The secret to writing an effective autobiographical statement lies in saying enough about yourself that your readers will want to learn more about you - ideally by offering you an interview. Without the benefit of first meeting you in person, they need to rely solely on the power of your written words.  These words must, therefore perform their task especially well.

The key to capturing your readers’ interest right away consists of giving them something delicious to know about you - right away - while you still have their attention.  As a writer, you probably have your reader’s full attention for only the first few seconds - especially if he or she is plowing through something as daunting as a stack of internship applications. You thus cannot afford to squander this opportunity by prolonging your introduction unnecessarily. You must give your readers some immediate satisfaction and fulfillment if you want to keep their attention until your final sentence.

Unfortunately, most applicants take the safe and boring route to this goal. They start by telling a chronological story of facts. "I was born on ___ in the town of ____. I went to _____ high school and __________ college." Then, they wonder why they feel so flat and have nowhere to go with their writing. I can assure you: If you start falling asleep while writing your essays, your committee will certainly want to head for the nearest couch within a few minutes of starting to read them.

Take just a moment. Notice your reaction to my use of "delicious" in the second paragraph. The word is probably still lingering in your mind. It probably even caught you off guard a bit. You might even be wondering where I got the audacity to use such a provocative word . . . especially while writing about something so serious as internship applications. After all, who expects to read something "delicious" in an autobiographical essay about a budding therapist?  If my basic premise is right, you continue feeling curious about what I meant - and whether I intended the provocative connotations of that word that came immediately to your mind. Actually, I did. 

The following principles will explain why:

1. Start with something thought-provoking, a sentence or two that captures your readers’ interest right away and holds it throughout your writing. Say something that arouses their curiosity and continues to feed it as your story unfolds. Give them something to think about and mull over as they get acquainted with you throughout your other essays. Then, show them why you chose to say what you said and why believe it was important for them to know it in considering you for their training program.

For example, I started my personal statement with: "I was my family’s therapist."  Most mental health professionals would want to meet someone who admits something so provocative.  This created the context for my personal story of the interaction between my in-born gifts as a helper/healer and the influences of others (especially my family) in molding my professional identity. It also took advantage of controversial associations readers might have with the question of doing therapy in one’s own family. Of course, in this case, I tell the story about how I had no other choice in the matter until I was old enough to pursue graduate training. My family started relying on me to carry and express their collective emotions until I was old enough to set firmer boundaries.   Along the way, I developed my natural gifts for listening and providing empathy. (If you would like to know more about how I accomplished this goal, feel free to call me and schedule an interview!) One word of caution about being more personal: Take your biggest risks in writing your rough drafts. Then, ask a variety of people - professors, supervisors, professionals, family members - to give you feedback about what you have said and help you filter out anything that crosses the appropriate boundary.

2. Say something specific about who you are and how you have become that person. What shaped your development the most? Why are you becoming a psychologist? How long have you known that is what you want/were meant to be? Did your family or community indirectly call you to become a therapist? If so, how did that happen? What qualities did they see in you that led them to encourage you in pursuing this profession? Was there a way in which you feel that you had no other choice but to become a psychologist? Did you choose psychology or did it choose you? Did you try anything else along the way? What experiences have engaged you in the continuing struggle to sort out where - and whether - you belong in psychology?

Many applicants ask me how "personal" they should be in their application essays. Usually this question arises because they have been taught to take themselves out of their writing, especially papers and essays they write for classes. As a professional writer, I take a somewhat radical position on this question (as illustrated above). That is, I believe that writers need to go out on a limb and reveal something a bit vulnerable in order to arouse their readers’ interest. So, I challenge applicants to say something provocative about themselves right from the beginning.  They can always tone it down as their writing unfolds.

My rule of thumb is that writers should bring up the subject of only those individual differences that have become historical facts they can talk about objectively rather than something they continue to struggle with subjectively and emotionally   For example, a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person who has fully integrated his/her sexuality and adopted a public persona as an "out" member of the community can comfortably share this information in describing his or her development. On the other hand, someone involved in the throes of the coming out process would have much more difficulty navigating these treacherous waters. Similarly, an applicant who is coming to terms with her identity as a woman, managing his role as a representative "straight white male" in a non-traditional profession, or exploring the meaning of his or her racial/ethnic identity on becoming a therapist needs to clarify the contributions of these individual differences to his or her emerging identity.  And he or she needs to do so without overemphasizing them at the expense of his or her clinical background and training.

In some cases, this information will enhance the applicant’s chances of matching with certain sites. In other cases, it might actually reduce or eliminate them. The same is true for applicants who might choose to discuss other facets of their personal or social backgrounds, spiritual/religious influences, or disability/ability status as factors that influenced their professional development. Ultimately, each writer must make this personal choice only after talking with a variety of people who know him or her well and are in positions where they can provide meaningful guidance to the applicant about how to handle these issues well. As you consider these choices, it is important to realize that you would probably not be happy training at a place where you would constantly feel uncomfortable or unwelcome, regardless of the quality of their training or professional reputation.

3. Remember who your audience is and what they are interested in reading. You are writing applications for selection committees made up largely of psychologists and other mental health professionals. You are not writing for lawyers or business people. What are clinical psychologists primarily interested in? Individual differences and how they interact with a person’s environment. Whether we are interpreting psychological test results or refining DSM diagnoses, we want to formulate an understanding of what accounts for them. I suggest that you prepare for your writing as though you were going to present yourself as a case study or an intake assessment. If you can envision yourself this way, you can become more objective about your background and zero in more clearly on the focus of what you want to say about yourself. Sample intake questions could include:  Why are you applying for internship?  Why now?  What precipitating factors led to your decision to submit your applications at this time?  Do you (the "client") have any previous history of interest in becoming a psychologist (comparable to history of previous treatment in an intake)?  What family/developmental history factors might have led to this decision? For additional ideas, consult the intake forms you used at your practicum or class assignments for presenting a case study.

4. Counteract the tendency to sell yourself short by focusing on external factors.  One of the most common questions I hear among applicants is: "What is (internship site name) looking for in its ideal applicants?"  If you are like many of them, you will stay trapped in this mind set throughout the application and interviewing processes.  You will spend the majority of your essay writing time trying to fit yourself into these imagined expectations rather than describing who actually you are and what you want from your training. Also, if you are like most budding therapists, you are uncomfortable with talking about yourself publicly.  As a result, you feel embarrassed about your trumpeting your strengths and gifts. Instead, you are probably more comfortable simply disappearing into the background.

My solution to this dilemma is suggesting that these applicants start by telling their personal story. If you include yourself in this group, you can start by describing your personal, historical experiences from your heart. Describe them using more emotions (i.e., how you feel about what happened) than thoughts. This approach invites your readers in to learn about you in your private, personal space. Then, as you revise and polish your rough drafts, you can frame the stories in terms of your personal developmental milestones and begin to tone down some of the emotions. The experience of writing is very personal. Your essays are an environment you can control by choosing what you want to include and what you want to leave out. Also, rather than having to trumpet your experience blatantly to stand out from your competition, you can simply introduce what you want to say about yourself. It will stand alone as part of your overall application package.

Your autobiographical essay is one of the most important components of your application packet. This is true primarily because of your audience - they are psychologists who are interested in what makes human beings tick and why. They are not primarily historians or business executives who want you to trace your personal chronology or prove what you can do already.

When I review applications for internship, the autobiography is generally the first essay I read.  As a clinical supervisor, I do not care where this person trained or went to school, at least, not initially. want to see who I am reading about and what this person believes about who he or she has become. Clinical psychology is a profession that relies heavily on using the Self as a therapeutic tool. I want to see what that tool is made of internally and how I, as a supervisor, could work with the applicant to develop it.

In summary, take time to establish a solid foundation for your internship applications. Give yourself permission to write a compelling, polished autobiographical statement. Shift your focus from obsessing about what you do not know or what skills you have not mastered to describing the fascinating person inside who wants to become a therapist. You will wind up creating a theme that you can use throughout the rest of your essays and your cover letters. Use this essay to introduce yourself and connect with your readers. You will be amazed at how much it will free you up to connect everything else you say about yourself in the rest of your application packet.  Oh, and that word "delicious"?  It caused you to finish this essay . . . and probably to consider offering me an interview.  Am I right?