For the month of May, we did a nano-narrative exercise. Here are a few, and thanks to those who shared!

The intenseness of feeling is almost more than I can bear some days. Exhaustion, overwhelm, stress, pain, reward, beauty, fulfillment, human. My soul aches with the rawness of human experience. I live simultaneously in the dark and the light, the cold, and the heat. All while knowing what a precious gift of connection I have.

Jennifer Nelson-Tripathi

Seeing with lenses pointing inwards and out

Vision is 2020 when looking at others 

Without the myopic view of navel gazing

And as the faults and cracks and whirling cyclones of pain come into view

I see them as a mirror into my own psyche, discovering previously unknown vistas.

-Taunya Gesner

Swimming in Counseling's Rivers

We enter, sit down,

a question to begin, a river to follow.

Sometimes a trickle, sometimes a torrent,

sometimes blocked by rocks.

With presence and kindness,

I wade in, acknowledge, point blockages in the stream,

and journey to the ocean with them.

Sometimes we run, sometimes we walk,

either way

we breathe.

-Chris Rollins

Start of the day. I’m not sure I am ready for another. Check the schedule. Some clients will definitely show, some maybe not. Some clients who enjoy our time, some I’m not sure. One session at a time. Support. Be present. Listen. Learn. Consult. Be you. Help how you can. Look - end of another day.

-anonymous LPC associate in community mental health

Therapy is providing thoughtful presence for someone who is not a friend, but you might see how they could be. It is seeing the ways that our clients can be people we pass by in a grocery store, see at the bus stop. It is practicing the way that people deserve to be with people.

-anonymous CSWA in group practice

Fear affects us all, but my kiddos most of all. It has driven them to this point in their lives pleading for kindness and guidance. My mantras to them are your mistakes do not define you and you are worthy of love. I encourage them to grasp for hope while being in this moment. ~ C. Ferg

What a privilege it is to be here. Baring their soul. Finding their soul. Screaming their soul. Sometimes mad. Sometimes stuck. Sometimes grateful. Sharing in humanity. Two humans with very little in common finding connection and learning how to be human together.

-PSRB social worker in Oregon

Freedom, writing, reading, monitorings.

Relationship-building, rapport, independence, teamwork.

Collaboration, meeting-free, no worries, free rein, empowered, supported, genuinely cared for.

-Ashley Miller