ACA Blog

This weekend my husband and I were watching our favorite morning show ‘Up with Chris Hayes’. I like this show because it makes me think. Each weekend intelligent, interesting, and well-informed people discuss the issues. I can almost feel my brain gaining density as I listen to the conversation. In the last segment of the show four fiction authors were the focus. Ayana Mathis, author of ‘The 12 Tribes of Hattie’, used the term ‘severely impoverished’ in making her point.

It is interesting that whenever someone asks me what population I work with, and I mention older adults, in my experiences the first thing many people then ask about has something to do with memory loss or dementia. It seems as though there is a widespread association between older individuals and memory loss. I have also encountered individuals who often assume that all of my clients have Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, in my experiences many people seem to then conclude that individuals with such memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia could not benefit from counseling.

“I’m an awful parent” is a common lament of many of the parents I work with professionally. These parents will enter my office with anger and regret tattooed from face to toes. A child or teen is commonly tugged in their wake, head downcast. Meeting individually with these parents to check-in regarding the cause of their disparaging facade, they commonly spill forth tales of their child’s becoming quite the little terror recently, to which they with all the heaviness of an over-stressed individual, responded in anger, only to deeply regret it later.

Slips of the tongue happen for most of us way more frequently than we would like. When we find ourselves in a new place (e.g., Kenya) and with a different language base (e.g., Kiswahili and UK-influenced English), the slips just seem to multiply exponentially.

Storm clouds form at the onset of a rain storm. Generally that is a sign to prepare accordingly… Should you choose to ignore the signs then the consequences can be greater than the steps toward prevention.

This series of blogs is excerpted from a chapter of a book that I contributed to. It is being shared here in the hopes that it may help to provide some foundation for ideas in your area. Please excuse the formality of the writing.

In working with individuals who are struggling with co-occurring mental health problems and addiction, its not totally uncommon to have a client arrive to session intoxicated to a degree. This raises a number of ethical questions as well as the dilemma of whether or not to continue the session. Client safety is paramount of course. It makes sense to me that a person struggling from the intense emotional overload of psychological trauma or severe depression may self-medicate with a substance such as marijuana, yet therapeutic work with an individual who is intoxicated is typically of limited substance.

Well, the end of the semester came and went last week, and little by little, I’m sifting through everything I have learned and experienced. (And I took some time out to bake some Christmas cookies, too!) With a new job, an internship, and a whole new city, that meant a lot of sifting. Here’s what I’m taking away from this semester.

This series of blogs is excerpted from a chapter of a book that I contributed to. It is being shared here in the hopes that it may help to provide some foundation for ideas in your area. Please excuse the formality of the writing and please note that this series in no way reflects an opinion on how the professionals at Sandy Hook Elementary School handled the situation or preparation. It is my opinion that they likely did everything foreseeable to prevent this tragedy; sadly not everything can be planned against and thus avoided. My hat is off to those lost souls, the first responders and every member of the school’s team. They all did what they could to avoid this tragedy. Many died protecting this nation’s most cherished resource; our children…