Support

I started my new internship/volunteer position this week and it has been an interesting experience! One thing that I feel is so great is the supportive professional environment that seems to exist among the staff.

In the morning staff meeting one day this week a person said she wanted to check in about a client. She said the client came to her group the day before and spoke a lot in group about really personal things. This client had just come out of more intensive treatment where it was encouraged to really delve deeply, so the client may have been "opened up" (per se) from the time spent there. The client then began to cry, left the group, and said that he/she would never return to treatment at this organization. The staff member said she wanted to know if anyone had heard from this client and if he/she is doing okay.

The amazing part of this that I saw was that not only did the staff assure her that the client is okay and came back, but the staff recognized that this person needed some support around what occurred in group. She was asking if she had made a mistake, if maybe she should have known this person just came back from treatment and should have sat out of group until he/she had time to settle. And the staff was supportive of her decision to have this person in the group, that there was no way she could have really known what the client was bringing to group that day, and that if he/she hadn't had that experience then his case workers may not have known about how this person reacts to opening up to people and feeling vulnerable. This staff member didn't specifically say "I need support around what happened in my group yesterday," but other people heard it and supported her.

It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :D