Shira Katz, 28, helps others through her work as a therapist and a teacher.
After growing up in Pikesville and graduating from Bnos Yisroel of Baltimore, Katz received an undergraduate degree from Excelsior University online. She then continued her education at Lamar University for her master’s degree in counseling.
Katz is currently a therapist at Talya Knable Psychotherapy. She has also taught psychology at Women’s Institute of Torah Seminary and College for the last five years.
Katz lives in Pikesville.
What’s your favorite part of your job?
I love being a therapist. My favorite part really is working with people and seeing people get better and making improvements in their life.
Tell me about your work with inner child and prenatal therapy groups.
I always love doing groups. I’ve been doing different groups about topics I’m passionate about. The prenatal group is for women who are pregnant and for anyone, but particularly for people with a trauma background or mental health things that are being triggered in pregnancy.
I’m really passionate about helping people be prepared for that because it can really be life-altering and overwhelming and potentially retraumatizing if someone’s not prepared.
The inner child group is something I’m also very passionate about. It’s one of my main focuses when I work with clients. It’s for people who have had some sort of childhood wounding, which might be childhood trauma or just not getting all their needs met.
Honestly, everyone has some sort of thing from childhood that they might need to work through.
How did you get into that?
Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve always been reading about inner child stuff, and I was really connected to that. As a therapist, it naturally became part of what I do and I continued learning a lot about it and I find it helps everyone.
I find that whenever we go back to inner child work, people are able to find real healing and they feel empowered that they can change the story a little bit instead of being stuck in their history.
What do you like about teaching at WITS?
I’ve always loved teaching, and I love that I can teach about something I’m passionate about, which is psychology. With counseling, a lot of the girls are going to be therapists or going into some sort of helping field.
So, it’s really cool to be able to share my experience and help them feel more prepared to go into that or to answer questions, especially because it’s a Jewish school.
Sometimes they have specific questions or concerns about how to combine their faith and their religion with their schooling and their careers. It’s great to be able to help them navigate the things that might come up.
What’s something that you want people to know about your profession?
We’re not just paid to care. A lot of people look at therapists like “oh, you only care about me because I’m paying you.” But it’s so much more than that. If people were in it for the money, they probably wouldn’t want to be therapists.
It’s really a passion and something we love doing. I really do care about my clients and work hard to help them in the best way possible and to continue learning all the time so that I can show up and be the best therapist for them.
Have you had personal experiences with therapy?
Yes, I’ve always been in therapy. I make sure that I’m healing as much as possible so I can show up the best for my clients. If you’re not healed, it’s going to be hard to help someone else heal.
Do you do any volunteer work?
Yes. I’m involved in JTAP. It’s a local organization for teens that are struggling or having challenges in whatever way. I’ve been an advisor with them for eight years. That’s something that’s always filled my bucket, being able to connect with teens.
Why is JTAP important to you?
I think it’s one of those things I wish I had as a teenager, just a place to go and be unconditionally accepted. That’s the feeling I get there. Everyone really cares about each other.
Shira Kramer is a freelance writer.
