What’s Your Story?
Most, if not all people have the hope that they would spend their time doing work that they are passionate about and love. Professionals in mental health or human services may pursue work in their respective fields because they love working with and helping others. Some could also be motivated by their own experiences, including personal identification with the mental, emotional, and/or physical challenges they themselves or loved ones have lived through, and desire to share their insights or give back in response to how they or someone they knew was supported.
When you think about your life, what would you say are the experiences that have shaped your work? How is your work representative of your experiences, as well as your interests, passions, skills/abilities, and values? Overall, what does your experiences/work say about you? What is the message that you convey? Likewise, what do people think of when they think of you and/or your work? Is this representative of your message?
Your story tells others about you and your experiences, interests/passions, challenges, successes, and overall, what makes you unique. Your story is very powerful. Oftentimes though, we don’t think of the impact of our stories on others. What can someone else learn from your story? How can your story help others? Another component of stories that is very important to keep in mind is the use of stories as a vehicle to share your message – what you want people to know about you, your mission/vision, and business and/or services, as well as challenges and successes.
My focus and interest in mental health is fueled by my compassion for the healing and growth of others and my desire to see professionals and organizations convey healthy messages in words and actions.
Think about your story and message. Also, recall the questions I shared at the beginning of this writing. Additionally, consider how you can ensure that your story and your message is clear and consistent.
Tell me more about your story. I would love to read your message.
I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.
Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in human services improve, craft, and implement communication within and across systems.
Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.
Taking Stock
It is time to embark on a New Year - 2021. This is the time when it’s tradition to identify new goals, new ways of thinking, and new ways of being. It’s also common for people to think back over the year that is about to end – successes, challenges, maybe failures, and everything in between.
It is a good thing to evaluate areas of growth. It is also a good thing that we can do this often, more than just once a year. A mentor of mine used to encourage me regularly to think about what I learned each day. There is always an opportunity to learn something new, personally and professionally.
Evaluating progress is especially crucial for organizational success. In my experiences in mental health and human service organizations, I have observed it is not always a priority to have an ongoing quantitative and/or qualitative review of goals and services, and if there is an effort to do so, it is not always fully or consistently integrated into processes or utilized for making changes or improvements. Yet, it is necessary to ask some extremely important questions:
What are your goals?
What services support your goals?
What communication is utilized to support growth?
What are your outcomes?
What are the challenges?
What is working well?
These and other questions unique to your business or organization are crucial for measuring growth and success. Similar questions can be reflected on for personal and professional growth. It is never too early or too late to take stock of where you are and where you want to be, and what it might take for you to get there.
Throughout the year or at different seasons of your life, it is normal to face challenges, setbacks, and disappointments. During these times, we are often putting our efforts on navigating these issues and may not take the time to see the strengths or qualities we possessed in overcoming difficulties.
What skills, gifts, and/or abilities do you possess?
How can they help you to achieve your goals?
We want to take stock of these as well because they are the personal resources we have to support our growth and success.
All the best to you and your families for all of the new seasons in your life!
I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.
Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in human services improve, craft, and implement communication within and across systems.
Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.
Not Your Average Counselor
When you hear the word ‘counselor’, what comes to mind? For different people, this word may mean or represent different things, reflect different experiences, and serve different purposes.
In the Mental Health field, a counselor is someone who may assist an individual who may be experiencing one or more symptoms, such as anxiety or depression, causing distress or challenges in their life to navigate these issues and develop positive ways of coping over a short or long period of time.
I associate counseling with spiritual, emotional/mental health, and overall life challenges. Throughout my life, I have been accustomed to individuals providing pastoral and mental/emotional counsel, as well as mentorship, and have observed them to all provide a great source of support in meeting respective needs.
In thinking about what counseling means to people, I am challenged to consider characteristics which serve to support the growth and independence of others. In my experiences, I have witnessed characteristics commonly associated with various forms of helping professions or human services which have at times been contrary to growth and independence due to its care giving or care taking nature.
Naturally, I am a good listener, calm, gentle, and sensitive to people’s needs. In working directly with individuals who have sought support for various life challenges this is feedback I have regularly received from others, including staff and clients. I value these characteristics that make me who I am. On the other hand, there are other characteristics that make me who I am that I feel are just as important, if not more, depending on the nature of the work or relationship – being honest, asking hard questions, setting good boundaries (saying ‘no’), and encouraging people to utilize their personal strengths to support growth and independence. While the former characteristics described are often associated with helping professions or human services, I cannot say the latter is as expected. These are the characteristics that I feel are unfortunately largely missing from direct practice and related organizations but are necessary for the health and success of individuals and organizations.
The absence of these characteristics and larger presence of care giving and care taking deterred me from the very areas that I am naturally good in as I did not feel like there was a place for me to utilize all of my strengths. Yet, I have had to remain true to myself and offer my unique abilities where I believe they are most needed, including advocating for positive change in mental health and human services. Just like I was challenged to consider characteristics which serve to support the growth and independence of others, I also challenge others. I repeat the characteristics I’ve found to be missing the most in helping professions or human service organizations - honesty, asking hard questions, setting good boundaries (saying ‘no’), and encouraging people to utilize their personal strengths to support growth and independence. The next time you think about counseling, consider these characteristics in addition to being a good listener, calm, gentle, and sensitive to people’s needs. And the next time you start to doubt you are ‘not your average counselor’, think again. You may just represent qualities, skills, and abilities that add value to the lives of others and contributes to needed systemic and organizational change.
I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to share a comment or reach out if you’d like to connect, have questions, or are interested in partnering.
Healthy Messages™ helps professionals, leaders, and business owners in human services improve, craft, and implement communication within and across systems.
Learn more about Healthy Messages™ mission, vision, and outcomes.