Long day at work today. Started it off with a session with a parent who is deeply grieving her child's disability diagnosis. I've been able to be a strong support for her but as our time is drawing to a close I'm realizing how she is just beginning a lifelong journey. Making meaning of a life she never intended and one she still doesn't accept.
Later that day I ended up blowing off a new client's appointment. I had scheduled it over email and forgot to write it in my planner. So embarrassing and a tough way to start with a family. ugh! I'm still getting the hang of keeping all of the little details straight. On the other hand this is the first time since I began working in Nov. that this happened.
Then I ended up doing some coaching of a co-worker. The agency follows a parent coaching model where we utilize consultation with co-workers of different disciplines. I've had a few run-ins with this person who has very strong and often biased/judgmental approach to families. It feels like she's steamrolling all of the time. My skin often bristles when I talk to her! I spent 45 min preparing and getting into a frame of mind where I could enter into a coaching conversation with her. Overall it went well and I was able to stay in control and not react to her comments. Man, but was it ever draining!! It feels like a huge task to be one of two social workers in the entire early intervention agency. I miss the camaraderie of knowing that I had allies and people who shared similar orientations with me. In supervision yesterday I described feeling like I was functioning without a limb, as a result of not having co-workers to process and reflect with on a regular basis.
1 comment:
Good for you for keeping your composure. Not so sure I would have been able to :-)
How is it going building a support system beyond Matt and Moe out there? I bet that would be really helpful for keeping the stress down and regaining that limb, even if they aren't co-workers.
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