man,” a US soldier in sustained combat in Fallujah, Iraq. He had been firing his canon for about 24 hours when the photo was taken, mud, blood spattered all over his face, a Marlboro cigarette dangling from his lips. A young man from our state of Kentucky who volunteered to go to Iraq to defend our freedoms as our government saw fit; although he sustained no major physical injuries, he would never be the same. Most importantly, his case is not at all unique; there are tens of thousands of similar cases in America. He came into the spotlight and attracted press attention to his story only because of the award winning photo. The Marlboro Man returned to Kentucky to marry his high-school sweetheart. Within a couple of years she would leave him because of his nightmares where he would sometimes half strangle her in his sleep. Alone now, he keeps smoking and suffering on full disability. The costs of PTSD to our society are staggering.

After earning my PsyD and beginning my practice, I intend to put the Marlboro Man photo on the wall in my office. I also plan to pay very close attention to the issues surrounding PTSD and substance abuse/addictions. My central, long term goal is to create my own non-profit organization to help our veterans. I have several ideas and I am confident that they will mature as I make progress under your expert guidance towards completion of the PsyD Degree at the XXXX. I have been profoundly inspired by the example set by the organization Puppies Behind Bars in New York, which rescues dogs from shelters to be trained by inmates, and then given to veterans with PTSD. I find this model to be especially inspiring because of the broad scope of those who benefit, the inmates, the animals, and especially the veterans and their families. No organization such as Puppies Behind Bars yet exists in California. In fact, here in California there is a long waiting list of veterans who need trained dogs. In addition to providing company, these dogs are trained to do things that specifically respond to the needs of the veterans who suffer from acute PTSD, such as checking the perimeters.

I am particularly passionate about the use of animals in therapy because I believe they reach places that people sometimes are just unable to go, especially when the individual is otherwise all alone. This avenue of research and practice dovetails nicely with my volunteer work with the Society for the Prevention and Cruelty of Animals. Volunteer work is in fact central to my identity and mission. I also serve as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and participate in numerous events related to the care of children.

Finally, I hope to engage professionally at some point with virtual reality tanks as a compliment to therapy. I see exposure therapy as a most promising resource, allowing the PTSD sufferer to go back and confront their trauma in a safe environment. Sometimes we need to face the monster under our bed in order to make it go away.

I thank you for considering my application to your distinguished program at the XXXX.