"I Need to Initiate a Crisis"

I knew this was coming.  I felt the calm before the storm.  In the past few weeks, two clients have come to me that are going to be extremely challenging and will need all of the resources that our team can offer.  I have spent the past week completing trainings, reading everything relevant I can find, consulting, studying, putting together material for my team, purchasing tools, and preparing myself for how these next couple of months are going to unfold.

In grad school I learned something very valuable from one of my instructors.  I had a client during my first semester of practicum that was rebellious, resistant, unmotivated, verbally disrespectful, aggressive, and not interested in applying any change to his life.  He was court-ordered to attend our sessions and unwilling to participate or interact with me.  I struggled through this for two sessions before bringing it to my supervisor and mentor.  I was hopeful that she would recommend that he be transferred to another student.

She told me that this would be the client that would transform me into the therapist that I needed to be.  She said that not every client will work with every clinician, but that every clinician should be able to work with every client.  She said that I needed to "get creative and adjust."  

She nick-named the client "Tony Hawk" and his treatment was indeed transformative for us both.  There are classrooms behind the two-way mirrors in our university clinic that allowed other students, supervisors, and professors to observe sessions.  As I moved from practicum student to intern, this client became a very popular client on the schedule.  By the time he graduated from the program, we had a packed house in the classroom and everyone was rooting for "Tony" and I.

I had found my rock star moment.  It is being able to adapt to serve the needs of my clients even when we are worlds apart.

In the past 12 months I have been feeling somewhat complacent and comfortable in my practice.  I have not had any crisis issues at work that were new or different.  My mind has become busy with paperwork, regulations, acquiring the right therapy tools, and planning my groups.  In the middle of September, I was noticing that I had not had a "Tony Hawk" in a while.  I had a moment of appreciating the calm, but I understood that this moment would be short-lived.

I was hungry for my next challenge.  In the next few months I will be frustrated by the lack of peace, but then I must remember that in the calm I desired adventure.

I was going to blog this week about some of my new tools and trainings.  I plan on doing that, but I felt like there needed to be a bridge to explain the shift in focus.  To my teammate and friend, Elaine, thank you for putting up with me.  I love and respect you so much.

"We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, you labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Thessalonians 1:3