(no subject)
one thing about working with people with psychological issues that has already started to affect me is that i start applying my own damn good advice to myself. take, for example, the concept "easy-hard, hard-easy." when a client says, "oh, screw this, i'm too lazy to pack my pack well," i, or another staffer, might respond with, "yeah. i guess you'd rather deal with losing things and eventually re-packing your pack later in the day." which is, if you think about it, kind of what addictive thinking is: "well, i could not use heroin, but that would only be good in the long run, so i'll just use and later deal with the consequences." easy-hard, as opposed to hard-easy.
anyway, now i'm finding it really difficult to do things like leave dirty laundry until tomorrow. and i find myself correcting myself every time i use the phrase "have to." (we never, ever, say "have to" to clients. my favorite alternative, in the case of defiant people, is "well, you can choose to follow expectations, or you can choose a constructive consequence.)
i'm in some wierd woodsy orwellian world, i swear. please don't let me use any more psychologisms on you than i already do normally - i'm going to accept than i inevitably will because . . . well . . . you try being raised by two therapists. but really . . . after talking about my job all afternoon to people i haven't seen in a while i realize that, all ironic amusement aside, i really love my job.
anyway, now i'm finding it really difficult to do things like leave dirty laundry until tomorrow. and i find myself correcting myself every time i use the phrase "have to." (we never, ever, say "have to" to clients. my favorite alternative, in the case of defiant people, is "well, you can choose to follow expectations, or you can choose a constructive consequence.)
i'm in some wierd woodsy orwellian world, i swear. please don't let me use any more psychologisms on you than i already do normally - i'm going to accept than i inevitably will because . . . well . . . you try being raised by two therapists. but really . . . after talking about my job all afternoon to people i haven't seen in a while i realize that, all ironic amusement aside, i really love my job.