Baby Steps...Baby Steps...Baby Steps

I am very tired.

Some of this is due to the increase of medication that I have had to take due to my seasonal allergies, but I think most of the tired feeling is from frustrations and challenges at work.

That's right. Work is affecting everything that is going on in my life.

This isn't a big surprise to me, but it may be to a new professional out there. What happens at work can affect what happens at home and the opposite is also true. What happens at home can affect what happens at work. I cannot completely separate my work life from my other life - it is just not completely possible. Trying to deny the effect of work on my non-work hours just leads me to constant stuffing and avoidance behaviors - neither of which are good for me.

It is time for active solutions to this problem.

I cannot control how my clients react to what I present. All I can do is present my expectations and my requirements to them in a consistent manner each and every time. I will script my responses to the most typical client behaviors at this point.

I will engage in active self-care practices - more than usual - during this time. I will drink water. I will journal. I will sleep. I will cry if I need to cry.

I will offer help and direction to my co-workers as I can. I will try to model the responses that I want others to show to students when they are acting out. Folks are getting WAY too much attention for behaviors of concern than I think they should. I will be modeling all sorts of planned ignoring and limited interaction responses to behaviors of concern. I don't have the energy to yell or engage in fighting with seven year olds. I can stick to my expectations without having an increase in my risk. Many of my co-workers are new, so they don't have that sort of resilience built up yet. They are still very much in hyper-reactivity mode. 

I will ask for help.

I will survive until Break. We have three more days of therapy sessions before break comes. We have three days of planning and inservice time before break arrives. At this time next week, I will be preparing for an all-school event where I will have some sort of role but will not be planning or running any part of the event. It will be a day away from our regular routine. It will be the last day of my senior intern, so I have to get ready for graduation and all that. I will survive.

Baby steps towards my end goal of therapy sessions that are actually therapy sessions - not allowing my students to completely control what happens in our session.

Baby steps.


I think I need junk food for breakfast today.

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