lucidrevolution

Could you elaborate on what types of skills would be useful in pursuing work in this niche? 40yr old trying to navigate my options for career shifts, and this AMA caught my attention since I've recently picked up on a few articles about software being used to help with various areas of psych and neuropsych testing and diagnostics.

Personal areas of interest: prevention of suicide/self harm (especially in the creative fields and entertainment, it's like a plague), diagnostic approaches to adults with suspected ASD/ADHD or other executive function related challenges, and anything that helps give our medical pros and psych pros more valid information to base their treatments on.

Personal summary in case any of my experience would be worth applying in this direction.

-Not a medical doctor but it was something I did want to pursue in my youth, but my high school education was messy and didn't prepare me enough, and I ended up distracted thanks to undiagnosed ADHD and a bunch of trauma I was experiencing at the time. As a result I have this lifelong passion for a field I've never been able to break into on any level.

-Design pro working in various areas for 20+ years (web, print, fashion, product), bored out of my mind right now... but I am not a programmer and don't know how much of that skill set I could adapt as I've never had work experience beyond HTML/CSS in coding. I certainly love gaming as a hobby and enjoyable activity, but sadly no experience doing games.

-Went back to school for psych after a late ADHD Dx in my early 30s, did great (summa), but grad school doesn't have the same funding opportunities as undergrad. Would spend the $$ if I knew it was a good direction. Psych felt too limited, and I was worried being a therapist would mean I only got to help a small selection of people who had the right insurance or disposable income. Seemed such a waste to be learning experimental design and doing all those stats in SPSS only to be dumped back into the world with no way to apply those skills.

As someone trying to figure out the best approach to deciding what to do "next" in my life/career... do you see therapy as a route to figuring that out, or is that something best figured out prior to finding a more specific therapist to help with goal setting and managing the challenges of a career shift? Sometimes a career path sounds really great until you get into the day-to-day, and at 41 I don't feel like a lot of people want to give me the room to get my foot in the door if I don't have prior experience. Maybe there are specific types of approaches to this or some other resources that I'm not aware of, so I figured I'd ask.

Backstory for ref: I have already done some therapy after getting a Dx of ADHD in my 30s, which led me to go to college, get a BS in psych, but I experienced severe burnout by the end of that experience which left me stuck in the same career path, but somehow making less money, and VERY unhappy with the current sustainability probability. My insurance changed which left me without a therapist since my last year of school in '18.. and so my current goal is to figure out the best route to a more fulfilling career... just not sure how that works anymore.