Anderson Antoine

In our role as counselors, we have access to all the stories that our clients tell from day to day. Every story told is wrapped up in a series of events that occur to the clients from time to time. It is my settled opinion that no event in a person’s experience is attached to any particular meaning apart from that which the client attaches to it. Therefore, one may rightly assume that all events are neutral.

When a student walks into your life to so share with you a secret, there is no telling what will come embedded in the story. The student starts to whisper the little tales gone by and suddenly a heavy load is place upon your shoulder. The story does unfold in pieces and in patches and then the client slows a while to wonder if to break the secret open. There is often such a struggle on weighing the pros and cons but when you live the patience and when you apply the art and craft of psychotherapy the client finds release. On helping a certain client to break her silence I ended up penning the process in the following poem:

As you sit in your counseling sessions working at helping clients resolve their varied concerns or problems, could it be rather challenging or even impossible to reach some of them, based on differences of personalities between you and your client?

I have been counseling persons who seem to be experiencing identity crises. This situation forced me to raise questions pertaining to Erik Erikson’s and other philosophies of identity, and psychological developmental issues. One may ask oneself questions relating to the many adults, who, through certain experiences or exposures were capable of rediscovering themselves and establishing a different understanding of themselves as well as who they want to be. It seems that I have a powerful leaning towards the level of stimulation for development provided by the environment in which one develops. Let us not forget that ‘all behaviours are learnt’.

It is not a few times that I felt challenged to meet the high demands of getting involved in the process of professional counseling. The significant level of interpersonal relationship that is expected to exist between someone actively seeking help and myself sometimes startle me.