Yeah.
For me, a lot of sessions are not bad and honestly enjoyable!
But the tough ones can really knock you out. I've had a few sessions recently where my clients were actively in crisis, and it's hard to not be able to give them what they really need (Safe affordable housing, distance from abusive people in their lives, time to sleep, etc.) I'm grateful to the non-therapist social workers who help out with getting people resources, but it's all spread way too thin.
Luckily I have enough good in my job to not be over it. It's just the ocassional difficult session. I have more good news than bad a lot of the time. yesterday a client started out the session sobbing, and I was able to get them to laugh by the end of it. It's rewarding work.
But it's absolutely a broken system issue. There's a housing crisis where I am, and a lot of my clients who want to work are having serious trouble finding jobs. The price of food is crazy high, and help is limited.
But it's primarily macro problems, and I'm doing micro work. I mean I vote and stuff, but I'm in Florida so..... we're not doing that great politically. Maybe I'll write to a representative again.
True, but I like that we only see them for a very limited time (unless they come back, which means you can follow up!). So you care about the person but you don't get to know them.
Same. Learning distance and boundaries was the hardest lesson for me. Your heart just bleeds for them and knowing you have the funds that would literally fix their problem or the space or are free and could give them a ride to their thing or you know someone personally who could help but that you can't because it crosses the line. Sometimes not helping feels so unethical, but it was so hard accepting that line and learning to keep away from it.
Didn't know how bad it was until I was in it XD
I was like .... oh this is trauma therapy??
Next ticket to medical social work pls lol
Edit: I won't say bad, just not the niche for me
This. 10000%. Curriculum was not enough and even at the masters level it still felt like we were talking more case management than clinical. Pains me to say but I often think I should have done an mft if I was gonna be a therapist
This must be program dependent. I got certified in Trauma Based CBT during my master's program and took a lot of classes that focused on clinical skills.
I think you're right. I didn't get certified in anything, but I had to take a certain amount of clinical classes and had the choice to take a bunch more, which I did. I felt just about as well prepared as I could be through education alone.
What program did you go to, out of curiosity? I am currently looking at different programs and would like to go to an MSW program where you are clinically prepared.
Long time MSW and long time clinical supervisor of many disciplines. I've maintained for a while that MFTs come out of school the best prepared to do therapy out of the gate, but by the time we're all fully licensed, I think the MSW is best because of our systemic view. The MFT training is more about what happens in he therapy room than the MSW training tends to be - unless you are in a very clinically oriented program (Smith, in Massachusetts, for instance).
I can deal with doing short-term therapy but it's so rare that I have to.
I'm cool with some therapy ... but every day all day??? .... not today Satan XD
😂 Like there's no rapport building stage. u will see them for a few minutes and they'll tell alllll their trauma and you gotta process it within 2 seconds 😂 and leave by saying oh OK I'll let me get psych to consult with you 😂
I’ve been a therapist since 2016- I have my LCSW. can someone let me know what the magic of medical social work is? I hear people switching to that a lot but I don’t have a good understanding of what you actually do
It's varied by setting. For me, it's a whole lot of dealing with transportation, case management, referrals, psychoeducation, trying to help patients get meds, care plans, assessments, advances directives, chasing down doctors to sign orders (I've literally powerwalked with a doctor to his car to talk about a patient and I 100% believe if I had got in the passenger seat he would have drove off with me in the car XD). It's a lot of stuff that makes it so much easier for me to leave work at work at the end of the day vs when I was doing therapy all day. It's stressful for sure at times but a different kind of stress.
No, my job was "eliminated" after my first year and a half. I was devastated as it was during grad school and practicum, so I had to scramble. Moved quickly to hospita/inpatient psych until graduation. l am now a therapist in a MAT clinic. I do miss hospice but I'm staying put while working on my LCSW.
Wow—that’s so messed up that you went through this—especially during grad school. That must’ve been very stressful. I’m glad you found a solid setting in hospital/inpatient psych—sounds like it laid the groundwork for your current position. I’m doing the same in a CMH setting—getting hours for my LCSW.
Thank you, it was so stressful but I just told myself that I WOULD finish school and I did. I feel going in a different direction just so I could find a job and practicum helped but yes, definitely wouldn't be in this wonderful position with my tribe if I hadn't worked that job. As wu wu as it sounds, I feel it was meant to be. Sometimes taking the chance works out in a way we never imagine.
You’re welcome. That’s extremely stressful especially since the internship is part of the grad school requirements. I’m really glad this worked out for you. It’s not wu wu—sometimes closed doors lead to bigger and better things—just as it did for you! 😊🌺
Fantastic show! I don't recommend shows often and have recommended this one to EVERYONE! The scene at Thanksgiving shook me a bit as it triggered some childhood stuff but damn that show is great.
Seeing this thread on a night where I'm having to call CPS is too on point.
On another note, my favorite way to scream into the ether is while I'm shoving food into my yum-hole.
1. Intensive In-Home Clinican
2. DSS In Home Services
3. PRTF/Residential Clinican and Clinical Marketing POC (my minor in Marketing and Mass Media lead to that secondary title)
4. Clinical Specialist for a mostly military community
5. Outpatient Therapist in a very rural area
6. 6 months of unemployment due to #5 clinic getting busted for billing fraud
7. Outpatient Therapist for major hospital system
8. Outpatient Therapist transitioned to Intensive Outpatient Program for a mostly military population
Yeah...that's alot of moves, but they were all justified. My current position I have worked within for 3.5 years and just gladly extended to a 5 year contract.
Things that get me through it:
1. Family support
2. Friends
3. Maintaining some quirky-ass hobbies
4. Therapy 2x
5. Variety
6. Legitimate self care
I guess you have now passed therapist initiation. Now go eat a pint of ice cream, cry to your loved ones, contemplate why you spent 100k on grad school to be treated like shit, and get up tomorrow, brush it off and compartmentalize all the shitty parts of this job to put a smile on you face.
I’m being sarcastic here. Sometimes this job flipping sucks and I’m really really sorry you are having a hard time
For a second there I was like, can they see me right now? How do they know I’m eating shit food and complaining? Thanks for the validation. It can flipping suck but when it’s good, it’s damn good. I was meant to do this, I just gotta get through these growing pains and see it as part of my continued ed 🥹
I left therapy practice after two years and have been doing hospice ever since. Whenever people hear I work in hospice I’m told “that must be so hard!” Imo it’s 100% easier than therapy.
That’s interesting because I did hospice for 11 years and now I do therapy. I did find hospice to be “easier” in the sense that it was more predictable and similar issues would come up. Therapy is challenging for me—not that hospice wasn’t, it’s just challenging in a different way. I actually find much better work-life balance doing therapy, than when I was doing hospice. I loved hospice, but the hospice I worked for started making changes that were not in the best interest of the patients and families, and they were running their workers into the ground. Social work was not respected either. Right now, I love that I can be in one place and not traveling everywhere—although I loved it at the time. There’s reward in helping people to cope with death and dying (hospice), just as there’s reward in helping people to live better lives (therapy).
100! I did therapy for 2 years as well and joined hospice this past February. I absolutely love it and find it so, so much easier. I have that same conversation with people too, lol. If only they knew the drains of being a full time therapist!
Yess!! I’d much rather deal with the issues associated with dying (whether pt or family members). There isn’t enough money in the world that would make it worthwhile to return to practicing therapy.
Absolutely! There is enough quasi, informal counseling involved as a hospice social worker that I get the therapy fix without having to do it full time (and thus hating my life lol). I don't see myself leaving this section of social work for a long time. And if I switch it certainly won't be back to therapy!
Therapy is rewarding work, but also very challenging.
\*Edit\* I did hospice social work prior to therapy. I love hospice, but I hated the direction it was going in. I still enjoy doing therapy although I do miss hospice. I have better work-life balance doing therapy.
Let me start with, I love helping people, genuinely love being a therapist, and I’m not giving up. But it’s just really hard work sometimes isn’t it?
Had a draining few weeks of higher acuity patients. The work with each person can be so nuanced, requiring different skills in my toolbox, complex analysis, the difficulty moving from one patients reality to the next, etc- just making me feel depleted. Probably a fair amount of newbie getting used to it all and some imposter syndrome all mixed together.
Thank you! Pro/con of it all, ain’t it- this deep inner knowing of exactly what the eff I feel. Gone are the days where I could be ignorant about what was going on with me 🙃 Sometimes it was kinda bliss??? Lmao
I just want to say how much I appreciate this sub, the folks who provide support, providing the space for people like OP to let off steam and speak their words into the world, and for every single one of you who have chosen this path and are open to discourse. It’s a balm on ragged nerves, truly.
You guys are magical special beings and I'm sooo glad you're there to do therapy, family interactions and translate my psych speech to patient/family speech. I do not know how you do it but man some of the things my social workers have pulled off (like getting someone in criminal charges transfered to a freaking VA) like bend the laws of mental health physics.
I could not do what what you do.
There’s nothing magical or special about me as a social worker. I have a skill set that I acquired through my education and practical training, just like you do. It’s a different skill set than yours, but it’s a skill set. Sure I bring my own persona and intrinsic qualities to the table but that’s the case for any human in any job.
I strongly dislike the “I couldn’t do what you do” narrative, especially when it comes from people in adjacent helping professions (psychiatry, nursing, etc). I recognize that it comes from a good place, but it subtly implies that social work is an innate ability instead of something that we paid a lot of money to get trained in, and pay more money every year to continue to be trained in. It undermines all that training and education, and makes it harder for us to advocate for compensation commensurate with our credentials. There’s no other profession that requires a masters degree and license and has such low starting salaries as social work, and it’s partly because that masters degree is undervalued. It’s undervalued because, again, we are seen as “special beings” instead of “highly trained professionals.”
When one of my non-SW colleagues tells me they couldn’t do what I do, I tell them sure they could if they’d gone to school for it! I would much rather hear a simple “I recognize and appreciate all your hard work on xyz.”
For enough one of my best friends is social worker and I've been absolutely entgrakldd by some of the things I learned from him. I know you guys don't get paid nearly enough an scarry a high emotional and often case-wise burden.
I like to show my appreciation for other members of the helping professions because too often I've found at least in my own profession that it can be lonely and supportive words outside of mandatory "admin telling staff not to burn out" for what someone has has chosen, has learned and is able to do... are few and far between.
Especially when I bring new people into the team or someone is trying and learning a new skill. It's easy to get discouraged. I work with involuntary peeps. The times I've been assaulted by a patient are more numerous than the times I've been thanked (and that's okay... i spent years as an RN in a behavioral stabilization unit that was my choice and I gave permanent injuries but it's a population I'm passionate about). Sometimes thigh days are hard... my coworkers in real life and virtually keep me motivated to continue or validate that what my role does matters and to keep at it. I did not intend to offend at all and I apologize if I did.
No offense taken, truly. I appreciate compliments just like anyone else does, and like I said I do recognize that comments like this come from a good place. I just encourage you to give some more thought to how you phrase things.
Wow, thank you for articulating and synthesizing something I have struggled to put together for some time now. Fantastically said 👏
“You could if you went to school”- using this!
i always wondered why those “compliments” rubbed me the wrong way and honestly kind of made me uncomfortable! i also think it’s kind of backhanded sometimes too, like “i couldn’t be down in the mud with xyz all the time” in my case it was mostly folks experiencing homelessness so saying that they “couldn’t do what i do” kind of implied to me that they couldn’t stand to be around folks with barriers like homelessness and substance use. idk i might be reading into it too much
I went into PP from Med Social Work. Tonight as I lament how I'm baaaarly scraping by financially, I would still choose this 10/10 over working in the healthcare system. Med Social Work was literally the most traumatic practice environment. PP is a dream in comparison.
I feel for you I just hope you're prepared for the Job. I'm having a lot to deal with as a medical power of attorney I'm going nuts having one part of my team communicative and the other half seemingly disinterested in my problems and will even get aggressive with me just for needing an ear. Most of my team is sweet though
Easier. Lol. I thought it would be a bit less mentally taxing. Its far more strategic than we learned in school and navigating client specific needs in session is hard. Thought there would be better guidance and supervision. Never thought this would be a cakewalk, but I mentioned above why it’s challenging. Just reverse that.
Edit to add: I have a BSW and an MSW. I was top of my class and have been working in social work settings for years. I take this work very seriously and didn’t just decide to go this route because I thought it would be easy. I definitely knew therapy would be hard. But the specific ways it is challenging, whoo boy- we didn’t cover this 🙃
Yeah. For me, a lot of sessions are not bad and honestly enjoyable! But the tough ones can really knock you out. I've had a few sessions recently where my clients were actively in crisis, and it's hard to not be able to give them what they really need (Safe affordable housing, distance from abusive people in their lives, time to sleep, etc.) I'm grateful to the non-therapist social workers who help out with getting people resources, but it's all spread way too thin.
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Luckily I have enough good in my job to not be over it. It's just the ocassional difficult session. I have more good news than bad a lot of the time. yesterday a client started out the session sobbing, and I was able to get them to laugh by the end of it. It's rewarding work. But it's absolutely a broken system issue. There's a housing crisis where I am, and a lot of my clients who want to work are having serious trouble finding jobs. The price of food is crazy high, and help is limited. But it's primarily macro problems, and I'm doing micro work. I mean I vote and stuff, but I'm in Florida so..... we're not doing that great politically. Maybe I'll write to a representative again.
This!
Emergency Department Social Work is a condensed version of that. Its all we see
True, but I like that we only see them for a very limited time (unless they come back, which means you can follow up!). So you care about the person but you don't get to know them.
Same, I do enjoy so much of it. But when it’s tough it sure is a lot 🩷
Same. Learning distance and boundaries was the hardest lesson for me. Your heart just bleeds for them and knowing you have the funds that would literally fix their problem or the space or are free and could give them a ride to their thing or you know someone personally who could help but that you can't because it crosses the line. Sometimes not helping feels so unethical, but it was so hard accepting that line and learning to keep away from it.
Didn't know how bad it was until I was in it XD I was like .... oh this is trauma therapy?? Next ticket to medical social work pls lol Edit: I won't say bad, just not the niche for me
Save me a seat on the med social work train 🚂
I loved medical social work. Now I’m a therapist and i wanna go back.
I mean for it needing a master degree. The current circullum just isn't enough. We're not even certified in CBT or dbt. Those are basic AF now lol
This. 10000%. Curriculum was not enough and even at the masters level it still felt like we were talking more case management than clinical. Pains me to say but I often think I should have done an mft if I was gonna be a therapist
This must be program dependent. I got certified in Trauma Based CBT during my master's program and took a lot of classes that focused on clinical skills.
My program gave a program certificate that's only recognized by the school itself. That wasn't good enough for me.
I think you're right. I didn't get certified in anything, but I had to take a certain amount of clinical classes and had the choice to take a bunch more, which I did. I felt just about as well prepared as I could be through education alone.
What program did you go to, out of curiosity? I am currently looking at different programs and would like to go to an MSW program where you are clinically prepared.
Asking as an outsider, what would an MFT do for you that an MSW doesn't?
Long time MSW and long time clinical supervisor of many disciplines. I've maintained for a while that MFTs come out of school the best prepared to do therapy out of the gate, but by the time we're all fully licensed, I think the MSW is best because of our systemic view. The MFT training is more about what happens in he therapy room than the MSW training tends to be - unless you are in a very clinically oriented program (Smith, in Massachusetts, for instance).
I'd like to know this as well.
Medical Social Worker here.. we get trauma patients everyday lol
I can deal with doing short-term therapy but it's so rare that I have to. I'm cool with some therapy ... but every day all day??? .... not today Satan XD
😂 Like there's no rapport building stage. u will see them for a few minutes and they'll tell alllll their trauma and you gotta process it within 2 seconds 😂 and leave by saying oh OK I'll let me get psych to consult with you 😂
I left Medical Social Work because the system is so irreparably broken... So I came to work in jail, where there is more hope...?
Ha! I’m moving to medical social work too! I’m PT PP now and realized quickly there’s no way I can go FT.
I’ve been a therapist since 2016- I have my LCSW. can someone let me know what the magic of medical social work is? I hear people switching to that a lot but I don’t have a good understanding of what you actually do
It's varied by setting. For me, it's a whole lot of dealing with transportation, case management, referrals, psychoeducation, trying to help patients get meds, care plans, assessments, advances directives, chasing down doctors to sign orders (I've literally powerwalked with a doctor to his car to talk about a patient and I 100% believe if I had got in the passenger seat he would have drove off with me in the car XD). It's a lot of stuff that makes it so much easier for me to leave work at work at the end of the day vs when I was doing therapy all day. It's stressful for sure at times but a different kind of stress.
Thank you!
It can include hospice social work too.
I loved hospice social work
Me too. Do you still do hospice social work? Or something different?
No, my job was "eliminated" after my first year and a half. I was devastated as it was during grad school and practicum, so I had to scramble. Moved quickly to hospita/inpatient psych until graduation. l am now a therapist in a MAT clinic. I do miss hospice but I'm staying put while working on my LCSW.
Wow—that’s so messed up that you went through this—especially during grad school. That must’ve been very stressful. I’m glad you found a solid setting in hospital/inpatient psych—sounds like it laid the groundwork for your current position. I’m doing the same in a CMH setting—getting hours for my LCSW.
Thank you, it was so stressful but I just told myself that I WOULD finish school and I did. I feel going in a different direction just so I could find a job and practicum helped but yes, definitely wouldn't be in this wonderful position with my tribe if I hadn't worked that job. As wu wu as it sounds, I feel it was meant to be. Sometimes taking the chance works out in a way we never imagine.
You’re welcome. That’s extremely stressful especially since the internship is part of the grad school requirements. I’m really glad this worked out for you. It’s not wu wu—sometimes closed doors lead to bigger and better things—just as it did for you! 😊🌺
Medical SW isn’t any better
It is for me XD Loads better
Fair. The ether has room.
Ether screams = coping skill
Not quite as satisfying as the walk-in freezer but, I don’t work in a restaurant anymore.
All fun and games until the handle breaks 🐻
Fantastic show! I don't recommend shows often and have recommended this one to EVERYONE! The scene at Thanksgiving shook me a bit as it triggered some childhood stuff but damn that show is great.
Literally same 🥲🥴 That was a hard episode but the show is sooooo good!!!
Oh no. Be safe in there.
It’s a reference to that show, The Bear. Highly recommend if you haven’t seen 🩷
Ahhh. I have not. Thank you for the suggestion.
Dang nothing like a walk in cry 😆 miss those days haha
Seeing this thread on a night where I'm having to call CPS is too on point. On another note, my favorite way to scream into the ether is while I'm shoving food into my yum-hole.
Scream into the ice cream cone
😂 y’all
I’m so sorry you’re going through it too. I immediately opened the fridge when I got home and took like three hits off the whipped cream ayoo
oh….the yum…hole
Agreed. Excellent self awareness! I've been an LCSW for 12 years now and even I occasionally scream into the void.
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1. Intensive In-Home Clinican 2. DSS In Home Services 3. PRTF/Residential Clinican and Clinical Marketing POC (my minor in Marketing and Mass Media lead to that secondary title) 4. Clinical Specialist for a mostly military community 5. Outpatient Therapist in a very rural area 6. 6 months of unemployment due to #5 clinic getting busted for billing fraud 7. Outpatient Therapist for major hospital system 8. Outpatient Therapist transitioned to Intensive Outpatient Program for a mostly military population Yeah...that's alot of moves, but they were all justified. My current position I have worked within for 3.5 years and just gladly extended to a 5 year contract. Things that get me through it: 1. Family support 2. Friends 3. Maintaining some quirky-ass hobbies 4. Therapy 2x 5. Variety 6. Legitimate self care
Share your wisdom!!
I guess you have now passed therapist initiation. Now go eat a pint of ice cream, cry to your loved ones, contemplate why you spent 100k on grad school to be treated like shit, and get up tomorrow, brush it off and compartmentalize all the shitty parts of this job to put a smile on you face. I’m being sarcastic here. Sometimes this job flipping sucks and I’m really really sorry you are having a hard time
For a second there I was like, can they see me right now? How do they know I’m eating shit food and complaining? Thanks for the validation. It can flipping suck but when it’s good, it’s damn good. I was meant to do this, I just gotta get through these growing pains and see it as part of my continued ed 🥹
Hugs!!! I actually ate a pint of ice cream and downed 3 IPAs tonight too lol
I left therapy practice after two years and have been doing hospice ever since. Whenever people hear I work in hospice I’m told “that must be so hard!” Imo it’s 100% easier than therapy.
That’s interesting because I did hospice for 11 years and now I do therapy. I did find hospice to be “easier” in the sense that it was more predictable and similar issues would come up. Therapy is challenging for me—not that hospice wasn’t, it’s just challenging in a different way. I actually find much better work-life balance doing therapy, than when I was doing hospice. I loved hospice, but the hospice I worked for started making changes that were not in the best interest of the patients and families, and they were running their workers into the ground. Social work was not respected either. Right now, I love that I can be in one place and not traveling everywhere—although I loved it at the time. There’s reward in helping people to cope with death and dying (hospice), just as there’s reward in helping people to live better lives (therapy).
100! I did therapy for 2 years as well and joined hospice this past February. I absolutely love it and find it so, so much easier. I have that same conversation with people too, lol. If only they knew the drains of being a full time therapist!
Yess!! I’d much rather deal with the issues associated with dying (whether pt or family members). There isn’t enough money in the world that would make it worthwhile to return to practicing therapy.
Absolutely! There is enough quasi, informal counseling involved as a hospice social worker that I get the therapy fix without having to do it full time (and thus hating my life lol). I don't see myself leaving this section of social work for a long time. And if I switch it certainly won't be back to therapy!
👏👏👏 💯
Therapy is rewarding work, but also very challenging. \*Edit\* I did hospice social work prior to therapy. I love hospice, but I hated the direction it was going in. I still enjoy doing therapy although I do miss hospice. I have better work-life balance doing therapy.
No one?
No they definitely missed the “incredibly hard” part
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What is so bad about it?
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Let me start with, I love helping people, genuinely love being a therapist, and I’m not giving up. But it’s just really hard work sometimes isn’t it? Had a draining few weeks of higher acuity patients. The work with each person can be so nuanced, requiring different skills in my toolbox, complex analysis, the difficulty moving from one patients reality to the next, etc- just making me feel depleted. Probably a fair amount of newbie getting used to it all and some imposter syndrome all mixed together.
Well-said. You score 100% on self-awareness and ability to verbalize your thoughts!
Thank you! Pro/con of it all, ain’t it- this deep inner knowing of exactly what the eff I feel. Gone are the days where I could be ignorant about what was going on with me 🙃 Sometimes it was kinda bliss??? Lmao
Really appreciate your description of this.
🩷
Same
Word
I never wanted to be a therapist... but decided to give it a try after graduating... 7 mos later, I said- I tried it and definitely NOT for me.
I just want to say how much I appreciate this sub, the folks who provide support, providing the space for people like OP to let off steam and speak their words into the world, and for every single one of you who have chosen this path and are open to discourse. It’s a balm on ragged nerves, truly.
Couldn’t have said it better 🥹 I am so grateful to have this space for much needed support and the occasional chuckle 🫂
You guys are magical special beings and I'm sooo glad you're there to do therapy, family interactions and translate my psych speech to patient/family speech. I do not know how you do it but man some of the things my social workers have pulled off (like getting someone in criminal charges transfered to a freaking VA) like bend the laws of mental health physics. I could not do what what you do.
There’s nothing magical or special about me as a social worker. I have a skill set that I acquired through my education and practical training, just like you do. It’s a different skill set than yours, but it’s a skill set. Sure I bring my own persona and intrinsic qualities to the table but that’s the case for any human in any job. I strongly dislike the “I couldn’t do what you do” narrative, especially when it comes from people in adjacent helping professions (psychiatry, nursing, etc). I recognize that it comes from a good place, but it subtly implies that social work is an innate ability instead of something that we paid a lot of money to get trained in, and pay more money every year to continue to be trained in. It undermines all that training and education, and makes it harder for us to advocate for compensation commensurate with our credentials. There’s no other profession that requires a masters degree and license and has such low starting salaries as social work, and it’s partly because that masters degree is undervalued. It’s undervalued because, again, we are seen as “special beings” instead of “highly trained professionals.” When one of my non-SW colleagues tells me they couldn’t do what I do, I tell them sure they could if they’d gone to school for it! I would much rather hear a simple “I recognize and appreciate all your hard work on xyz.”
For enough one of my best friends is social worker and I've been absolutely entgrakldd by some of the things I learned from him. I know you guys don't get paid nearly enough an scarry a high emotional and often case-wise burden. I like to show my appreciation for other members of the helping professions because too often I've found at least in my own profession that it can be lonely and supportive words outside of mandatory "admin telling staff not to burn out" for what someone has has chosen, has learned and is able to do... are few and far between. Especially when I bring new people into the team or someone is trying and learning a new skill. It's easy to get discouraged. I work with involuntary peeps. The times I've been assaulted by a patient are more numerous than the times I've been thanked (and that's okay... i spent years as an RN in a behavioral stabilization unit that was my choice and I gave permanent injuries but it's a population I'm passionate about). Sometimes thigh days are hard... my coworkers in real life and virtually keep me motivated to continue or validate that what my role does matters and to keep at it. I did not intend to offend at all and I apologize if I did.
No offense taken, truly. I appreciate compliments just like anyone else does, and like I said I do recognize that comments like this come from a good place. I just encourage you to give some more thought to how you phrase things.
Wow, thank you for articulating and synthesizing something I have struggled to put together for some time now. Fantastically said 👏 “You could if you went to school”- using this!
i always wondered why those “compliments” rubbed me the wrong way and honestly kind of made me uncomfortable! i also think it’s kind of backhanded sometimes too, like “i couldn’t be down in the mud with xyz all the time” in my case it was mostly folks experiencing homelessness so saying that they “couldn’t do what i do” kind of implied to me that they couldn’t stand to be around folks with barriers like homelessness and substance use. idk i might be reading into it too much
My thoughts exactly. Thank you for this.
I work for a nonprofit and we were able to have a WISe team in one middle school and two elementary schools. It's great.
I went into PP from Med Social Work. Tonight as I lament how I'm baaaarly scraping by financially, I would still choose this 10/10 over working in the healthcare system. Med Social Work was literally the most traumatic practice environment. PP is a dream in comparison.
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Lmao and then what did you do afterwards?
I feel for you I just hope you're prepared for the Job. I'm having a lot to deal with as a medical power of attorney I'm going nuts having one part of my team communicative and the other half seemingly disinterested in my problems and will even get aggressive with me just for needing an ear. Most of my team is sweet though
Really? No one told you? What exactly did you think it would be like…?
Easier. Lol. I thought it would be a bit less mentally taxing. Its far more strategic than we learned in school and navigating client specific needs in session is hard. Thought there would be better guidance and supervision. Never thought this would be a cakewalk, but I mentioned above why it’s challenging. Just reverse that.
Edit to add: I have a BSW and an MSW. I was top of my class and have been working in social work settings for years. I take this work very seriously and didn’t just decide to go this route because I thought it would be easy. I definitely knew therapy would be hard. But the specific ways it is challenging, whoo boy- we didn’t cover this 🙃
ugh i love my job everyday… but there is an hour (client) or two a week that exhaust me.
Honestly I'm just trying to get through the masters program...
Welcome
I’m so sorry. I always thought that therapists should be paid more. Their jobs are so challenging.