Ruth's Ramblings

I'm at home, sick. Missing work just because I'm sick of doing telephone interviews, and I need more time to work on my thesis. Plus, its always nice to sleep in. I have a throbbing headache, a raw throat, and plugged up sinuses. Plus, Mother Nature has come for her lovely monthly visit. ARGH.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to catch up with my emailing and other contacts. Starting to hear from old classmates from the SW program again... its really nice hearing from them and where everyone is at. One of my friends just started her new job yesterday as a therapist. Well, she's starting off as a case manager, and she's really intense. I think she'll do a great job. The only thing about beginning therapists, is that we aren't very confident of our skills and keep thinking that whatever mistakes we say or make, we'll screw up our clients... which is hardly true because 1) don't underestimate people's resiliency and 2) you can always undo your mistakes and use it as a teaching tool. A lot of therapy is undoing a client's unhealthy pattern of relationships by modeling a healthier one between the therapist and the client. It's almost like the relationship between the therapist and the client is one big long DTR along the way (alot of metacommunication and talking about the process of the interaction rather than its content). And after some experience, you'll start building more solid schemas of people's patterns and experiences for yourself, and getting a better sense of knowing what direction people are coming from, and where you're going. One pitfall to avoid is not to assume that just because a client went through a similiar experience as you, that you can relate to them and give nostalgic advice that would have helped you but not necessarily for them... and of course, its not supposed to be about you, this is about them and their problems. It bugs me that some people assume they totally understand your situation because they went through a similar thing, and their words of advice are things that came from their personal experience and not from what they hear from yours. Every experience is unique, and the feelings and thoughts of an individual should be respected as such. Anyways, I would love doing therapy stuff, but I need to brush up on my Teyber stuff. So in my limited free time, I'm trying to go over my old textbooks and of course, Teyber. Great stuff.

Posted by Ruth at 9/19/2002