God, Google, and a new path: from corporate marketer to psychotherapist
This article appears in Vocations magazine (pictured at right), Spring 2022. Read this article in the magazine online or download the PDF. To subscribe, click here.
By Olushola Oludipe
“O Canada, we stand on guard for thee; O Canada, we stand on guard for thee…” As the final notes of the Canadian national anthem coming from my laptop trailed off, I couldn’t keep from smiling.
With the conclusion of this virtual ceremony on November 6, 2021, I was now a Nigerian Canadian citizen. A citizen well on his way to becoming a registered psychotherapist. A spiritual care provider supporting patients, their families, and staff in a major hospital in the GTA. And soon to be a graduate of the Master of Pastoral Studies program at Knox College.
What a journey it had been. Five years earlier, I was working in Dubai as a marketer for a multinational corporation, a career path I was on for 15 years. I thought about how just a few years had taken me from Dubai to Toronto, and from working in multinational corporate marketing to providing psycho-spiritual care….
It was 2:50pm, and I was about to put the finishing touches on the marketing training curriculum to be rolled out in the next business cycle. I had plenty of time to get the document to my director by the 4pm deadline.
When I heard Tatiana’s greeting, I looked up to see her standing in front of my desk with a worried expression on her face. As she began to share about her struggle, I was immediately drawn in. She told me about a difficult choice she faced – whether to remain in her promising finance career, or to call it quits and pursue her desired MBA program. “And how does Andrei feel about this?” I asked, understanding that the relationship would be at the front of her mind.
“He isn’t a fan of me leaving my job, as that means I will have to leave the country. He is afraid that might end our relationship,” she replied.
When our conversation ended more than two hours later, I suddenly realized I had missed my 4pm deadline. I had been drawn into yet another important but personal conversation – the fourth of its kind that week. “Not again!” I muttered. I remembered my director’s subtle jab about me running a private therapy practice on company time. Given how many colleagues had been approaching me recently, he wasn’t entirely wrong! Word had spread that I had just finished training to be a life coach, and people wanted to talk.
I had been a marketer for several years with four different multinational companies when I invested in career coaching for myself. I could continue working as a marketer, but I could see that it didn’t give me much satisfaction. Career coaching revealed that I’d do better working as a coach, therapist, or trainer, something more people-facing and interactive. With this knowledge and seeing how many conversations I had assisting colleagues, I decided to pursue something in those areas, something that I knew deep down would make me happy. But what exactly would that be?
I found Knox College thanks to Google! After working in the secular world for most of my life, I knew I now wanted to go to a seminary or another religion-connected school. I wanted to pursue something I was suited to, and where I’d also be helping people. Googling led me to Knox.
Initially I was just looking for a Christian program that I would find interesting; I didn’t really know what to look for. Then on Knox’s website, I came across the Master of Pastoral Studies degree and read about the psychotherapy focus. That was something I had been looking for; I just hadn’t thought I could get this training in a Christian school. It piqued my interest, I went to the Master of Pastoral Studies open house, and I decided to apply to Knox.
I learned a great deal about myself as I’ve gone through this program. One of the valuable elements has been Clinical Pastoral Education, which is a combination of supervised hands-on and professional training for spiritual care workers. It’s a requirement for students pursuing the Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy Certificate in the Master of Pastoral Studies degree. The process includes sharing struggles, reactions, and insights in a small group setting – and it was really helpful. Understanding and accepting my own issues can equip me to better provide spiritual care. We can use learning about ourselves as a platform to help, treat, and support patients.
In my time at Knox, I also felt very well cared-for as a student by my director and course advisor. Professor Angela Schmidt, director of the MPS, makes sure the program is successful –and she also goes out of her way in guidance and interaction with us as students.
As I look to the future, I have a few ideas in mind. One is to explore how I can utilize computer animation to assist with psychotherapy. I was accepted at the Toronto Film School for an animation program at about the same time as I received the offer of acceptance from Knox. I decided I’d pursue the Knox program first to get trained in psychotherapy before moving to animation. That foundation would make it easier for me to then work with animation in psychotherapy. I needed the skills as a therapist first to know what I was doing. Now I’m able to see even more clearly how those elements can work together.
Long-term, I’d like to use artificial intelligence to make therapy easier for people. For example, in one of the required course texts for our Psycho-Spiritual Assessment and Therapy course at Knox in 2020, I read about an organization that uses virtual reality in what is called “avatar therapy” to help people dealing with schizophrenia. Patients described the kind of negative voice they heard and any mental images of it, so that the organization could create an avatar representation. Then in a simulation room in virtual reality, the patient saw and interacted with the animated image. The patient was put in a position of strength to resist the negative interaction with the avatar – and the results were successful for some patients. I believe that with further research, this technology could assist in other areas of mental health as well – for instance, using animation to help kids overcome known fears.
What brought me to Knox was unusual, but I’m grateful that God used Google to point me here. Knox as a community is a beautiful place to be; I formed a lot of friendships there. As an immigrant, forming relationships in Canada wasn’t always easy – but Knox helped me to do so, and to begin to get a sense of the Canadian culture as well. The Knox environment made life quite enjoyable for me, and now I’ve found this career path that merges my skills with what’s meaningful. I’m excited about the future.
Olushola (Shola) Oludipe is a student in Knox College’s Master of Pastoral Studies and Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy Certificate program. He has achieved qualifying status with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario.
This article appears in Vocations magazine, Spring 2022. Read this article in the magazine online or download the PDF. To subscribe, click here.