Amy Rosechandler

Counseling Today's March 2016 issue explored different figures that inspire counselors in their present work. Figures such as Carl Rogers, Victor Frankl, and Gandhi were named. The article validated my belief that inspiration for counseling work can come in many forms. Someone once told me "it takes all kinds of people to make a world", and it stuck. In the world of Counseling, we are lucky to explore the things and talk about the people that help us make meaning of life.

This weekend I attended the New York Mental Health Counselor's Association Convention in Albany, NY. I immediately connected with the warmth in my colleague's faces and felt welcomed. Looking at the day’s schedule, each presentation seemed intriguing. Each topic promised to teach me something. I registered for the conference hoping to learn new skills and feel refreshed.

We live in a culture that marginalizes men's sadness. Working with men in counseling, I find my clients often have no place to go to feel safe expressing their emotions. By the time some men reach my office, they've been holding onto sorrow for years, running from it and drowning it out with alcohol, drugs or anger.

My client walks into the session, thudding her heavy backpack on the floor next to the therapy chair. She shifts uncomfortably, not really knowing where to start today. Like many students at the technology institute where I do much of my work, emotion words are like a foreign tongue.

Ever have a great massage? The way I feel after a massage-whew! My body feels at peace, restored. The trouble is after a massage, no matter how relaxed my body feels, if my mind isn't the same, it's hard for that feeling to last. I’ve been known to say that fancy spas should hire mental health counselors.