Jaime Castillo

My New Years Resolution this year is to finally make a New Years Resolution. In the past I’ve always balked at the idea of making a January list of potential goals for the New Year, but this year I’m going to do it. I figured I’ll make a resolution and have it focus on my growth as a counselor, and if you haven’t made a resolution yet, let’s do this together!

Trust. Trust your partner, Trust the process, Trust you reactions. In improv comedy “trust” is a word you hear about over, and over, and over again. This is because in improv, the scenes you see develop are built brick by brick between the individuals involved. Improv scenes are conversations, whether it be verbally with words, or non-verbally using physical actions; either way each person involved in a scene is directly affected by the other. You see if you and I begin to improvise a scene, we step out and are in a blank space until one of us somehow labels where we are, who we are, or what we are doing. Using words this is simple, I may say, “I’m so happy these ambulances have more storage on the inside than the ones over at General.” As my partner in this scene you are directly affected by this statement because now I’ve placed us BOTH inside a rather spacious ambulance. All you need to do is simply react in a truthful way to my statement to show your position and we are off and running.

I joined a gym right before Thanksgiving in an effort to be proactive with my annual holiday food consumption, and I try to make it there at least three times a week. If I’m lucky, I will wake up on the first alarm without hitting snooze, grab a banana, a glass of water and be on my way. On my walk to the gym I am putting together my workout, thinking about which muscle groups I will work, and how much time I plan to spend on the elliptical before calling it a day. After walking in the door and scanning my I.D. card, all of a sudden my mind goes blank as I stare at all the machines. There always seems to be endless possibilities at your fingertips as soon as soon as you walk into the gym. A wide array of machines are available that could make you stronger in many different ways, showing you that they are there options…other ways of reaching your goal. I wonder if I should try a new exercise I read in a magazine, or sit on that new machine that looks like a guillotine. Even with all the machines at my disposal, I decide to just stick to “the usual” workout routine. Those new machines intimidate and scare me.

When counseling individuals in the general population we are engaging in a luxurious world where our clients can present a number of issues to us through detailed stories and identify themes with our guidance. Clients are typically capable of understanding abstract concepts, and with support, they are able to take new skills rehearsed in therapy and apply them to various aspects of their lives. Clients in Counseling 101, right? But what happens when you are working with clients who do not have the cognitive ability to neither identify common themes, nor apply a new skill to different scenarios? What happens when you are working with someone who is diagnosed with Mental Retardation?

That first session...remember that? I was recently thinking back to the first client I saw as a professional, and how anxious yet excited I was. I remember getting little sleep the night before, skimming through my “old” grad school textbooks…. and by “old” I mean two months since taking the final. I also found myself browsing my practicum and internship notes attempting to gain some last minute insight or maybe even summon the ghosts of supervisors past to ease some jitters. What will I say to this client tomorrow? How will I respond? I was in my head, psyching myself out. I felt like I was cramming - but cramming for what I wondered? Tomorrow wasn’t an exam; it was a real client seeking guidance from a real counselor, me.