Kristy Carlisle

Tortoises are slow and steady, each step made with great intention. Not too dissimilar to the counseling process. For Catheryn Robinson, that’s a good thing.

My whole life, I have been teaching and caring. It’s no surprise that my career has led me into teaching and counseling. Besides being extraordinarily fulfilling to those who practice in them, both fields are highly valuable and impact many people. I take my careers very seriously and want to perform at my best, not just in terms of knowledge and skills, but more deeply as a human being with integrity. I plan to pursue a doctorate in Counselor Supervision some day and would love a professor’s life of researching, writing, and above all teaching and caring. I want to honor the profession, not with knowing, but with learning.

I’ve enjoyed reading the thought-provoking perspectives of Anthony Centore and Michelle Wade on the conundrum of handling social networking on the Internet and professional discretion. I avoided the dilemma for some time by refusing to even allow myself a Facebook account. I had heard too many horror stories about teachers and school counselors who were vilified for pictures others had tagged them in, for misinterpreted posts, or for friending students. Not that I have a questionable lifestyle by any means, but it just didn’t seem worth the risk if I didn’t even know what I was missing. My husband ended up setting up a Facebook account for me thinking I would enjoy the ease of keeping in touch with family and friends. He was right. However, now I had to worry about students finding me, viewing my profile, and requesting friendship.

When working with juvenile sex offenders, professionals may feel that the treatment protocol should vary from traditional treatment methods. While there is the offense-specific component that needs to be addressed, overall youth who have committed sexual offenses respond well to the same treatment as other adjudicated youth.

I found myself very frustrated with myself this week, and it took some self-reflection to figure out why. I was initially very frustrated with a professor who, I felt, had been making decisions for the class that were not educationally sound. I told him what I thought and I was sure that my frustration was coming through in my tone. I felt terrible about expressing myself with such frustration. Why couldn’t I have been calmer? Why couldn’t I have been more diplomatic? Why couldn’t I have been less irritable? The answer I eventually devised is that I am not a counselor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.