I Love My Job.

Written by craig

Yes, I really do. My job task, officially, is to provide psychotherapy at a public mental health clinic. However, the sign I place on my door refers to me as a “Purveyor of hope, specializing in location, repair, and restoration of lost dreams.”

That's who I am and what I do. What I don't do is force people to delve into why they were toilet trained wrong, or how their parent(s) really messed them up. Oh, I'm well trained and licensed in it and have gone there when the clients request, but my interest is in the future, and in those dreams that somehow got lost.

Soul “A” had given up, decided that even after a couple of years in college his life just had no future. He refused to even consider that he might do something other than take his own life to escape his meager existence in the projects. First, the biology . . . he got onto some medicine that started to let the brain think again. Then, we went hunting for any dreams that might have been set aside or misplaced during his earlier journey through the wastelands of depression and despair.

After another month or so, we finally spotted one, and it was a beauty. At one point he'd wanted to work in law enforcement and had even taken the state exam, but had missed the cutoff by just a few points. His reading speed had been too slow, so he hadn't finished the test. In addition, the reading difficulties had made studying for the exam a nearly fruitless chore.

So, did we delve into the causes of his low self-esteem, or help him identify more realistic goals that fit with his limited abilities? Nope, I just worked with him on his reading speed (moving it from 120 words a minute to about 260; you can find books on how). Then we got a study guide and I helped him learn how to use it. In a couple of months he'd nailed all of the practice exams.

Today we met and he's going to take the next exam on Monday. I asked how he thought he'd do, and he started to smile. His goal is to score high enough beyond the minimum to get into one of the earlier classes. He added that, even if he doesn't make it this time, he's going to keep trying 'til he does. By the way, his self-confidence and self esteem seem to be pretty good right now.

Oh, and did I forget to mention something? I really love what I do.