Glad your forum is still here!

Elysha,

I had bookmarked this and completely forgot about it. When I finally started going through the bookmarks, I was delighted to find it still going.

I've spent the last hour going through all the postings to bring myself up-to-date. It has been very thought provoking. It has also brought back memories of my struggles in my early years as a therapist. My own therapist helped me work through many of those issues.

In fact, my earliest training was in Transactional Analysis, even before I got to graduate school. Part of the training was working as a therapist in front of the training group with another group member as the client. The belief of my trainers was that if we got stuck with a client, it was highly likely that we had not worked through a similar issue. But there was no sense of being shamed - it was just acknowledged that working through your own stuff was part of the training process.

When I think of some of my fellow graduates who were let loose on the public with an MSW and no personal experience as a client, I shudder. However, it was inevitable when the stated view of some of the faculty was, "My dear, we are not in the business of training therapists." (actual quote) According to them, the best use of a social worker was in the provision of concrete services. For example:
Treatment Plan: Problem: client has no shoes. Plan: Get shoes for client. Some of that is important, but even in the provision of concrete services, you have to be aware of your behavior and how it could impact on the client.

Anyway, I am rambling on. Hope you are enjoying your vacation! Did you go to Sydney for the Olympics? or did you go as far as possible in a different direction to escape them?

G'nite!