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A New Year to love!!!

1/4/2015

2 Comments

 
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Wow!  The exquisite Smokies are blue today.  You can see the mountains distinctly behind a gray, white background.  So serene and lovely.  Nature does help to establish balance in the human heart.  Sometimes I long for the Long Island breathtaking oceans.  I am a New Yorker to the core.  I love the high spirited no bullshit people.  We say what is on our mind and we deal with it.  This is my 7th Christmas here in Tennessee and I simply adore some of the people.  Kindred souls: loving, inquiring, standing up for the less fortunate, and passionate.  I have made friends here in the South that I know will be a life long bond.  The spirituality of many here in the Bible Belt make them strive to be really good people.  How I love them!

I have learned a lot through working in the South: some of it very good and some of it awful.  Jobs are not numerous and management treats people like garbage!  I have seen really good people ushered to the door without a moment's notice - their belongings in a box and out they go!  I had occasion to feel so insulted, I packed my belongings and did what management usually does -  Adios Amigo!  Find someone else to wipe your boots on because you will never do it on me!  I have taught empowerment for 20 years and I'm not about to lose my power to anyone!  Mutual respect or nothing.  It's a New York thing!  Some still think it is ok to treat people like slaves.  That doesn't go down well with  Yankees!!

So, I will do what I do best!!!  Work for myself!!  Now if you need help with addiction...go to the 12 step rooms.  Immerse yourself in AA/NA and don't come up for air.  You will get all you need for addiction there.  Rehabs and treatment are money making arenas that simply get you ready to do AA/NA.  Addiction treatment is there.  Period.  Those who say it isn't are making money peddling "recovery".  Not good.

Good therapy will seldom be paid for by insurance.  Years ago, in the age of psychoanalysis, people came to therapy 3 times a week!!!  The mind and emotions were explored and celebrated.  Insurance came in and said to practitioners "cure them in 20 visits."  Some yes, some no.  I have had people with good insurance and they have been granted sufficient sessions to heal, but often that is not the case.  I hate insurance in all its forms. I studied with a therapist who was leaving the insurance business and he said often, "insurance is evil."  Not sure about that but in medicine and behavioral health it is insufficient at times.

Peaceful Mountain Counseling will attempt to offer people support and healing the old fashioned way.  Anxiety, depression, confusion, adjustment, transition, relationship issues, are all suitable for psychotherapy.  Referral for short-term detox and non chemical addiction treatment can be discussed.  Codependency help is encouraged.  Lifestyle changes and life coaching to help people make career and relationship changes is available.

May I never have to work for anyone who wants me to be on the computer more than with my clients.  Why is is different now?  I'm 65 and have Medicare.  No more need to worry about health insurance.  It's a wonderful thing.  

Have faith that you can get where you need to be and don't follow any "guru" who tries to tell you he/she has the answer to your life.  

God bless!  Doreen

2 Comments
Kristina L Kirkland, MSSW
1/15/2015 01:42:26 pm

The times, they are a-changing! I'm so happy to hear that you are, at last, free from the atrocity called the Tennessee "system of care" and the social services climate that treats both clients and clinicians as expendable numbers and dollar signs. I thank God my mentors taught me the value of genuine compassion and empathy toward humanity. People's suffering and triumphs can't be contained in a thirty to forty-five minute session, with ten others waiting behind them. Nor can a person work through a lifetime of trauma in twenty evidence-based sessions. Where I work, the mounds of paperwork, slew of phone calls, and mountain of referrals aren't even figured into the time I'm expected to stay in the office, ticking off client "contacts" back to back nine hours a day. What a horrible injustice to those assigned to our care! Don't even get me started on the insurance companies I have to call to beg for justification for a client to continue in my program, with this justification provided by a remote voice on a telephone, a person who's never talked to my client. At times I have had to fight for one session at a time, and I have been told a client is "cured" because they weren't suicidal for two weeks straight. The madness is enough to get me branded as "that rogue social worker with a bad case of oppositional defiant disorder" by my supervisor. It's a moniker I'll gladly embrace. Why? Because new clients walk through my door and tell me, "I heard from such-and-such you know what you're doing." Frankly, I'll take an endorsement from my client over my employer any day of the week.

Though I claim my defiance of illegitimate authority as my own, I can can solidly attribute my keen sense of client-centered care and strong therapeutic skills to my mentors--the handful of women, with decades of experience, who took the time to shape me into the person and counselor I am today. I count you, Doreen, among those mentors.

I'm writing this response to your blog post because I got a phone call from UT a couple of weeks ago, stating they had an intern who needed a mid-year placement. I discovered you had been her clinical supervisor when I interviewed her last week. It's a tall order to fill your shoes! I hope I can pass on a tenth of the professional and personal wisdom you imparted to me in our time at Sisters of the Rainbow. Moreover, taking on the role of clinical supervisor myself means more to me than any employer-sponsored promotion ever will. I am, after all, the product of some of the most capable and compassionate counselors a person could be blessed enough to know. This opportunity to pass on my own clinical wisdom was a reminder that I needed to thank you for all that you do.

Happy New Year!

--Kristina L Kirkland, MSSW

Reply
Doreen Leo Huneke
1/16/2015 01:16:18 am

Dear Kristina! How absolutely wonderful to hear from you! I can only imagine the incredible work you are doing and my heart goes out to you with all the administrative BS!!! Yuck!!! You will get there sweet girl! In the meantime, you will have a lovely student to work with!! She is bright and helpful in every way!! My fondest regards to you and stay in touch!!! 865-850-9745!!!

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