ENCORE: Leaving Therapy for Coaching with Dr. Corey Wilks

[laughs] We're talking about a, a c- a topic that I know a lot of folks are thinking through and navigating, leaving psychology for coaching and sort of navigating that.

Like me, you spent many years getting your doctoral degree, and you became a licensed clinical psychologist.

What was the career goal in grad school?

So actually, early on, I was a business management major in undergrad, and I took a couple business classes and quickly realized that at least the way business was framed with the classes I took, I was like, "This is not for me." Like, there's, there's no, there's no people, right? Like, all these classes are about numbers, not about people.

I care about people.

And so then I, you know, I went through multiple other majors.

I kind of was just adrift for a minute, and then I had this, like, required, like, adult or child development course, and it was like, you know, Professor Hinton.

And I was like, okay.

So I was expecting some, like, old white dude who's just, like, so ancient, and he has, like, the, the, the elbow patches and things.

Like, when he, when he talks, you know, chalk dust just poofs out of his armpits or something.

Like, that's, that was my expectation, right? And in walked this young, like, 30s, like early 30s, uh, Black dude from Memphis, and he walked in.

He- his tattoos, he had like s- like sleeves.

He w- he had, you know, very visible tattoos.

He talked like he was from Memphis, and he was like, "I'm Dr. Hinton.

I'm your professor." And I was like, "Dude, you have my attention 'cause you are in no way what I was expecting," and what I was expecting was super boring.

And the way Keelan, 'cause his name's Keelan Hinton, the way Keelan described psychology and how, you know, basically people are like puzzles, and psychology's about helping people put those pieces in the right place so people can understand themselves better, we can understand them better, and we can kind of help people heal and grow, and that really, really stuck with me.

So, like, literally that day, I went to what, like the bursar's office or registrar's office, whichever, and changed my major to psychology because of Keelan.

And we've maintained a friendship a- you know, for, you know, years after that.

So, and I got like an undergrad, master's, and then a doctorate, and that all started with Keelan's class.

So I originally wanted to go into business, then started...

I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna do therapy." And I think a lot of us, a, a lot of psychologists especially, we go into, to the therapy world because we were like, "Oh, if I get a doctorate, I'm at the top of, of, you know, my discipline.

I will have autonomy and freedom." And for a lot of us, we have s- a, a degree of freedom within our sessions, but there's still a lot of bureaucracy that we have to operate within, especially if you work for a company, especially if you take insurance.

And I think that, uh, especially me, but I think a lot of us in the field kind of grew disillusioned 'cause it was like, "Oh, I thought I would have a lot more autonomy than I actually will have if I continue down this..." And there, there are ways, like private practice you can get more autonomy.

There are some other things, but I was working in rural Appalachia in integrated primary care, so I was working within like a, a much larger institution with a lot of regulations, a lot of bureaucracy, and I just, I didn't have the autonomy that I, I need as a person to really show up.

So then, you know, and we'll get into this, but then I later kind of full circle back into entrepreneurship just without the business background.