Update and feedback

Hello my own friends, I hope you all are having a good summer. I recognize that I have not posted in a couple of weeks. I wanted to let you know that I am alive and well. I wanted to talk to you a little bit about what has been going on in my life the past couple weeks. I have to do this every now and again to let guys know what has been going on. I recognize that my family might appreciate this. I have done very well in school for the summer. in two weeks I will begin my final semester of full-time classes. Come January, I will be completing my final internship, and taking comprehensive exams. I didn't know what to talk about that. My family is renovating the house. I have also started a new blog about the disability rights movement in the state of Florida. This is something that I am very excited about. I also have been invited to be a program reviewer for a federal disability program. Life is amazing. I recognize that it might get busy again very soon. So I wanted to give you a quick update about everything. I have all is well. Also I would appreciate any feedback you guys have about the blog. What topics would you like to see. What content do you like, what content do you disagree with. Again I will try to do this every so often, so that you can input into the blog. You may e-mail, or place a comment to the blog. Hope all is well.

I know absolutely nothing about living with a disability: lessons in understanding the subjective experience.

 Recently I have been struggling with a issues that I don't really understand. I believe that disability is a vibrant cultural that is alive and well. I am not ashamed that I have a disability. However, I recognize that some individuals with disabilities might have self esteem issues because of their disability. Until recently I do not understand how this could be. As I am writing this blog, I am beginning to understand this issue. It is about my subjective experience as they individual that has a disability. I have no idea what it's like for my friends in the disability community to live everyday with disability. This issue recently came up. I was taking a step, because I did not understand how can someone with a disability have self esteem issues about the disability they have. The only conclusion I can draw is I wasn't really understanding the subjective experience of all individuals with disabilities. I have said that one of my areas that I would like to specialize in after I graduate is working with individuals that have chronic medical, and individuals that have disabilities. I have come to understand that if I am going to do this I need to forget what I know about being a individual with a disability. I just need to focus on my client, and really try to understand them. And this goes for every other issue a client maybe dealing with. In the beginning of the counseling relationship if the mental health professional is doing most of the talking, there is something wrong. We must try to to understand the client's perspective. The only conclusion that I can come up with is if we want to truly understand the client then we need to listen, and do not pass judgment. So maybe I don't understand why someone with a disability would have self esteem issues, but it is not my experience. It is not my story. So if I had client that was dealing with this issue I will seek to understand my clients experience.

The challenge: going back to a new environment

Between August of 2010, and may of 2011 was probably the most challenging, and rewarding work I have ever done. I was counseling student assigned to Metropolitan ministries, a homeless shelter for families, children, and single women. This was definitely very challenging for me. It was my first time in a counseling type of environment. A lot of changes happening why I was there. I have developed a little bit more grey hare since my time there. There is something very unique about a Metropolitan ministries client. This is something that you can only understand by spending some time at Metropolitan. I was able to get some very good supervision. In many ways my time at Metropolitan made me very passionate about the profession. I took the job very seriously.
Although I enjoyed my time at Metropolitan, I was ready to leave in May. I needed a break. This is just something that happens in the profession. So I am looking to do my final placement beginning next spring. Now it will be a full-time placement. I decided that I wanted to go back to Metropolitan, for half of the time I need. I am very excited about this. I know that I will be able to be challenged Metropolitan. I am passionate about the client's. I am passionate about the organization. This will be only half my internship. The other will be at a case management agency. I know that this will be a different experience for me. Due to the nature of the population, everything would have change. I will have new challenges that I must deal with. I look forward to going back.

Go slow the impact of social media and technology on the profession

I believe that social media has been a fantastic evolution for American society. Now I have to say that I have a Facebook account. I check it multiple times a day. I will send notification about this blog when I published in out on Facebook. For various reasons I am been thinking about the impact of the social media revolution has on the mental health counseling profession. They are too many questions that I have about the whole ethical issue of social media and mental health counseling. Do not get me wrong, the ethical codes that govern the profession do not specifically talk about social media. So one could argue that the use of social media in the counseling profession is absolutely ethical. On the other hand I believe there are too many questions that causes a ethical black hole. I believe it is definitely a boundary crossing, to have a client on your Facebook page. Now I am saying that clients cannot follow a professional social media page. For example, I know of some mental health professionals that have a professional Facebook page meant to attract new business with clients. This is completely ethical in my opinion. I also believe that technology itself get in the way of the therapeutic relationship it self. I feel that with technology that we are just trying to make counseling easy. As I said before, counseling is not easy. In fact it is very difficult. If you look at the founders of the great schools of counseling, they have not been impacted by the social media revolution. In fact they did not have the benefit of social media. Now I am not saying that we need to stop using technologies, what I am saying is we need to go very slow with this. This is only my opinion.

A right of passage: the counseling theories exam, or did I make a mistake in applying for the program

So I am going to talk about what everyone is talking about on Facebook. One of the most difficult classes we have in the program is called counseling theories. This class is not only the most difficult class in the program, but also it has one of the difficult exams we have to take in the program. Now some people absolutely hate it. Some people even believe that the exam is absolutely evil. I on the other hand, have a totally different opinion. Yes this exam is difficult. In fact it is one of the most difficult exams that I have had to take in the program. But I believe that this exam has to be difficult. I believe this exam must be difficult, because we will be dealing with people's lives. This is the fact. I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a easy client, so we cannot just take the easy way out, and not really know good theory . Having a good concept of theory is absolutely essential, so that we can help clients succeed in life. This type of exam, will allow us to have knowledge of good theory.

The easy way

I am a member of generation x. My generation always wants gratification to be immediate. We want have everything given to us. I have grown up in the generation of standardized testing. If you take the test, you pass it and move on. If you give a presentation, you want to do the easiest way to get the A. This is my generation. I have to be honest, I used to have some of these beliefs. I wanted to go down the path that would be easiest for me to achieve that A.

Generation X is beginning to join the counseling profession. And I am wondering for various reasons, what would like if generation X practice counseling the easy way? Looking at my previous paragraph, I know we cannot do this. The client is the one that set the pace of counseling. Counseling is not a test, if you do this, you will pass. It is about following a process. It is about providing that place for the client, so you can achieve some type of self discovery. You can't believe how many times I client has asked me a question, and I know there would be very easy for me to answer the question, and speed along the process of counseling. But counseling does not work that way. There is a process that we must follow.

I have come to believe that there is no such thing as a easy client. Every client is different. All of them will be dealing with some very difficult issues. As a counseling professional we cannot do things the easy way. I had the distinct privilege of being in a meeting with the dean of are college that the department of rehabilitation and mental health counseling is located in. He said this: this is going to be difficult. And it should be, because you are dealing with people's lives. He is absolutely right. Counseling is something that is very difficult . The profession that we have chosen to join is a privilege, that comes with great responsibility. As mental health professionals we cannot practice the the easy way. Now this does not mean we do all of the work. Client must be willing to put everything he has in. We as mental health professionals must be willing to acquire the knowledge to walk along the side of of the client as they try to change.

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.