Fizzah Zaidi
By Zoë Eitel
One might not think that animation and psychotherapy have much in common, but Fizzah Zaidi says the transition between the two fields was easier than she expected it to be. Both use creativity in a way that marries very well. After being an animator for many years, Fizzah found herself unhappy with the instability of the freelancer life and decided it was the right time to pursue one of her long-time goals: going to graduate school.
The shift to counseling came when a friend was telling Fizzah about her job as a counselor, which interested Fizzah greatly. She looked far and wide for programs that would be a good fit for her, and came across DePaul’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling master’s program.
“I decided to go with DePaul because, ultimately, DePaul helped me feel acknowledged,” Fizzah shares. “What I mean by that is, when I reached out to them to inquire about the program, they were very on top of getting me connected with talking to people in the program: If I needed to reach out to a teacher, if I had all these questions, they offered all these resources to help me.”
Psychotherapist at Discover Psychological Services
MEd Clinical Mental Health Counseling 2018
After graduating in 2018, Fizzah now uses her education and experience as a psychotherapist at Discover Psychological Services counseling clients who are mainly going through transitional periods in their lives, such as graduating college, changing careers, or becoming parents.
“It was very encouraging to recognize that I was in a field and in a place where I was being championed, and I can speak volumes to how much I appreciate the Counseling Department and the professors and how they have helped me and have been understanding.”
Fizzah says the resources and staff at DePaul helped her immensely and are the reason she landed her current job. She made sure to utilize as many resources and services she could at DePaul, noting that the college was very good at letting students know exactly what their resources were.
“The career counselor came into class and put forth all the things DePaul offers for helping you while you’re in school and out of school, so I was very mindful in making sure I took advantage of all the career counseling help I could get,” Fizzah explains, also citing the Center for Students with Disabilities as a resource she took advantage of. “I was diagnosed as an adult as having a learning disability, and I was able to go utilize them to full capacity in ways to help me thrive in class and being able to actually get resources: books on audio, smart pens.”
Fizzah found her career in psychotherapy by realizing her passion for helping people and doing research into prospective fields before narrowing down exactly how she felt she could fulfill that passion. She advises that students take the time to reach out to individuals around them who have jobs that could fulfill a passion they have and figure out if that field is for them, and DePaul is a great place to start looking due to the helpful and open nature of the staff and faculty.
