How can the depressive state of the world push us to be better and expect better in those who help us in times of great need?
This year has provided many hardships to people across the world, it seems that at a time where people should be focused on being kind to others, they are showing their ugly true colours.
2020 has truly been a defining year in that became clear to me just how selfish humans can be, and for a while, like a hermit crab, I shut down and hid. Instead of helping me it had the opposite effect of making me feel lonely when I was with people I love.
How can thousands of stranger’s actions do that to another person? Easily, unfortunately.
I have taken time over the last few months to acclimatise to the current mood in society, the spiralling depression in the world has indeed hit hard with people who may not have support to overcome it, how do we heal thousands of people that are holed up in the same way I was? By sharing effective ways we can help, that’s how. We each have a talent that could help another person… use it!
I may have realised the epic selfishness within humanity, however, in contrast to these awful people I have also found that there are more people like me, who want to help others become well again in a way that suits their clients. In fact the more people I work with the more I hear how effective the approach I use is!
It was a recent encounter with one of my more “educated” colleagues that also pressed home the point. Book learnt doesn’t necessarily mean better equipped to assist in a person’s care, in fact a modicum of common sense is essential to balance between adequate care and missing the boat to help entirely. What really rankles is the assumption of these colleagues that people without a degree have no right to demand action on horrendous everyday struggles. To the point that their patients are put at risk. Sadly there are those who think a title and a large pay packet gives them the right to lean on people like me who strive every day to do my best for the clients who place their trust in me.
We naturally expect better from doctors and more highly educated people, why? Because we are taught to, and the majority of the time we are justified in that expectation. The difficulty comes from experiencing a failure of the person with the title. We all make mistakes don’t we? Its how we learn. I have accepted the situation as it was as exactly that. But there will be a price to pay for my esteemed colleague. Because casting a bright light on other’s work casts shadows on their inadequate care.
By far the best thing about being self employed is choosing how I work with my clients, using personal experience to gauge the persons needs and identifying common factors to build rapport and trust- making the therapy techniques much more effective. I acknowledge that this was never how I was meant to work, it just happened. Like some of the greatest discoveries known to man, going out on a limb for your passions can be daunting, for my clients? in the majority of cases it has been life changing. I am balancing the scales by studying a degree in psychology, at first I was concerned that I would squash the nature of how I work with the stiff and unbending ways that are taught by the sciences. Instead I am awakening a higher level of discipline and education into a holistic way of better treating conditions I already can and other psychological conditions in the future when qualified. It enthuses me to see a vein of Psychology that evolves around the need of the individual furthermore it actively seeks to learn from these interactions to be more effective.
This is why I am passionate about the holistic application of therapy; this is why I strive to do the best for each individual client, and arguably why the way I work is more effective than other talking therapies.
Because nothing should be more important than the wellbeing of those who place their trust in a therapist no matter how educated that therapist may be.