These blogs help gauge my emotional pulse as I reflect on my practice. Maintaining a healthy perspective and upholding professional boundaries means I need to raise my awareness of client transference and projection. Talking about the impact of their behaviours and responses to professional support helps me to provide a more interactive and professional service. It keep me ‘safe’ and them safe.
Sometimes you just need quiet. The quiet that comes with the calm of falling leaves. The peace as the feather wafts its way towards the earth, like in Forrest Gump. And it lands ever so softly on the ground and pauses, waiting, listening, being. It is what it is. Then it rises and floats away.…
Most people’s lines of work are more intricate and multi-layered than those who don’t do that work would guess. So most of us can think of a time someone reductively assumed that our jobs are very simple. It has taken months to build the easy relationship we enjoy, one that has provided an environment conducive to recovery and trust;…
The last time I wrote about Chad it was July when one side of his face had swollen from an infected tooth. We managed to fit him in between appointments with a dentist the following day but Chad forgot. The infection must have cleared as he has not complained of pain since although there has been plenty…
Do you find it difficult to be heard? I am not a person who enjoys loud noise, parties or loud people, nor for that matter neither am I person who has brilliant ideas at a moment’s notice. Sometimes I find myself being a little envious of those people who seem to pop with brilliance given a moment’s notice. It’s not that…
Sometimes all the training, learning, and work experience are not enough to disguise the frustration and disgust I feel when another professional uses their position of power to invalidate someone’s best efforts to meet the stringent directives contained in a (child protection) care plan. Sadly the words were delivered over the telephone and the professional…
Names have been changed. Chad was referred to our service in January seeking support to reduce cannabis and maintain abstinence from methamphetamine (ice), which he has used for twenty years. Chad is 42. Chad and Samantha have six children, three each to different partners.Samantha’s girls reside with their natural father and she sees them fortnightly…
Linda Stewart Life as a single mother is tough. I do not say that as someone who has had to struggle to parent my children alone, but as someone who has seen the struggle of mothers who care for their children. In Australia between 25 and 40% of all single mothers have experienced family violence.…
By Linda Stewart Outreach workers are familiar with the avoidant tactics of the hard to reach groups. Groups that include people with mental health issues, those engaged in illegal activities (substance use and street prostitution) and those experiencing homelessness. Outreach services provide the only contact with support services for people who live in isolated circumstances…
Sometimes all you have to offer a person in deep emotional pain is not enough. It is not enough because of everything that has gone before. The stigma of mental health issues. The discrimination and judgement experienced because here they are presenting, yet again seeking treatment for an addiction. Sometimes life is simply too hard…
Linda Stewart The drop in income and loss of work hours were the deal when I stepped away from an untenable work role and back into the role of counsellor. It may seem like an unorthodox approach to a stressful situation but now I am enjoying benefits that outweigh the losses. Back then I worked…
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