I am passionate about my profession. For a number of reasons,
it is so much more than a job to me.
Personally – Counseling is something that challenges me to
grow and deepen my self-awareness with each session that I sit in. I was taught
that the greatest gift you can give your clients is to simply and wholeheartedly
show up in the room with them. That is both a joy and a complication. When two
people connect in an authentic and meaningful way, there are few things more
beautiful or more powerful. Both parties leave the room different than they
were when they arrived. What a delight it is to be working in a field where
that kind of thing gets to happen on a regular basis! In my worldview and
theoretical orientation, the counselor and their responses matters too. It’s
not just about the client. A good therapeutic alliance is a two-way street. I
firmly believe that the right clients show up in my office for the right
reasons, for both of us. Counseling is a calling for me on a spiritual level.
It’s part of why I am here in this lifetime. I get to talk to clients about
their soul-health, discussing archetypes at work in their lives, helping them
find ways to honor the inflection points in their path, watching them find that
core of strength and personal power that we all have within us but is so easy
to lose track of for so many. I have the humbling privilege of being the hand
and voice of Source in those moments, a channel for Universal energy, a
catalyst for people to reach the next level of Truth that they’ve been striving
for.
Politically – I despise the fact that mental health has
become known as something of a classist privilege. I understand why it is that
way, and I intend my work to be a piece of what changes that. If you have the
good fortune of working in a job that gives you an attractive benefits package,
you may be able to see a Counselor under your insurance plan. But if you do, be
prepared to be diagnosed with a label that may or may not fit you, so that your
plan will cover you. And don’t be surprised if you only get enough sessions approved
to count on your fingers. If these thoughts raise concerns about privacy and
job security, you’re not alone. On the other hand, if you’re under-employed or
unemployed, poor or working poor or indigent, you may be able to get emergency
mental health services, especially if there’s a reason that you may be a threat
to yourself or others, but the red tape will be enough to get lost in. But if
you’re not living with that level of risk, if you have lingering concerns, or a
desire to understand yourself and your situation more fully, good luck getting
services. I’m designing my practice to avoid falling into that trap of being
unwieldy and unavailable to those who need it and choose to seek me out. I’m
avoiding insurance panels, at least for now, in favor of offering a sliding
scale that makes my sessions on a financial par with your average co-pay for
those who need it. Those who can afford more, can pay more, and make it easier
for me to offer truly affordable care to the biggest range of people possible.
Allowing for a portion of my time to be spent in pro bono work or volunteering
for agencies that serve underserved populations is another thing that’s
important to me. It angers me when I hear people say that Counselors are ‘in it
for the money’. Do people who say that have the faintest clue what the average
salary is for people in this field? Our country and our healthcare system does
not value mental healthcare enough to throw anything but token attention and resources
toward it. I could talk about gendered values here, and the patriarchy that
governs so many decisions that get made still, and the assumption that a
profession based on caring and healing and empathy is too squishy to be worth
paying for. Or I could mention the student loan debt that many of us emerge
into our professional life having to repay. To those who truly believe it’s
about the money, I say you’ve either met some Counselors who have no business
being in the field anymore, or you need to open your eyes and ask some intelligent
questions about what constitutes success. I care so much more about the people
I work with than I do the money they may or may not be paying me. And yet,
professionals are worth paying, and paying well.
Professionally – A Counselor is not the same as a Social
Worker, or a Psychologist, or even a Life Coach. There are areas of crossover,
for sure, but they are unique roles. The focus of the Counseling profession is
the therapeutic alliance between Counselor and Client. It is about the creation
of a relationship where healing and personal growth thrive in an atmosphere of trust
and openness. There are times when we talk with clients about community
resources that could help them, or medications or treatments that are being
developed in regards to their areas of struggle, or help a client set goals and
make plans on how to reach them. But at the core of it, Counseling is a field
about a person-to-person connection of a unique nature. When it’s good, it
serves the purpose of helping each person find and optimize their own path and
life. It holds a mirror up for people to see themselves more clearly and from
angles that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see. Just like no one can see
the back of their head unless an extra mirror is held just right, a Counselor
finds out the right spot each client needs their mirror held so that they can
see things they’d miss otherwise. It’s a fulfilling moment, on all the levels
mentioned here, when you and your client find that sweet spot, and their eyes
open a little wider, and they have an ‘aha’ insight about themselves. You get
to see their world and their sense of self get just that much richer and more
complete. That is why I do what I do.
