Kim Beck

I have a married couple who are in the process of deciding if they want to work to keep their marriage going or if they want to get a divorce. Trust in this couple is poor, both have accused each other of cheating, and neither can trust the other around members of the opposite sex. I began working with this couple about 3 weeks ago and believe they should remain married but change the way their marriage is working.

I am always reminded of the time I worked at the inpatient child/adolescent psychiatric hospital unit. I was a mental health associated and it's where I got my first hand experience in working with difficult situations. The unit had the joke of calling the kids the "worst of the worst". We had one girl come in who looked bad, smelled bad, had extremely bad acne and just was one of those patients that people tended to avoid because everything about her was "bad". I noticed her counselor spent very little time with her and gave her minimal attention, even walking through the halls. I thought that's probably what she deals with day to day outside of the hospital too.

I have a mother who brought her 8-year-old in for counseling due to her excessive acting out and anger outbursts. She is taking her anger out on her little brother and baby sister. Both physically and verbally. The mom said it is escalating and anytime she asks the child why she is so angry the child will not tell her. She has been saying she hates her family and she hates her life and throwing things and breaking things. During her first session of the diagnostic assessment it was evident this child had severe issues. She was hurting her brother, yelling about her baby sister crying and running around the tiny office, she was redirected several times and the rules of the office were explained to her through the voice of a puppet. She calmed down and wanted to play with the puppets as mom and I completed the assessment.

In October, 2010 in Akron Ohio I had the great pleasure of presenting to the self-injury group and working closely with the girls in the group. The term self-injury was used no matter what the method of self-injury the girls used, because the girls found the exact terms such as cutter or burner etc. was too triggering. They were still actively involved in self-injury and were looking for ways to deter themselves from self-injury and help them cope with overwhelming feelings.

At the beginning of the year I became a casualty of the massive layoffs and firings of the organization I worked for. I was devastated because I loved the adolescents I worked with. I was at a loss, I immediately began sending out resumes, networking as much as I could and stayed as a member of the committees for Chi Sigma Iota (Eta chapter), Eastern Ohio Counselor Association, Association for Creativity in counseling a branch of ACA. Keeping involved in these committees helped me stay on top of the counseling world and kept me going during the rough times, no agencies were hiring because of the layoffs going on, the funding for counseling agencies in this area is poor. I went to so many interviews but most of them were concerned that I will want to leave the position once I got my doctorate next year and wouldn't even give me a chance. This went on for 7 months.