ACA Blog

Leadership is something that is often expected of clinical professionals whether or not they are supervisors, directors, owners of private practice or newbies who have just entered the field. Newbies become de facto leaders of their clinical groups, or even viewed as leaders of sorts by their individual clients. Others, as they grow in responsibilities find that they are put in charge of leading whether they want to be or not.

I had an interesting chat with a psychiatrist last week. He said that working with diseases of the mind was infinitely more difficult than dealing with those of the body. Why? Because with diseases of the body, say diabetes or high cholesterol, people take action. Their doctors say, ‘You must take insulin or your liver will shut down,’ or ‘It is imperative you take statins to bring your cholesterol levels down or you could have a heart attack.’ But when he makes a diagnosis of say, ‘ADHD,’ and suggests medication, often the patient, ‘feels they are just fine,’ so sees no need to follow his recommendations.

A friend recently remarked that after briefly browsing CNN’s website she felt as if the world was coming to an end. Perceptions of apocalypse prevail when at every corner a natural disaster, shooting, rape, gang violence, or drug cartel event explodes from the screen complete with special effects and action packed cinematography!

It has been a long time since I have contributed to the ACA Blog. Corrections Behavioral Health is busy during the spring and early summer months.

Many people fail to reach their potential because they look only at their behavior and their conditions or results. They only scratch the surface. But, again, picture life as a tree. The roots and seeds are your thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, and conclusions as well as your conditioning. The fruits on that tree represent your behaviors, results, and conditions. People often ignore the seeds and roots, and address only the fruits.

So as I’ve established--and some of you may agree--dating isn’t easy. It’s especially difficult if you have anxious attachment patterns. Although the highly scientific attachment style quizzes I’ve taken online indicate that I have a secure (or at least predominantly secure) attachment style, I know I have some anxious/ambivalent/enmeshed patterns stemming from a co-dependent relationship with my father growing up.

Look, I hate to burst your bubble but there is no such thing as a, “fresh start.” Can’t be done. Not even remotely possible. Once you are you, you have written all over that slate that once began ‘clean.’ Oh, you can try to erase what you’ve written. You can even write over it in darker ink but what’s done is done.

ONE: Continual learning is a requirement in the counseling profession. Summer ‘tis the season of license renewal and continuing education completion, fees for license renewal are due to the board of health professions along with the promise that continuing education requirements have been met. I have been guilty of groaning about paperwork and requirements, but I find the process of continuing education rejuvenating and exciting.

I graduated a few short weeks ago and finished up my clinical hours. Although I miss my clients and my coworkers, my new-found free time has enabled me to pick up a few things I had missed during the past year, like writing in my own blog and reading books. My free time has also allowed me to process the learning experiences of the past year--and holy cow, there were quite a few!

Life is messy. I don’t care how many times you clean the kitchen or how well. It just gets messy. Maybe it’s bread crumbs or a smear of jelly. Maybe it’s grease and pasta splattered across the stove. Maybe you made a smoothie and forgot to put the top on tight. But face it: mess happens. It happens in our kitchens and it happens in our lives.