Dr. Adam Shemony: A Therapist for a New Generation

Ariana Milian
Nov 5 · 7 min read
Student and Community Counseling Services, Original Photo

It’s 8:30 in the morning, Dr. Adam Shemony is strolling into the Student and Community Counseling Center with coffee in hand, water bottle in tow. Dr. Shemony is a post- doctoral resident at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), and he is preparing to meet his clients for the day.

CAPS expanded into the Student and Community Counseling Center (SCCC) in October of 2019. The SCCC includes Adaptive Services, CAPS, and psychological counseling for the community. The money for the center was donated by David and Alise Bartley in 2017.

Dr. Shemony prefers to be called by his first name, Adam, because it is less formal. He’s originally from Fort Lauderdale, FL, and he’s graduated with his doctorate in psychology, but he’s not a licensed therapist quite yet. He still needs to complete 2000 hours of residency work, 900 of which has to be face to face with clients. He says that no two days are ever the same, but there’s usually some sort of consistent routine. He meets with two or three clients in the morning, works with his residency supervisor on notes and talks about the impact his clients can have on him, writes a lot of notes, and a couple days a week runs group sessions. He is always doing something, whether it’s meeting with clients one- on- one, running groups, learning with his supervisor, or grabbing lunch with his coworkers and talking about their day.

Adam said that he found out about psychology as a Junior in high school when he took AP Psychology.

“I became really interested in psychology once I started to learn it and learn about how I experienced it in my own family and upbringing and I think that’s what really sparked my interest in mental health,” Adam said. “I realized I had a history of mental health in my family and that in my childhood, and it allowed me to take what I learned in AP Psychology and apply it to my life.”

His interest in psychology and mental health followed him to college at Florida State University.

When I went to FSU, I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I thought ‘everyone goes to college, college is something I want to do and I have no idea what I want to be, but let’s choose psychology,’” he said. “I didn’t have background knowledge of what a therapist did. I took a lot of in- depth courses and I thought I was going to be a child psychologist. The decision to go to grad school and pursue this came from research opportunities I had in undergrad, and meeting with people in therapy, that curiosity about people, that curiosity about people’s behaviors, their thought patterns, that’s really what keeps the job interesting and fresh every day.”

He says his major influences are Carl Rogers and Russ Harris. Rogers founded the concept of Humanistic Psychotherapy, which is client- centric therapy and meeting the client exactly where they are in their mental health process. Adam uses this in his practice by doing mindfulness exercises with his clients and acceptance and commitment therapy. Harris is an Australian therapist who uses experiential therapy, and Adam likes it because it’s very hands- on and involved.

Adam says that he loves his job, but it can be emotionally draining.

“I think that the most challenging part of my job is leaving it at work,” he says. “Mostly the emotional parts of it. Being a therapist is a privilege and a burden being that we sometimes feel responsible for our clients, I would say it’s that balance and making sure you’re taking care of yourself at home because you will think of work even when you’re at home.”

Although he thinks that being a therapist can be emotionally taxing, he’s glad that he has resources and friends and family that make his load a lot lighter. He agrees with the popular saying that “even therapists need therapists” because he sees it first- hand.

“A lot of therapists are in therapy ourselves, and a lot of times that could be to talk about the stress that work brings upon us,” Adam said. “I found that even being able to let the important people in my life know that I’ve had a hard day makes a world of difference because just communicating that and letting them know where am at in this moment lets them know that it’s probably not a good time to talk about their problem, Adam probably has a lot he’s talked about that day.

Communication, not keeping it to yourself, because I’ve gone through a lot of significant things as a new therapist in general, so being able to lean on co workers and talk after a heavy session, that’s important for self care.”

He typically practices what he preaches and reminds his clients to take care of themselves even in the smallest ways, whether it’s taking a bath, meditating, or taking a break from work or homework to watch videos or TV shows they enjoy.

Adam has been working actively in the field for about three years, and he sees opportunities for growth in his own practice and in the field itself.

“There are pretty big systemic issues with mental health that are beyond this question that speak to this idea that if you have resources, if you have health insurance, you have greater access to mental health care that is not available to huge percentages of people who don’t have the ability to get in the door. People whose basic needs are so difficult that they’re not even thinking about their mental health.

“And then, within our field, probably more collaboration with other health disciplines. A person’s medical difficulties and their ability to cope with it should be at the forefront of their treatment. Why don’t we collaborate more with the other physicians they see?”

Adam said that he agrees that our country is in a mental health crisis, and that mental health matters in the modern day and age. The younger generation is more open about mental health, but there is still a major stigma around seeking help and seeing a therapist.

He’s also seen the field change in his time, but also understands the importance of looking back on the history of psychology and seeing change. He thinks that it’s important that psychology and social equality go hand- in- hand, because in the past they haven’t.

“One big part of a therapist’s job and something that is coming up in the mental health field is seeing this person as a whole,” he says. “I think of this person as a whole, like what I said before by integrating other physicians or talking about how medical problems could be impacting their psychological well- being. Also by seeing the person as a whole is their identity. Their cultural factors, back in the day the mental health field was not the kindest or most understanding of certain identity factors, previous DSM (the psychological handbook) editions had stigmatizing language and disorders relating to the LGBT population. There’s been a lot of negative research that’s been done that has taken a lot of marginalized groups and put them in worse situations and experiments and things of that nature.

“I think that the work that’s been done that has been focused on cultural competency and intersectionality between someone’s sexual orientation and their cultural background, has made a lot of progress. A lot of the classic psychology stuff is very whitewashed. I think that’s something that’s a good sign is being able to focus on is how this person’s status as a first generation college student or coming from a Latinx background affecting their experience, their ability to talk to a male therapist, and all of these different factors that we’re always thinking about and trying to start a conversation on as well.”

Men with mental illnesses are statistically less likely to seek and receive treatment for their mental health than women, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports. However, men are more likely to die by suicide than women.

Adam exclusively sees students throughout his day and runs two groups, a men’s issues group and a coping strategies group. When he has face- to- face appointments students, he says he sees a wide variety of problems, but the four most common are anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, and trauma.

“Trauma is a really big headline,” he says. “A lot of the time when someone has gone through a traumatic experience, it feels like control or power has been stripped away from them, and so a lot of the corrective parts of a therapeutic relationship when we’re trying to help someone who’s experienced trauma is allowing them to feel empowered.

“A lot of my trauma work is focusing on the symptoms that person is experiencing as a result of their trauma. It can be the most fulfilling and rewarding work to do when you’ve seen someone make progress and the way that they have changed the relationship with their previous traumatic experiences and trauma is one of those really complicated things that has to be identified by that person as being traumatic to them.”

Approximately 4% of U.S. adults suffer from Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to the NIMH, and about 37% of people with PTSD are women.

Overall, Adam feels proud of his work in psychology. He says he really loves seeing the difference he makes in people’s lives, and he wants people to know that mental health matters and to remember to take care of themselves.

“We all have mental health. When I see isolation in a therapy setting, it comes from a place that is afraid of burdening friends and family, and that people are too busy or too stressed to hear about my problems. So many people that I meet with have that experience and it limits their ability to connect with others and put their needs first sometimes. I want people to take away this idea that there’s something there. There’s a reason that a lot of us go through that, that sense that I need to solve this on my own and I can’t talk to others about my problems. I think it comes from a very individualistic kind of experience that we sometimes have that drives that.”

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Ariana Milian

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