Outside looking in : on counseling with a disability

I have always been a little bit hesitant with talking about my disability. I do recognize that I have a disability. I just don't think my disability is something that needs to be talked about. However, I will talk about my disability on this one blog. My perspective on disability is this, any type of disability is not a limitation, that only makes life more interesting. I am a mental health counselor that happens to have a disability. So for those of you who don't know, I have cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a condition that affect the muscles in your body. Now I am not going to give you a detailed explanation of what cerebral palsy is, for that please see Susan Kelly. By the way the people who did not get that, that was a joke.

As I have always said this blog is about the counseling profession. I have to recognize that my disability does create some interesting stuff, that has to be integrated into the way that I practice. I am someone believes disability is a cultural. It is just like any other cultural. All counselors have stuff that they must deal with to be effective counselors, and I am no exception.

Now notice that I am saying stuff, instead of challenges, difficulties, and issues. My disability is a part of me. It is not a challenge, it is a something that must be integrated into the counseling process. I always tried to view my client's that have disabilities this way. I also recognize that as professional in the mental health field, we must always try to understand the clients way they view their life.

How do I practice as a mental health professional? I have had to learn how to make some adaptations to my style of counseling. It is really quite fun. Right now I am using a voice activated software system called Dragon. This allows me to speak into my computer, and will type what I say. I highly recommend it. I do not write, so I do not take notes in sessions with clients. I think notetaking gets in the way of the counseling relationship anyway. We need to do treatment planning with a client, I just break out my laptop. I have done this a couple of times, clients have found it very interesting.

Another issue with my disability is the issue of what do I disclose to my clients about my disability? For those of you outside of the mental health profession, the issue of what to disclose about your self to a client is something that is talked about in school. My philosophy on what to disclose, is mental health professionals have to be genuine and real with clients. You also don't want session to become about the mental health counselor. So you do not want to disclose everything to your client. Now since I have a physical disability, the people that I provide treatment to know that I have a disability. I believe the you need to be open and honest with your client's about a physical disability. Now I do not bring up the fact that I have a disability. If my client to ask about my disability, I tell them that I have cerebral palsy. I do not say that I have a disability, if the client does not want to know that I have a disability.

One of my biggest concern was how would my clients respond to my disability? This was a conversation that I recently had with my family. This is more about self of a therapist issue for me. I have been made fun of because of my disability in the past. This was one of my biggest issues that I was worried about when I was beginning to seem clients. This has not happened. I know that this issue might play out one day. This is why we have supervision in the counseling profession. This is definitely a self of the therapist issue.