It had been almost an half year since I last wrote on this blog. Graduate school had kept me busy for the semester before the last. Now I'm here in another state during my internship (last semester) before I could graduate this upcoming May. I'm pretty excited about the internship in somewhere I never had been before. You know me, I like to try different states that I had not been in the past. 17 states left to explore!
I have found some labyrinths around here, and I hope to continue studying the labyrinths to be used as therapy for the deaf community, since I feel the walking meditation can be a visual tool. Many deaf people use ASL, which is a visual language, and so I was thinking, "why not labyrinths?" So I am hoping to pursue this, by taking the facilitator training which is in March. I am also looking into taking Red Cross Mental Health Crisis Intervention training, (whew, what a mouthful/handful to say!)
I couldn't say much more than that since I'm starting to gather much privacy as I can for myself, more I become a therapist. There is a clear need to keep personal boundaries for deaf therapists; being visual advocates for the Deaf community, they also need to keep their private lives separate. It is quite confusing for friends to look at me and go "are you talking as a friend or a therapist?" or looking to me to see if I could help them and I wonder if they are seeing me as a friend or therapist? That's where dangers of boundaries show up, and that's when we need to become more aware. Drawing boundaries are not easy as I had experienced in previous jobs, but it is very possible to be clear where the lines are and expect respect for privacy.
2 comments:
Hi! Great to see you again!
You can continue being a friend, but don't let them use you as a therapist. Tell them not to mix the two hats. Your instincts will tell you if the boundaries are being crossed over.
Privacy.. you can chose to convert this blog to a professional blog like Candace and Sharon do, or make it a private blog, available only to friends. You can split it into two blogs, one for the public and one for the private.
Since the Deaf community is a very small one, the Deaf therapist is in a unique position. Going to deaf functions like Bingo night at the club, for example, becomes awkward when one realizes many people there are clients.
Avoide becoming too distant, because it narrows one's social circle, but build on professional relationships and non-client friendships as much as possible for the future.
In time, one will have close relationships with people who were once clients. How successful this is depends on your unique mix of characteristics and social connections. Good luck.
Post a Comment