Today's guest blogger is Gayle Luster. She is a counselor and long-time "friend" of Earnestine's. She's blogging today while Earnestine is away grieving about her flip flops.
A Day in the life of a therapist.
(This story is shared with permission of my client, I have changed her name to protect her guilt.)
It’s rare for me to work with children and teens in my practice, but occasionally under the right circumstances I take one on as a client. Unless the parents are willing to work on their own issues, I think therapy with kids is futile. That’s why, when I work with a teen or pre-teen, I want to have a relationship with at least one of their parents. HB fits the bill. Her mother has been a client of mine. She brought HB to me 5 or 6 years ago, but the timing just wasn’t right. Finally in junior high, HB asked to see me again.
HB has been a great client and I’VE learned a lot from her. Specifically I’m learning the benefit of using MySpace in the therapy process. Things rapidly change in the life of a teen (like from hour to hour.). When things are going well, they don’t have a lot to say (at least to their therapist). But when they are angry or hurt they need to vent STAT. MySpace gives me a way to make this work for both of us. HB can write me an email and vent. When I check my messages I get to “hear” where HB is at. We can discuss what happened in our next session. HB also does her therapy homework assignments on MySpace and then we go over them the next time we see each other. I’ve discovered a powerful tool in MySpace to use with teens. HB has been a big part of my discovery.
HB is also very funny. I love her sense of humor. Recently she came to a session and we were just getting started when I looked down and saw this (see picture) on my floor. It’s an aluminum foil “brain shield” (if you’ve seen the movie Signs you’ll recognize it - the kids wore it so the aliens couldn’t read their minds.) Boy did I get a great laugh. I almost rolled out of my chair. (LOLROF in MySpace speak.)
How perfect - a mind shield in your therapist’s office. It made me think about all my “adult” clients who wear their invisible mind shields. In shrink-talk we call them defense mechanisms. It sure would make my job a lot easier if all their defense mechanisms were made out of aluminum foil and were worn on the outside of their bodies. No such luck. For now, I’ll have to use my x-ray vision and be more like one of the aliens from Signs when peering into their minds.
Today I’m grateful to HB for taking down the shield, doing therapy homework, and making me laugh!
(Note to Earnestine - flip flops don't make the woman, it's the woman that makes the flip flops. You'll be okay Just go eat a big steaming bowl of mac cheese.)
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