Folks don't often think about the stresses their counselors or therapists might feel as we do our work day in and day out of listening and sorting out other people's problems.  We are trained to 'track' the process of your unfolding in the therapeutic process,  we are following a path as it opens up to us;  we're not entirely sure what we'll find, but we know the path is there.

Some years back I wrote a blog called 'rightbrainrunner' which covered the period of time my elders (my aunt, my parents) were nearing- and then crossing to- their ends,  overlapping with my own struggle with depression and anxiety while working full-time as a County OP clinician and learning to become a long-distance runner.   The writing was cathartic- I've never hid my issues,  but juggle the need to remain private with judicious self-disclosure,  partly because I passionately believe in normalizing MH issues for all of us.  Running turned out to be the prescription I needed to cope with challenges not just with my family and personal life, but my professional life as a therapist as well.  No matter what pressures we feel as healing professionals,  we try to stay one step ahead of unraveling- after all,  we need to be there for our clients, our patients!  The old saying "teachers teach what they must learn" is never so true as for our community...most of us come to the field because of our MH challenges,  or because those close to us suffer from addictions, mood disorders, suicidal thoughts, paranoia  (political or other) etc.  We apply our training to endless hours of self-analysis,  perhaps undergo our own therapy,  uncover our own wounds,  just so we can learn to do it for someone else.  It's a peculiar set-up;  and its very personal.  No one hears such heart-wrenching and distressing material as a therapist on any typical work day.

Recently I moved from sunny, hot Florida to DC to take a job at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington- as of now,  I'm directing the Day Center (PHP/IOP- trauma-related program),  while morphing from Director of Expressive Therapy on the inpatient side.  PIW is an acute psychiatric, private pay hospital,  an old institution here in NW DC with a checkered reputation.  The Day Center has crashed and burned a few times, but we are resurrecting it from it's ashes, and are seeing folks come to our door who are hearing about us now....so I know- I am doing something right- I am feeling the "right time, right place-ness" of this 'mission' and I also know,  this entire paradigm change is tough- on me.

I've been thinking about this new blog for a long time now.  With midterm elections just days away,  it seems like a good time to start my writing practice again,  and be public about it,  to keep modeling what I hope for others is an honest and meaningful account of my own journey.  I invite your support and feedback,  and hope to help create a platform where the stigma of mental health issues, even for counselors,  can be openly explored.