ACA Blog

Lately I have been feeling a bit lost in what I am doing with myself. It would seem that this should be the most care free time I have had in years with my schooling finally being finished and my babies in daycare while I search for a job. However, I ironically feel a greater sense of unrest than I did before. I know it is partly due to the fact that I feel ill at ease not having a clear professional “purpose”.

In the previous column, we discussed the importance of building a sellable private practice, and we looked at formulas for valuing a service business. In this column, we’ll review 11 ways that you can make your business worth top dollar to an acquirer.

I’ve learned to purposely avoid certain conversations so as to not be seen as an angry black woman. I try to explain to people that I’m passionate about things and sometimes my passion and the expression of that emotion may seem like anger if you’re not accustom to a really good heated discussion. I get it. So there are conversations that I won’t get into on Facebook for example. I skip past any status about being a good wife (I don’t believe I’m quite qualified to lead that discussion). I avoid MOST parenting discussions and I have NEVER engaged in a political debate via social media. My blogs…up to this point have been primarily safe. I think, so far, I've avoided angry black woman….until now. Now…I’m angry and I’m black and I’m a woman so…try as I might to avoid this discussion, I’m going to go ahead and jump into it because well…it’s my turn to submit a blog.

It is safe to assume that many of us have been subjected to the litany of standardized testing that haunts our academic careers. For students in Florida, it begins early, often in elementary and middle school in the form of the FCAT or Iowa tests. In high school, we dedicate numerous hours in school and countless sleepless nights to the SAT and the ACT, fearing that out entire future resides on the four digit score.

Those of you who specialize or have had training in substance abuse likely know what the above capitalized letters reference, those without such training may not and it is a shame as they have so much to offer not only our clients who are battling with addiction but most everyone we treat not to mention ourselves. HALT stands for never letting yourself get too: Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. PPT’s remind us that we need to examine and monitor the People, Places and Things that we get or are involved with. Are they helpful or harmful to us?

I suppose that most teachers wonder about the degree to which the things they are teaching have significance or relevance for the students in class. In a previous blog statement, I expressed some concern about whether language differences were limiting my effectiveness. Then Friday came along.

The great question asked by every counselor educator to prospective students during intakes: "Why do you want to be a counselor?"

You have been holding on very tightly. You have believed that your partner was doing the same. Suddenly, there is a break in the relationship. You are lost for words. Your world has crushed in. It imploded or exploded. You had sold out everything. You kept none of yourself. This is when you know that separation is just like amputation. It is pain. Perhaps for the rest of your life, you may be living with unwelcome memories.

Kenya Methodist University (KeMU) where my wife and I have taken residence this week has enough of the old British tradition attached to it that there are tea breaks at 10:15 and again at 4:00. I’d personally like to find a cup of black coffee at those times, but having a cup of the local chai—hot milk, some tea, and lots of sugar—can be kind of nice.

If by any chance you don’t understand Sigmund Freud’s system or model of personality development, look beneath the surface. Start looking ‘outside the box’. It just may be, that you have crushed your world into such a tiny box that nothing else can venture in. Well, in this case, you are proposing that your world is the only world. Maybe you truly believe that your world is the one correct world of ideas about how one’s personality evolves.