Chapter 9: Finding Balance and Purpose Using the Centered Leadership Model

In my early career, my preoccupations centered on finding a professional identity, figuring out what my gifts were, understanding where my professional boundaries were, and coming to some conclusions about where I could truly thrive. Fresh out of graduate school in clinical psychology, I went straight into a joint-appointment tenure track position at a small liberal arts college. The job, location, and opportunities at that institution were peerless. I was right about a lot of things. I was right that the intellectual life at my first full-time campus teaching job would be robust. The students were gifted, inspiring, and challenging in the best ways. I was also right that a joint appointment, in two departments with competing standards, was not ideal, and I did not find professional satisfaction as a researcher. After taking an honest look at what was not working in my professional life, I shifted my interests to the practice of psychology, working in two college counseling centers, and eventually in private practice. And then, the student affairs bug bit me.