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I have--
- A not horribly small office I am mostly done furnishing/decorating, with enough lamps that I can turn off the overhead fluorescents and a pretty good balance between adult-friendly and kid-friendly features.
- 15 active adult clients, with 5 adult intakes scheduled of whom probably two will show up and keep coming, based on the past couple weeks, and FIFTEEN MORE beautiful, wonderful, difficult child & adolescent clients scheduled to be transferred to me in 2 weeks when another clinician goes on maternity leave
- Artwork for the office walls on the way (probably mostly interesting to adults) as well as a big whiteboard (probably mostly for kids)
- Three groups I'm starting in two weeks: adolescent bereavement, adolescent coping skills, adult trauma support
- A supervisor I like, even if I don't see her quite enough
- All the help I ask for.
And lots of other things. I have a schedule that's not too bad, paperwork I'm getting the hang of, a co-newbie just across the hall from me with whom I have bonded and several congenial colleagues.
One of the best things I have is harder to articulate. Before this, when I've been tired or cranky or resentful or frustrated, I've often started coming in just a little late, or putting off paperwork just a little too long, feeling grudging about the authority figures who make me do it. But here, my supervisor will probably never know if I'm late or not - it's my client who will feel it if I'm not here and ready on time. And no one is paying that much attention to the paperwork I submit at this point, (although that will change with respect to the documents needed for billing), but it's my client who needs referrals completed, insurance re-authorization requests submitted, phone calls replied to. And that just yanks everything around to where it snaps into place. Suddenly, everything is in the right perspective, and I'm here early every day.
There is a lot of bad about working in a large clinic that's part of an enormous mental health provider corporation. Appointments are packed too close together, and sometimes corners are cut because someone is keeping their eye on the 'bottom line' i.e., profits. The corporation is impersonal, leaving it up to practitioners at my level to make it personal as best we can. Clients get assigned to a clinician, rather than getting to shop around and choose which clinician will suit them best. I get my clients chosen for me, rather than my being able to look over intake info and see which ones seem to need help I'm going to be able to provide. There aren't enough bilingual counselors. I don't yet have supervision which will count toward my license.
But I'm doing outpatient therapy in my own office with a low-income/underserved population, where I get support and have the skills and information I need to do good work with my clients. That's pretty damn exciting. I am pretty damn excited.
- A not horribly small office I am mostly done furnishing/decorating, with enough lamps that I can turn off the overhead fluorescents and a pretty good balance between adult-friendly and kid-friendly features.
- 15 active adult clients, with 5 adult intakes scheduled of whom probably two will show up and keep coming, based on the past couple weeks, and FIFTEEN MORE beautiful, wonderful, difficult child & adolescent clients scheduled to be transferred to me in 2 weeks when another clinician goes on maternity leave
- Artwork for the office walls on the way (probably mostly interesting to adults) as well as a big whiteboard (probably mostly for kids)
- Three groups I'm starting in two weeks: adolescent bereavement, adolescent coping skills, adult trauma support
- A supervisor I like, even if I don't see her quite enough
- All the help I ask for.
And lots of other things. I have a schedule that's not too bad, paperwork I'm getting the hang of, a co-newbie just across the hall from me with whom I have bonded and several congenial colleagues.
One of the best things I have is harder to articulate. Before this, when I've been tired or cranky or resentful or frustrated, I've often started coming in just a little late, or putting off paperwork just a little too long, feeling grudging about the authority figures who make me do it. But here, my supervisor will probably never know if I'm late or not - it's my client who will feel it if I'm not here and ready on time. And no one is paying that much attention to the paperwork I submit at this point, (although that will change with respect to the documents needed for billing), but it's my client who needs referrals completed, insurance re-authorization requests submitted, phone calls replied to. And that just yanks everything around to where it snaps into place. Suddenly, everything is in the right perspective, and I'm here early every day.
There is a lot of bad about working in a large clinic that's part of an enormous mental health provider corporation. Appointments are packed too close together, and sometimes corners are cut because someone is keeping their eye on the 'bottom line' i.e., profits. The corporation is impersonal, leaving it up to practitioners at my level to make it personal as best we can. Clients get assigned to a clinician, rather than getting to shop around and choose which clinician will suit them best. I get my clients chosen for me, rather than my being able to look over intake info and see which ones seem to need help I'm going to be able to provide. There aren't enough bilingual counselors. I don't yet have supervision which will count toward my license.
But I'm doing outpatient therapy in my own office with a low-income/underserved population, where I get support and have the skills and information I need to do good work with my clients. That's pretty damn exciting. I am pretty damn excited.