I am pumped. I have recently taken on a new business and employment opportunity; executive coaching and corporate training in the field of career transitions. The perks are good, the hours are flexible, and the people are amazing. I will still maintain my private practice, run on weekends and have dinner with my family. Check, check, and double check.
Despite my current training and experience however, the learning curve is going to be steep for me as I familiarize myself with the industry and the language. As a result, I have to prune some of the branches of my professional activities and shelve some business projects. One of the branches under scrutiny are my contributions to “Counselling Connect”; this blog. I have not yet reached a conclusion.
‘Do I really have to stop writing for Counselling Connect?’ I ask myself.
‘No.’
‘Do I want to stop writing for Counselling Connect?’ I ask.
‘No.’
‘So why am I considering stopping?’ I then ask.
‘Because you cannot do everything.’ After that there is internal silence. My Superman action figure poised beside my computer monitor looks up at me stoically and then falls over; how fitting. Then comes the bargaining.
‘Well, what if I just contribute every month instead of every two weeks?’ I ask myself.
‘It’s sounds like you are having a hard time letting go.’ The counsellor in me responds. ‘What do you need in order to continue?’
‘Money.’ I chuckle to myself. [Joke]
‘Anything else?’
‘To know that I am reaching somebody I suppose. To know that my efforts are serving some kind of purpose other than just personal.’
Hence the title of this blog.
I have had to ask myself plainly, how many articles of “Counselling Connect” have I read or browsed and out of those, how many have I commented on? Humbly, I am not proud of my results. To this I ask myself, ‘Why?’
I have learned about online counselling from Dawn Schell. I have browsed the writings of Priya Senroy on the importance of considering the dynamics of cultural diversity in counselling contexts. I am a better parent for reading some of the contributions of Dr. Asa Don Brown. Yet, they are unaware of this. Again, I must ask myself, ‘Why?’
Please understand, it is not my intention to guilt you into leaving comments on colleagues posts. You must act from your heart on all things. Authenticity is of greatest importance. I am however, asking you – as I have asked myself – to consider and reconsider the impact of collegial encouragement and peer support. As we know with our clients, a simple word of encouragement can, at times, have the most profound impact.
Thank you to all of the “Counselling Connect” contributors and volunteers, and to all those doing what they can to make a difference.
Sincerely Yours,
Derrick Shirley.
*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA
Thanks for your comment and insights and my apologies for the delay in responding. Unfortunately Counselling Connect does not have a notification feature, so if someone comments on a post, there is no way of knowing this unless you revisit it. I’ll send an email to the editor to see if this is a feature than can be added.
I appreciate your words and can relate to the great feeling of validation. I’ll check your blog out and have a peek.
Take good care,
Derrick
I am quite new to Counselling Connect. I very much enjoy reading through others’ thoughts and perspectives, but find I, too, have been disappointed to see how few comments are left on others’ posts. There seems to be so much room for discussion and debate, and yet there is often silence!
Since starting to follow Counselling Connect, I’ve only left one or two comments of my own, despite often wanting to respond and discuss to many other posts. In thinking about it, I realized that my own hesitation in leaving comments is kind of akin to being first one to put up your hand in a classroom full of strangers.
What if I they think my question/comment is stupid?
What if there’s a reason no one else is commenting?
What if I missed something?
What if it’s ‘uncool’ to put my hand up (as it were) and say something?
…well, hopefully we’re now past thinking people are ‘cool’ versus ‘uncool’, but you get the picture. 🙂
I started my own counselling/therapy blog a little while back, but it’s still new and I have only a few readers. While I write mainly as a means of self-reflection, within the blogging world there’s just nothing that quite measures up to that feeling of seeing a notification that someone has commented on one of your posts. It’s validating and reassuring to know that you’ve been able to reach out to someone and that you’ve been heard.
While most of us have long since been out of the classroom, still as “grown up” professionals, I agree that we could all continue to benefit from a little more encouragement and peer support. : )