2026, Family, Government, Uncategorized, work

Unlicensed

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As always happens the first week of October, the email from the ND Board 0f Psychologist Examiners arrived reminding us that it is time to renew our licenses. Husband has been licensed since 1991. I have been licensed since 1994.

This year is different for us, since neither of us is renewing our licenses. We are retired. We no longer live in ND, and we haven’t accrued the 40 hours of continuing education over the past two years necessary to maintain our licenses., which formally expire January 1, 2027. We plan to email the Board office this week to let them know we aren’t renewing. Husband will also step down as the Board Investgator of ethical complaints against licensees on January 1.

I have mixed feelings about all this; happy to be retired and not having to pay for relicensure, wistful about letting go of a huge part of my identity. Husband notes with great irony that the Board is trying to enlist two licensees to do the complaint investigations that he did all by himself.

I was the Board president for 8 years, and I remember hearing from the Board office about people who initially decided to let their licenses expire when they retired, who then decided at the last minute to renew, and needed an extension from the Board to complete their continuing education hours. That will NOT happen for us. Done is done, but my, I will miss it.

Did your employment or some other aspect of your life form your identity? How has your identity changed over the years? Ever file a complaint against a licensed. service provider?

24 thoughts on “Unlicensed”

  2. The identity I liked best overall was as a bookseller. I worked in a couple of stores (anyone remember Bookstore of Edina, in the Galleria?) and then for a few years had my own little business, one wall of books in the shop of a friend. And finally as office “manager” in Louise Erdrich’s Birchbark Books.

    I had been a teacher earlier on, and I felt like this was a different sort of teaching: here it is, come and get it, rather than come (to school) and we’ll fill you with knowledge. I still feel like a bookseller.

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    1. My book selling days were a mix. I enjoyed retail back then and of course loved being around the books. But I was in corporate America bookselling and did not always like that aspect.

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  3. My “professional” life, such as it was, happened in Taiwan, where I was in church work (as I now like to call it, because “missionary” is legitimately frowned on). I left that at the end of July in 2018, and had some occasional “mopping up” work both here in North America and a few strings hanging in Taiwan for about 9 months. Then, wham! No more title, or name in Taiwanese, or speaking Taiwanese, or even preaching. It took a couple years. I settled in. Perhaps the pandemic helped, because it enforced that settling.
    A Taiwanese former colleague recently asked me to write the English text for what will become the conference song for an international meeting. He will write the tune. It feels really good to have been invited. So, I drafted something and sent it to him. Only THEN did I learn that the person who invited him to write the tune ALREADY has the text, in Chinese. So, I’ve become the translator… quite a step down from being the lyricist. My idea is to do the translation, then write something of my own, “approximating” what has been provided to me. I might even proceed, then, to suggest a Taiwanese translation of what I”VE written.
    Maybe I’ll never get invited ever again. OK.

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  4. I had difficulties with a plumber on our bathroom project a couple of years back. Despite a very clear conversation (I had written notes), they installed a bathtub that was not in line with the project. When I asked/complained, I got ignored and talked down to. I called the manager at the company (fairly well known company here in the Twin Cities) and could not get a call back. I finally left a message with his admin that if I didn’t hear back from him by 10 the next morning, I was stopping payment and contacting the BBB. He called at 2 p.m. We all know that stopping payment at that point was a useless threat but I had filed that BBB complaint already. And I was very clear that I would contact the bank about suing and hit the internet with my issues if they weren’t resolved. I got a nice chunk of change back, a letter of apology and had them put it in my file that said plumber was not allowed back on the project or on my property. I then released them from their part of the remodel and let my second contractor finish everything up, including a new tub that met specifications. I heard a few months later that said plumber ‘was no longer employed” by the company. I’ll admit I did a little happy dance!

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    1. I once had an ethical complaint filed against me alleging I was mean. I had the audacity to recommend in a report that a parent limit her child’s excessive video gaming. The Board dismissed the complaint.

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  5. Husband and I went to a DFL shindig last night, and one of my former high school teachers who also goes to our church stopped me to tell me what a lovely reading voice I have. When I got home it dawned on me that my reading aloud voice is directly related to my professional work. I was a play therapist for almost 40 years, speaking clearly and expressively to countless children. Not talking down to them or using baby talk, but speaking to them in an animated way as partners. It was delightful to realize that.

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  6. My Grade 6 teacher read aloud to us every day, and one book she read was “Dibs In Search Of Self”, a book written by psychologist Virginia Axline about her play therapy with a child who she helped heal from parental rejection and who turned out to be a genius with an IQ in the 160’s. Hearing that book made me decide then and there to become a psychologist.

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  7. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I have reported several people professionally for Medicare fraud and other serious violations. I never liked being put in that position, but it was absolutely necessary. Licensing is there to protect the public. I guarded my license and my professional reputation because that is what allows a professional to practice. In the non-professional world I have called a plumbing outfit or an Air bnB and told them that if they corrected the problem they created, then I would not post a negative review. That worked better than any other threat.

    I used to supervise people who encountered licensing trouble with their Social Work Licenses. It usually was something small like giving a client a ride or sharing inappropriate information, etc. But now and then someone had really blown it and lost the license entirely. Those folks would move into “professional coach” territory which was also pretty dangerous because then they were entirely unsupervised and accountable to no one.

    When I let my license go two years ago I felt naked for months after all those years of CEUs and ethics requirements.

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  8. Having had numerous “careers,” I always felt partly identified by my job, but not 100%. Especially now that I’m on my fifth career, I think that I’m the sum of the parts of my life experiences, plus my hobbies like golf, canoeing, cooking, BBBS.

    Never filed a complaint of any sort. Lucky? Or too meek to complain? I think mostly lucky. Not that everything went perfectly when I hired a contractor or engaged someone’s services, but nothing worth the time and effort (and maybe cost) of filing a complaint.

    Chris in Owatonna

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  11. I retired from work life as a computer software architect in my early 50s. I do not recall ever seeking approval on account of my vocation, although it was a source of personal pride that others were willing to pay my fees.
    After 10 years as a novelist, having published seven books, I can report that this is no longer the case.

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  12. Flooring covering installers can attain certifications (not licenses) from manufacturers through testing examinations. Having certified mechanics allows retailers to sell special products with accompanied warranties. With pride, I have several but I know my former employer has used my name to sell jobs. I know the installers who executed the work are just as good or better than me. They simply haven’t passed the tests. Years ago, the company took a half dozen guys to Forbo school. All failed. I consoled a few, telling them a truth I learned from a former instructor, Forbo WANTS you to fail the first time.

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  13. It was really hard to stop saying I was a dairy farmer.
    And now, I sort of have two jobs, so it depends on the situation as to whether I say I’m a farmer or I do theater. If I say I’m a theater technical director, people don’t know what that means, so then I have to explain more.
    Sometimes I don’t want to do that either. All in all, it depends.

    I don’t recall I personally have filed a complaint. We had some issues with the care when my mom was in the extended care unit. My sister usually took the lead on those; she knew everyone more and knew what to take to who when.

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