It’s Never Too Late

The most recent comment on Therapist Therapy, posted in July of 2012, reads:

“3 posts and the year is past it’s half. It seems the war is lost”

This comment was in reference to my post I’m Losing the Battle (But Not the War). I had written blog entries in January and February of 2012 and nothing further. I had begun to feel guilty that I was not keeping the blog as active as I had intended. When this comment appeared 5 months down the line that was it: I was officially giving up. This was partly due to the fact that I was a busy student feeling overwhelmed with coursework and thesis, and the blog had become another monkey on my back. It was also because I had begun to fear disapproval from readers, which I was anticipating after such a long absence. It seemed easier to disappear than to post sporadically after a 5-month hiatus.

Fast forward three years and I am no longer a student; now a professional (according to my paperwork) and working as a mental health counsellor. A few weeks ago I sat in my office daydreaming about projects and hobbies, longing for more time for self-care and play, and out of nowhere I began to think about Therapist Therapy. “Whatever happened to that blog anyway? Is it still floating around the world wide web? What was the address? I wonder if I can find it with Google…”. I had not bothered to transfer the link or sign-in information to my new laptop in the fall of 2012. At first I had no luck with the search. I had to add the terms “kayak” and “neurons” (referring to the Freshly Pressed entry of which I was so proud) before I found it. And of course, as with everything else that enters cyberspace, there it was… and still is. My old blog about finding balance in a helping profession.

As I read over some of my old entries it was clear: now that I’m working in the counselling profession the need for self-care and balance is as important as ever.

Master’s Degree… check!

Reading through my old blog prompted some self-reflection and a mental review of the past few years. I suffered as a student because there was never enough time or energy for recreation. After graduation I launched into a lot of work, mostly on-call or what is puzzlingly called “casual” work. The question is, aside from working, did I finally get out and involved in my community? Did I finally meet new friends, jump back into the dating world, indulge in hobbies new and old? No. I did not. Not even a little. I must confess… more often than not when I wasn’t working I was zoned-out in front of the television, snacking on junk food. The fact that I could now sit in front of the TV for hours, without the guilt of all the coursework I should be doing, got the better of me. Balance be damned, I would simply ‘switch off’ instead. It became a bit of an addiction. If I was out, I just wanted to get back home. If I was home, I craved the ‘company’ and empty entertainment coming from the TV. I ate all my meals in front of it, and I left it on while I surfed the net. I had little interest in reading. No interest in writing. No artistic inspiration. Little need for socializing. Aside from getting the bills paid, I was ‘checked out’.

Here I am nearly 4 years later and some of the pieces have fallen into place. I landed the full-time therapist position that I worked so hard for, I have begun to develop a private practice on the side, I have moved my home, and I have kicked that nasty television habit. As for balance… there is still a whole lot of room for improvement!

Thus I revisit Therapist Therapy. I would so love for you to re-join me on this quest. I won’t promise that I’ll write every month, but I will promise not to wait another 3 years! Balance is calling right now.

Subscribe to the new blog location: TherapistTherapy.ca using the form below.

Some of the things I’m working on and will be sharing with you via TherapistTherapy.ca include:

• Mindfulness: the benefits, how I integrate it into my client sessions, and my efforts to develop my own practice.
• Animal-Assisted Therapy: how I found a powerful alliance with the natural-born experts in grounded present moment awareness and non-judgement… perhaps the original therapists!
• Nature-Based Therapy: my journey to discover the powerful medicine that is right outside the door and available to all of us, how it has already helped me, and how I sneak it into my office-based counselling work.
• Anxiety: my own personal struggle, the value in embracing it nonetheless, the tricky ways it can be cued and proliferate, and how exercise and nutrition play an important role in reducing it.
• Quantum Physics: wait… doesn’t that belong on another blog?! Au contraire. I’ll write a little about what we know about energy and how important it is to our health: our cognitive, emotional, physical, and spiritual health (you might recognize these quadrants – I wrote about them here).
• What else? What about you? Are there any other therapy and wellness topics you’d like to see me write about? What have you been doing to improve balance? Leave me a note in the comments and subscribe below!

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