ACA Blog

One phenomenon I’ve observed is that the workplace creates precisely the right type of circumstances for individuals to get all of their old feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy triggered. Some individuals in these circumstances lash out and become aggressive as a tactic for trying to restore their worth. Whereas workplace violence is a significant problem, physical attacks are much less frequent than relational aggression: gossiping, intimidation, demeaning. When we consider how commonplace these behaviors are in organizations, and how they impact both the victim and the organization as a whole, we can begin to understand the nature of this problem, and how they really are the adult link to playground bullying behaviors among children.

It seems like when the “day goes wrong” in the criminal justice system, it really goes wrong. I have been spending a great deal of time thinking about just how to write this blog. Then I realized I had been thinking about it for a month, and it is just time to write.

Admittedly, this time of year always seems the hardest to me. With the approach of fall, although in south Florida fall isn’t really a reprieve from the brutal summer heat, it seems time begins to race toward the end of the calendar year. Halloween arrives, followed quickly by Thanksgiving, and then suddenly New Year’s is upon us. This time of year is also distinct in terms of the academic course load. Midterms seem to appear out of thin air while research papers and final exams loom in the horizon. Even the addition of daylight savings time does little to stop the feeling that when dark approaches as six o’clock there simply are not enough hours in the day.

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?

This week’s entry involves my thoughts and aspect of working with older adult clients that I have found to be incredibly important to gaining a comprehensive picture and providing the best possible treatment for each individual. As I’ve gained more experience working with older adults, I’ve also gained a wealth of knowledge into the world of pharmacology. As a counselor it is imperative to have some background into the numerous psychotropics that are used so widely in today’s world; however, as a counselor working with older adults, I have also become familiar with medications that target just about every human function. It is important to note that my growing familiarity still leaves me far from an expert in pharmacology, rather my familiarity has driven my curiosity and in addition led to some concerning questions regarding the use of certain medications in older adults. I do believe the prescription of various medications to older adults is out of a desire to best maintain or improve their health and well being; however, in hearing stories from the families of some of my older adult clients and reading literature on such medications, I find myself feeling as though the relationship between the use of pharmaceuticals and older adults needs some large modifications and improvements.

Often times, I hear adults make statements such as “Oh, yea, I remember my guidance counselor” or “I never saw my guidance counselor; I didn’t need to.” And maybe this is just a pet peeve of mine, but I get irritated by this. Perhaps in the past the term ‘guidance counselor’ was appropriate. Students and even the general public held the belief that a guidance counselor was simply present to provide guidance and advice. A high school guidance counselor simply sat in their office and met with students who needed help deciding on classes to take. Or perhaps, a student in distress would see the guidance counselor to ask for advice about what to do. On the whole, the guidance counselor was available, if you sought out such a resource. In the early to mid-1900’s, a list of duties was identified for counselors. The 1950’s to 1970’s school counseling began to form a foundation for development of a program. Counselors were seen as a part of a system: the school system. By the 1980’s to 1990’s, developing, organizing, and managing a school counseling program began to cultivate.

I walked into the first day of my internship back in August and thought, “How am I going to relate to the residents?” How was I going to build that all-important relationship? The residents in the living room that day looked at me kind of skeptically, and I don’t blame them. Most of the residents come from very different backgrounds and have lived very different lives than me. They are White American, African American, Southern, facing serious mental disorders, legal issues, estrangement from families, and rebuilding their lives from the ground up. They aren’t over-eager White East Coast counseling students by way of Nebraska that moved to Louisiana six weeks ago. I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to relate to the staff.

While I have been teaching on the KeMU campus, my spouse, Joan, has been volunteering several nights a week at a children’s home not far away. A university driver picks her up about 5:00 and she returns to the Guest House on campus where we are staying about 9:00 PM. Each night when she returns, she is full of stories about “the kids.” It takes her a while to talk about what has happened, what she has experienced, and what she might do next to be helpful.

I can still remember the moment when I knew that being a therapist was the work I was meant to do. I was actually all of about 12 years old. I was standing in a group chatting at sleep away camp when another camper came over to us. She told us about a friend of ours who was homesick and crying in their tent. One of the girls offered to go and talk to her but was stopped by another girl. She told her “No, let Nicole go. She knows what to do.”

I spent the first part of my childhood in the projects. I mean, as projects go it was pretty nice. There were no large apartment complexes; this was Bristol Connecticut after all so we had duplexes and I even had a little “fort” outback that in reality was a Mountain Laurel with a rock that was kind of chair shaped, or so it felt to a 2 or 3 year old. There also was an oak tree growing through the middle, it was right in front of my “chair” so I pretended it was a TV set and imagined all the cartoons that it played. I had some great times in my little fort. At one time I must have had at least 3 or 4 friends “watching cartoons” in there with me.