ACA Blog

I remember fondly those first few years of being a clinician; that newbie air smelled so fresh as I entered the therapeutic world with my head held high, my mind and ears wide open. I was a sponge and I absorbed every idea I could, experimented and put the ones that held the most promise into my clinician’s toolbox

When I started as president, I knew I was coming into a “dying” chapter. There were hardly anyone that came to the meetings, very few participated in activities. I had meetings and most of the time it was just me alone who would show up. I didn’t take this as defeat though. I found it as a challenge to tackle, I needed a secretary because mine quit!

As a guy who has lectured to folks from as far away as Japan on issues related to private practice (and wrote a chapter on the topic a few years ago), I always look forward to reading blogs related to the topic. Like any blog topic, sometimes I agree, sometimes I shake my head but I always feel that I have left with something from the process. From time to time I chime in with a thought or two on the topic, usually on an aspect that I have not seen covered, or that has not been covered in a very long time. Below are a few issues that I feel needed to be explored. I hope they help.

In brainstorming about what I would write in this, my first blog with the ACA, I really struggled with getting started. I typed and deleted, typed and deleted and then once more, some keystrokes followed by a stab at the ole backspace. Nothing seemed adequate for describing or introducing what it is that I do and where I live. I’d come up with a smorgasbord of topics that I wanted to write about, but I didn’t feel I could just jump straight in to one of them with no introduction.

I have received some really great feedback about the various types of therapeutic horsemanship programs available. I have also received some great questions. This week, I will take the opportunity to answer one of the recurring questions: How do horses communicate?

I’ve recently begun a new adventure in my professional life. I have joined a new therapeutic community and am building my practice here in Atlanta. I know the statistics. I know that there is a possibility that I will fail, AND there is also this possibility that I won’t. To take this step is huge. In terms of personal growth, it means that I’ve acknowledged the risk and still decided to act in the direction my spirit hopes to go. In discovering different ways to market myself and my unique way of being with clients, I have come across a few insecurities- one of which has to do with my Masters of Divinity degree.

Frequently, I get contacts from students panicked, sometimes legitimately, over one internship thing or another. I try to help in any way I can, but often, my answers may have a similar ring to them. It lead me to start wondering, both from the perspective of counseling interns and the perspective of the counseling industry’s culture toward them, what is wrong with this picture?

Up the street from me lived two elderly folks, a happily married man and wife. I don’t remember their names and in fact am not sure that I ever knew them in the first place but I remember them fondly. They were always dressed to a tee and acted proper. I recall seeing their newspapers by the road for trash pickup (years before recycling was heard of), how they were neatly folded and stacked and tied from all sides. I remember how he in bow tie and she in her Sunday finest would walk out of their nice but modest home, which was always picture perfect and he holding the car door open for her as she entered the car, then gently closing it for her before they set out on their ride. Time slowed down for them, the speed limit was in full force and never exceeded. They would drive to the market for supplies, one bag at a time, perhaps so they could have an excuse to get out together.

During my travels in the summer of 2012, I had the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life. I flew back from Morocco where I worked as a counselor at an American style university until June. I landed in Los Angeles where I spent some time visiting friends.

Congratulations! You’re at the point in your graduate program where you get to choose a topic for your doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis. Yea! All those classes…all those dollars spent on tuition…the pages upon pages of mind-numbing journal articles…now you finally get to choose a topic for the final requirement necessary to hang that degree on the wall! You’re energized. You’re ready to get started on your research. You have some interests in mind. Now to choose your topic…easy right? Not always so, as I learned this past year.