I had a pretty good week last week.

I’m starting to feel like I’m getting into the groove of things at my internship. I’m being asked to run groups, I’m taking on new clients, and I just have a good feeling about where I am in my life and my career. It’s a nice feeling.

Plus, I had quite the cherry to top my sundae of good feelings this past week.

I’ve had a client ask me to read over some of his writings for a few weeks. Reading over his writings has turned into a counseling relationship. After clearing it with his primary counselor, I began to see this client in conjunction with his normal sessions. He said he felt like he needed more than one session a week. I put him on my calendar for twice a week. I need all the hours I can get and he seemed to be just fine with that.

We’ve been working on the client’s negative self-talk. This is a client with about 20 years of alcohol dependence under his belt and one pretty successful attempt at sobriety before his relapse that brought him back to our facility. He’s already accepted he can’t drink anymore. He doesn’t want to drink anymore. He just doesn’t want to listen to his own thoughts berate him anymore either. So, he drinks.

We’ve been circling around the issue for a while. We would talk about how the negative self-talk needs to change, how the client knows it’s his internal dialogue he can’t seem to shake, and how the client basically finds nothing redeeming about himself. We would talk about it, but my client would come to me and say, “Nothing has changed, I’m still depressed,” and we would go back at the issue.

This week, the client said something had changed.

The client said he had a day where he unintentionally applied all of the stuff we had been talking about – accepting compliments, challenging thoughts, reframing situations – and his day was awesome. He said, “It was like a light bulb went off in my head or something and I thought, ‘Oh man, this is what me and Jen have been talking about!’”

It was gratifying. My client had an “a-ha!” moment. Then, he said something I think every counselor wants to hear.

“I just want to thank you,” he said. He thanked me for helping him realize all these things on his own. He said I never told him what to do, he just figured it out on his own with my guidance. He said it felt good to know he could change how he felt. He didn’t know he had a choice before.

We processed everything for the rest of the session. We both shook hands and walked away feeling good about our days. My client, because he knew it was in his power to change how he felt. Me, because I’m doing what I love and I’m getting the returns from my work that I always hope I’d get.

Like I said, it was a great week.

Jennifer Bingaman is a counselor-in-training and freelance writer. She blogs about her experiences as a client and a counselor with a few life musings thrown into the mix at The Pursuit of Sassiness