Our ability to cope with stress, frustrations, anger, relationship problems and grief — all magnified by the pandemic — is based on multiple strategies working together. The more the load is shared, the better.
Tag: Voice of Experience
Without experience, it might be easy to be intimidated by police, angry parents or clever attorneys. But you cannot be arrested (as I was threatened on one occasion) for following counseling ethics and HIPAA requirements regarding client information. In fact, you will likely be in greater trouble if you concede to these “requests” and thus violate our code of ethics.
“An ethical ‘oopsie’ that violates trust might never be known to anyone else. But then again, it might. Even the slightest breach might damage a client’s trust to the point that they will never seek counseling again. And that, my dear colleagues, is unforgivable.”
I’m suggesting that you examine your paperwork. If we are going to ask a client to do something — complete homework, see a physician, change life habits or, yes, even fill out pieces of paper — we need to have a good reason for it.
If you serve populations that speak languages other than English, finding a local translator and training that translator for the counseling room is critical.
“I know that in my prior life of poor self-care, I could not have weathered this current hurricane. Today I’m so strong, even though daily I’m feeling vulnerable and battered.”
This current pandemic is changing the way we do business, and that change isn’t going away when the virus eventually fades away. I predict that some of our clients will never choose to go back to the way it was. And maybe they shouldn’t.
“As a general rule, I tell my students to plan on five years post-bachelor’s degree before they really start making a decent living and can focus on their preferred areas of practice. That is a long time and, even then, annual incomes vary tremendously.”
We’ll get through this. Here are some ways we can manage our stress and that of our clients as we work through this pandemic.
If we can see how grief might be driving our clients’ dysfunctions, then what we should be treating is grief rather than just depression, addiction or other symptoms of grief. We cannot change loss. Facing it and finding ways to cope are the keys to resolution.