On Being a Counselor

When I tell someone I am a Licensed Professional Counselor I usually get one of two reactions. From someone who has been in counseling before the response almost always is  ” I don’t know how you sit and listen to people’s problems all day long”.  From someone who has never been in counseling the response inevitably is “That’s got to be an easy job. All you do is listen to people talk”.  I even once heard “Why do you need a Masters Degree, just to talk to people?”.

Let me dispel those two myths. We don’t just hear peoples’ problems all day long and we don’t just talk to people. We work hard. Damn hard. It is definitely  the most exhausting job I ever had. It is the most challenging job I ever had. It is the most rewarding job I ever had.

Exhausting, because when you sit with a client, you are always “on”.  You can’t  think about what’s for dinner tonight or wonder how the drive home will be. You must listen to every single word because missing one word can change the entire meaning of what your client is trying to tell you. You have to watch for changes in body language. Any change can mean something. You have to listen to changes in tone, and pace, and content. Everything is important. You do this for at least 53 minutes for each client. That is a workout! Then you get just a couple of minutes to write a note, grab a snack, maybe pee, and greet your next client. Sometimes this happens ten or twelves times a day.

Challenging, because you never know what a session is going to bring. You can prepare for a session and the client arrives with something entirely different to discuss. You have to be able to think on your feet. The things you say and the advice you  give can have a profound impact on a client’s life and a client’s decisions. You need to be confident and you need to get it right.  You are focused on your client no matter what is going on in your own life. You are helping your client even when you aren’t physically well. There are days when you are just not feeling it but you need to perform anyway. There are days where you just want to say to a client. “I don’t know what to tell you”.  But, of course, you can’t.

Rewarding, because sometimes it just clicks and you know you are helping and your clients are doing amazing things. There are the times an anxious client tells you they were able to do something that fear held them back from before. Or a depressed client tells you that he was able to enjoy a beautiful spring Sunday. Or a couple, previously on the brink of divorce tells you they had a great date night, and a long conversation, and they are now confident about their future together. I could go on, but I am sure you get the point.

Being a counselor is a wonderful job. I am glad I chose this profession. Like any job, it has its good days and its bad days. Writing this made me realize that we should never make assumptions about anyone’s job, because until you have done it, you just don’t know.

No counseling for me this Friday. Today I can be “off”.