Personal Expeirence: Becoming a Counselor

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I took a job at Gateway Rehabilitation five years removed from undergrad and the counseling field was polar extreme from my career in retail management I had left behind. This change allowed me to turn the page into a new chapter of my life with a very clean slate, which I could build off of accordingly. My background in criminology was a distant memory and the opportunity to be a counselor in an inpatient facility was very exciting, and very real. My first week of work was chaotic, a true trial by fire, but something about it truly intrigued me and kept me coming back for more. The rule of thumb was to spend the first six months learning the residential piece of inpatient tx, which consisted of hands on interaction with the population. During this time I sat in every lecture, group therapy session, Alumni speaker, Hospital and Institution commitment (AA,CA,NA meetings) and/or anything else that I could immerse myself in. I learned so much about human nature in such a short amount of time, and it was at this point that I new I had found what I was looking for. Over the following two years I never lost that intrigue, I continued to observe and learn, and would try to effectively apply the counseling techniques I had picked up along the way. Through trial and error I have made myself a nice base to build upon, and am very happy the cards fell the way they did. I do not believe that I would have ever been able to live up to my full potential if had not laid this ground work before enrolling back in school.
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In this process of becoming a counselor to help other people, it became very evident that I was also doing a great deal of work on myself. Its funny how we initially get involved in certain situations and our goal remain co...

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...d talks about the concepts of collecting stamps. “People prefer to collect their own brand of racket feelings, such as guilt, anger, inadequacy, or depression, that will enforce their script. They represent the kind of emotional reaction that marks the end of the game. When enough stamps are collected they may be turned in for psychological prizes. Some are minor, such as hitting, screaming, crying, and laughing; some are much bigger such as murder, suicide, divorce, and job loss” (James & Gilliland, 2003, 143)

I think the progression of games, rackets, and stamp collecting coincide with addict like thinking. People in recovery say there drug was more and now, and instant gratification is the name of the game. People put down the drugs and alcohol and are left with their addict like qualities. This is why NA and AA promote a program of abstinence plus change.

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