Six years+ of studies and this year, I am finally practicing!
My Therapy Room
At first, I felt I had too much information to ponder each time, how could I possibly think of everything while facing a client.
We started with two therapists for one client for the first 6 months, with one as the lead and the other one as a reflector, but now we have moved on to one-to-one.
My client base is expanding and on average my clients come to see me six times (max allowed since it is a free service) with only one who came once.
The transformation from a terrified student to a practitioner is operating and I now can feel the identity shift towards professional. I no longer listen so much to the patients' stories as to their thinking and emotional patterns in the context of my counselling practice. It's like becoming a mind's mechanics. I am careful not to do that outside of work because I don't want to lose the magic in relationships that I love so much.
Most clients come physically to the University Mental Health Clinic, and this is my preferred way of meeting them since I can tune in better with them at all levels, including non verbal expressions,
others prefer Zoom meetings, if they are not well, unable to access, or people from remote areas.
I am not at liberty to discuss particular cases, but I have so far been exposed to a large variety of cases, with presentations going from exam anxiety, visa anxiety, intercultural adjustments, relationship issues, workplace bullying, to trauma exposure, chronic pain, grief, adhd, autism, severe depression, childhood abuse, rape and schizophrenia. My therapeutical approaches will depend on the client: CBT for maladaptive thoughts, ACT for acceptance work, narrative, solution-focused, existential, psychodynamics for long term in-depth work, dialectic behavioural, IPT, motivational interviewing for substance abuse for example, Gestalt, person-centred, feminist, PTM...
I have enjoyed co-counselling sessions with some fellow master of counselling students immensely. It has been a bonding experience as we grew as professionals together, sharing our initial fears, overriding them and building expertise together under the watchful eye of our respective supervisors.
I so far have logged 50+ individual session hours. Another five months to go. I should be able to register with PACFA by November after I would have logged the required amount of hours and have graduated, hopefully. I have only one course left, gerontology, that will be completed by the end of July.
After that, the big question will be, should I make the big jump, should I work for an organisation, go freelance? What is now established is that I love this job and feel I can do it; I did not have the answer to that in January, so it is a breakthrough for me.
Now, we are reaching the end of June, and my children are sending me on holiday!
They told me about it in February. I was not sure I would be up to it in June. Their dad will be looking after Josie during that time before he moves more permanently to Townsville for his new job.
Last time I went on holiday was in 2018, it gave me vertigo!
What to chose? I wanted to go and do too many things.
Turns out I am going to Italy with a friend!
My mind and body are aching for a rest and a change of scenery. This semester has been particularly loaded between full time studies, work and placement. I was not sure I would even make it logistically, intellectually, physically but yeah, it all went well, and my daughter is getting better with only 3 presentations to emergency this year so far (compared to 29 in 2020),
so the timing is perfect!
My Dog in Home Therapist Coach
