Shari Brady

The past five months has flown by, and my intention to write a post once a month has zipped right past me as well. I must be honest. I sat down numerous times to write, but I was so focused on my internship, finishing my classes, taking the NCE exam, and completing my manuscript (which was due to my publisher in May), that I struggled to find the energy to reflect on what was happening in my life.

As I continue with my internship, my most recent challenge has been with a client who is progressing in the wrong direction, and I believe this is because she has been able to hide her addiction from me so well. This troubles me most because of her age, and I can’t help but wonder what else she’s hiding from me, but more importantly, what is she hiding from herself?

As the weeks progress and I work with various adolescent clients with a variety of issues, and then return home to my own adolescent children, I find myself completely immersed in the adolescent world.

The demands of my master’s program, internship, working on my book, and being a single mom kind of caught up with me. I’m not sure the magnitude yet of the ramifications of my stress and exhaustion, but the past few weeks have been testing my limits physically, emotionally and intellectually.

This past week I’ve been focused on utilizing Motivational Interviewing with my clients. Although the concept is straightforward, actually practicing the technique in sessions has been a learning curve for sure. Thinking quickly to be able to pick up on the client’s emotion, reflecting that emotion back to them, and then following that up with a statement of fact has been a challenge at times.