My forays into receiving mental health counseling have been not great. The counseling I could afford meant that I kept losing therapists on a regular basis as they were doing this as a side hustle and left when they could no longer juggle the second job or they got a better first job and didn't want to keep the second one. I don't blame them, but boy, it's tough to be on the receiving end of the revolving door of care.
It's hard enough to show up at a therapist's office the first time when you grow up being told that Christians don't have problems and "Jesus (or the Bible) is all you need." You shakily begin to tell your story and at the next session, your therapist says, "I'm leaving this job." So, you have to start all over again. This happened to me three times, and I had to drive an hour to get to the therapist's office each time there was a change at different locations.
Joan, I've had very similar experiences myself and with loved ones. Simple counseling is so many hoops to jump through for people already struggling with basic daily tasks. And establishing rapport with a therapist takes so much time. Not to mention how it takes to get a diagnosis and the right medication, too.
My forays into receiving mental health counseling have been not great. The counseling I could afford meant that I kept losing therapists on a regular basis as they were doing this as a side hustle and left when they could no longer juggle the second job or they got a better first job and didn't want to keep the second one. I don't blame them, but boy, it's tough to be on the receiving end of the revolving door of care.
It's hard enough to show up at a therapist's office the first time when you grow up being told that Christians don't have problems and "Jesus (or the Bible) is all you need." You shakily begin to tell your story and at the next session, your therapist says, "I'm leaving this job." So, you have to start all over again. This happened to me three times, and I had to drive an hour to get to the therapist's office each time there was a change at different locations.
Joan, I've had very similar experiences myself and with loved ones. Simple counseling is so many hoops to jump through for people already struggling with basic daily tasks. And establishing rapport with a therapist takes so much time. Not to mention how it takes to get a diagnosis and the right medication, too.
There are too many Rians around us, and we're losing far too many. Thank you for sharing her story, Kali.
And thank you for this note, Mary Jo!