A licensed therapist spoke to USF students about what it takes for mental health to improve for an individual, and how categorizating it as similar for everyone can be unfair to clients in different circumstances.
Roberta Beczkowski, a marriage and family therapist, began with an open forum of questions from the audience. The president of the Brazilian Student Association at the University of South Florida, Maria Mussa, asked, “What does ‘get better’ actually mean?”
Beczkowski expanded that it depends on each client’s individual situation. She said that “getting better” to the vast majority of people can mean to get good grades, be nicer, behave, etc. She said that it can sometimes be the opposite, and it depends on the specific thing happening in the client’s life.
“It’s very hard when we try to categorize and think that, okay this looks like it’s good, this looks like it’s bad,” Beczkowski said.
Around 30 people were in attendance to listen to the guest speaker on Oct. 13 at the Marshall Student Center, many of whom were psychology students, UNICEF at USF members, and the Brazilian Student Association.
Beczkowski’s career journey had its ups and downs. In resonse to a question about her career, she said that she studied and worked in Brazil at the start of her career. The hardest career choices she had to make was moving to the U.S. and starting over again. Nonetheless, she adapted and was able to build herself back up.
“I started creating programs where I give speeches and do those things, so I created new ways of showing my work. It wasn’t easy, but it was a very good growing experience,” Beczkowski said.
She also spoke of the differences between the professional world of mental health in the United States and Brazil.
“When we’re talking about cognitive behavioral therapy we’re focusing on the behavior. So, you’re trying to adapt that person in a way that they become socially more adaptable,” Beczkowski said.
The U.S. focuses on this approach to psychology more commonly than Brazil does. Brazil delves more into psychoanalysis.
“When we’re talking about psychoanalysis, we’re talking about the unconscious, we’re talking about those things that we do that we might even know that are not good for us, and yet, we can’t do them differently,” Beczkowski said.
Another large difference she pointed out between the two countries’ mental health practices is the term “liability.” In Brazil, this is not as important. But in the U.S., liability is a huge deal.
“Which really surprised me and impacted me on how liability shapes so much of the relationship in, I would say health, area, not just mental health area,” Beczkowski said.
This is a major issue that affects how health care is provided in the United States, and often professionals feel they cannot get too close with a patient. However, she sheds some light on how boundaries can be established as a professional.
“You can establish boundaries in several ways, and again, I have never had issues where the person didn’t respect my personal boundaries, but here, I know I am an exception,” Beczkowski said.