What led you to become a therapist?
Hi, I’m Pete Marlow, and I’m a therapist here at Optimum Joy. Well, maybe becoming a therapist was just realizing all of the therapeutic conversations that I was having in my personal life and my professional life even. So before I was a counselor, I worked in advertising and I noticed that I was having a lot of these deep, meaningful conversations with coworkers or with even clients. And when we would have to start the meeting, I would feel disappointed.
What do you find most rewarding about being a counselor?
The thing I find most rewarding about being a counselor is just seeing the change that happens in people just over the course of therapy, just them like the puzzle pieces clicking into place, watching them progress over time and seeing the changes that are happening in their life is super rewarding.
What brings you joy?
Something that brings me joy is just spending quality time with small groups of people. So I am more of an introvert and that means that large groups can kind of drain my energy pretty quickly. So yeah, I really enjoy those small group times. I find that the most emotionally deep conversations happen during those times. And sometimes when I just need to have my batteries recharged, I just like to spend time either just with my wife or by myself.
Who do you enjoy working with?
I enjoy working with so many different populations. That can include people going through a career shift, college age students, and even really broad circumstances like anxiety or depression that are just very specific to people’s different situations.
How do you help clients understand their behaviors?
One technique that I really enjoy utilizing with clients is helping them understand kind of where those behaviors that they see happening—that they don’t necessarily want to be happening—are coming from. And that requires just kind of digging down a little bit deeper and understanding, you know, what are the events that are triggering those behaviors, and what thoughts are taking place, what emotions they’re feeling, and just being able to help people understand like, “oh, this is coming from somewhere.” It’s not just out of the blue that this is happening.
What should someone new to counseling know?
What I would want someone who is new to counseling to know is that they are their own best counselor. And kind of what I mean by that is that they know themselves the best and they truly are the ones who will be having to do a lot of the hard work. This process is uncomfortable at times, it can be difficult at times, but it is very rewarding.
And I have seen the fruits of it in clients for so long. And I am fully aware that, you know, it does take a lot of hard work on the client’s part. But you know, my job is to come alongside you to ask the right questions to help you explore what’s going on for you and also just provide you with some tools along the way that can be helpful.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work?
When I’m not at work, I enjoy cooking. That’s a hobby that I learned from a young age, just cooking with my dad and my older brother. So yeah, I like to just try out new recipes all the time in the kitchen. I really enjoy woodworking. I’ve built a few things around our house that haven’t fallen down yet. And just music in general—like live music, the smaller the venue, the better in my opinion. And yeah, sometimes I’ll play instruments that we just have lying around. I’m not a master at any of them, but I enjoy it.
And yeah, reading, you know, the typical TV, movies, different things like that. Some of my all-time favorite TV shows are just The West Wing and Seinfeld because they just feel like a comfy, nostalgic, warm blanket. I’m glad that I’m here in a city like Chicago. And yeah, just looking forward to continuing to grow deep roots in the community.
