Originally, I was going to share more of my story with you, how I’ve grown as a clinician and how I am so grateful for the people I’m surrounded by at Family Solutions Counseling.
Here is my quick shoutout because I AM grateful! I’ll share more another time.
Every day is interesting when you work in healthcare. Every person is unique, every story is different, and every process is its own journey. Today I woke up reflecting on my experiences with clients and colleagues at Family Solutions Counseling for the last year. I’ve worked with clients for several years through my work in graduate school, but there is always something more to learn as a therapist especially in a new context.
Sometimes I leave work asking myself if I did enough to help my clients, if I’m doing enough, what can I do better, and am I making a difference? But the answer to these questions is always going to be yes. I’ve been processing with other mental health professionals in my life about the amazing progress the mental health field has made. We are expanding, we are advocating, and we are helping. Of course, though, we have so much more to learn and at the end of the day we are just other normal people trying to figure out life.
I don’t have the ability to take your pain away or give you all the right answers, because I don’t necessarily have them. It would be great to have this much power, but I don’t.
That’s the part that makes it hard to do this job. The work I do with my clients could look completely different than another clinician’s, but the results can be the same. The work I do with my clients could also look identical and the results be completely different. As a Marriage and Family Therapist, we are trained to have a systemic mindset. In any system you need all aspects to run together to work. Sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn’t work well, but still works. I view my position as a therapist as just an outsider looking in to see what parts need to be rearranged. Systemically, we could get lucky and make one change that brings the results you want. Or it could mean experimenting with several different parts. One size certainly does not fit all even though sometimes I wish it could.
And though I wish my work could be easier sometimes, today I write this with the humility and gratitude I have for the opportunities given to me. I’m so incredibly honored to be invited into your lives.
You teach me more than I could ever teach myself about the true meaning of a happy life – here’s a secret: it’s not what you think it is.
All this to say, the wisdom I gain from my position as a mental health clinician can be a blessing and a curse but who am I to not try and share it with you? Thank you for listening, advocating, questioning, and just simply reading this. I tell all my clients that even when something uncomfortable happens, it’s still just more information for you. So what do you do with it? Pain serves a function in life, but it doesn’t have to define it. Thank you to everyone for reminding me of this.
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