NOVEMBER 2007: BIZ LIFE
SECOND STORY
Leaving
the bar for the couch
As Jeff Rogers will point out, lawyers and therapists generally
have very different personalities. Yet he’s managed to
earn the title “counselor” in both fields.
After graduating from Yale Law School in 1973, Rogers moved to
Oregon and began building an impressive resume: working as a
public defender and at the U.S. Attorney’s office,
starting a private firm and serving 19 years as
Portland’s city attorney. But in 2000, Rogers
couldn’t shake the urge to pursue an old interest in
psychology.
After undergrad, Rogers attended one year of medical school at
Harvard with plans to become a doctor. But after a
“slight detour” to Vietnam on a Navy hospital ship,
a career in law had more appeal. In 2000, he was ready for
another change, having added to his experience work with
mentally ill patients, a strong knowledge of mental health law
and experience as the chair of the Oregon Psychiatric Security
Review Board.
“My career all along has had one foot in the door of
psychology and law,” Rogers says. So he went back to
school, earning a master’s degree in counseling
psychology from Lewis & Clark College on nights and
weekends. In 2004, he opened his own private counseling
practice in Portland, where he sees 50-75 clients on a regular
basis. Not surprisingly, most are lawyers.
On top of this, Rogers hooked up with a volunteer organization
to counsel war veterans. That area of work grew, and Rogers was
hired by the veterans hospital part time. “I have the
great advantage at this point in my life of not needing to make
a lot of money,” he says, “so I limit my private
practice and volunteer.”
Though he enjoyed his 30 years as a lawyer, Rogers says he
doesn’t miss it. Although he admits it was scary being a
novice at 60 years old, he says he’s confident in his new
career. “If I didn’t have those two areas as
background, I would feel like much more of an imposter,”
he says. “But I don’t
anymore.”
AMBER NOBE
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