Schooling Vs. Experience - Chicken & Egg issue revisited???

Schooling Vs. Experience - Chicken & Egg issue revisited???

Connie Carlson

1/27/2000

My name is Connie Carlson, and I have been reading this listserv
since Sept. 1999. It has been an education in itself, to say the
least.

Like Jaqueline I am not a practitioner but have been interested in
the field for quite some time (4+ yrs). I have, I think at least,
what it would take to be a valuable contributor to the field. I
am close to giving up though, because I too have found it very
difficult to get the needed experience! In order to obtain a
position you need experience +/or schooling, but in order to get
into the few schools that are left you must have experience too.
It is quite the Catch22! I strongly believe it is an issue that
the profession as a whole needs to address - I have found it very
difficult to 'break into the circle' of this profession, and I
doubt I am alone.

I have asked a few members of this listserv individually about how
they have managed to get around this, and the most constructive
answer I have received is - Volunteer. It is a solid suggestion
but in my experience a difficult one to follow through on for many
reasons, particularly financial ones, especially when working
full-time during the same hours that most P's&O's clinics are
operating.

If anyone cares to address this, either on the listserv or
individually I would love to hear it. How did current certified
practitioners break through this issue when they first started??

If you do respond individually, please let me know if I have
permission to summarize your response and post same.

Regards,
Connie