By Dr. Tania Hormozi on Aug 13, 2026
In a recent magazine interview, I was asked about three skills that helped me in my journey to becoming a marriage and family therapist. It didn’t take me long to realize that the following words really did help me get to where I am today. Commitment, Consultation, and Curiosity.
The 3 Cs of personal and professional growth, in my opinion. Commitment has been the top because it has allowed me to focus on my goals and allow me to really understand what I am putting myself into when I decide to do something for myself. Regarding my education and professional background, I committed myself to the school journey of earning the degrees I have, to increase the opportunities that I gained overtime. I don’t believe that I would be where I am today without the educational and professional experiences.
As a teenager in high school, I always wanted to be a writer, and I joined the school newspaper, went to SDSU for a Bachelor’s in English with emphasis in Journalism. I worked for the Chula Vista Star News for 4 years, and it was the best thing I had ever done for myself. Despite the low pay, the amount of work I had to put into each article, and the deadlines, it was still a commitment I had made to myself. Even though that career fell for me quickly, I had to make other decisions to continue and change my career.
Commitment really has stepped up for me in being able to continue to do better, without giving up and looking back. Once I committed to this new career journey of being a therapist, the rest of the skills started to find me.
Consultation for me was huge at this time of my life, in a new career. I didn’t know anything about Psychology. Mostly everyone had an undergraduate degree in this field, except me. I brought my writing and interview skills that I found were very valuable in this field. However, I needed to consult with people around me constantly. My networking and interviewing skills from before really helped me reach out to other therapists, associations, events, and professors to help me identify the path I wanted to take in this field.
I believe in any career if you don’t consult, network, or ask questions, you will not get as far as you can. As humans, we need connection and collaboration; we also need resources and information that we may not know. We need to be open to feedback, suggestions, perception, and experience of other people. We can gain that from consultation.
Lastly, as a young child coming to the U.S. not knowing a single word of English, attending school, making friends, learning the language, and understanding the two cultures I will have to carry and embrace for the rest of my life; my curiosity was at the top of the list. Curiosity about a lot of things. How will this work for me? How will I make my goals and dreams come true? Will I make my parents proud of my choices? I had to stay curious about everything. I never let anything get in the way of my goals and accomplishments. Staying curious really helped me with consulting and commitment of the opportunities that I sought. I have always wanted to learn new things, explore more, and know things. That’s why I think being a journalist really helped me with my identity. As a journalist, curiosity is very important. Every place, every person, everything I ever learned about or saw became a story, an article, something to report on for others to also learn about.
As a therapist, curiosity is also important. I may be an expert in certain things such as my competencies, skills, and theory; however, the client is the expert of their own lives. I need to be curious so I can understand the client’s perspective, values, experiences, and concerns.
These three words have really helped me become the therapist, writer, author, supervisor, and person I am today.
I would like to encourage you to try it out. What are you curious about? What are you committed to? What are you consulting about? If you aren’t doing these things, then you are not in the car or the train moving forward on your path. We don’t always have to be the driver, but we do always have to be moving forward, setting goals, accomplishing them, and celebrating our success.
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Image by Hardae
