All Bull, No S**t
I know the name of this blog might seem a bit on the nose, but I do have some reasoning behind its inception. In my personal experience the truth is always more valuable than the image that is protected when a lie is told. With that in mind I have made it a personal goal to always be honest. That means, in a very real sense, being able to articulate EXACTLY how I feel, what I am experiencing, and how life is affecting me. For the purpose of my counseling practice I am always pushing for honesty both from myself and from my clients. It’s a very difficult skill to learn and one that I hope to constantly work at and help my clients to improve on as well. With that being said, my approach to counseling is rather bullish in terms of my personality and the “I refuse to beat around the bush” mentality that I have developed.
I believe that when someone comes in for counseling or mental health therapy services that it would be a DIService to that individual if the counselor were to make that person feel as though they are wasting their time. Having a great time telling stories, laughing, and engaging in small talk during sessions is the heart and soul of counseling and that is never lost on me; however, I tend to go directly at the problem the client brings in (bullish). I do want to say that I don’t push a client in an unwarranted way or too early making anyone uncomfortable; on the contrary, I value the relationship above anything that is done in a therapeutic sense. Continuing, I always say that my goal for my clients is for them to “not need counseling anymore.” That would signal to me that we, as a therapeutic alliance, have reached a goal that we developed at the onset of our relationship and the client has found some success. I have embraced this idea and decided that the best fitting animal that represents this is a bull. We are plowing ahead at our own pace, setting our own goals, living our own lives, and finding our success in a very “bull-headed” manner.
Maybe this is the Texan in me raring up, or maybe it’s my history working with cattle (I still have supreme distaste for that type of work hence my current career as a therapist. God bless you real workers out there in the world. You have an admirer.) but, I resonate with the attitude and approach a bull takes to life. I try to bring that to counseling. for example, when we—as a client and counselor relationship— come to a roadblock in your life, I truly believe that how we overcome that road block says everything about how well you are at adapting to obstacles in your life. I tend to want to blow right through a roadblock when I encounter one (bullish). That’s not always the best approach; however, I have found that people underestimate their strength and tend to avoid things that they might perceive as too difficult. Deep down most of have that desire to push forward and face each challenge on our own two feet. Sometimes it takes developing a “spine” which will serve to hold us upright in the face of life’s existentially heavy burden (bullish).
Finally, “no S**t".'“ Think about it. You know exactly what you need to do to improve your life. You want to be in better shape and become healthy? Eat less, work out more. No s**t. You want to be a better spouse? Go on a date, make love, communicate your thoughts and feelings, be responsible, and love through mistakes. No s**t. It is problematic however when you actually have to look these issues in the face and become the bull that plows forward in progress to improvement. That’s where I come in. I’m here to help you articulate your feelings, find that meaning and purpose, help you develop steps to reach your goals, discover those goals, give you good info (that may be biased but I will try my best to give you some useful things), and help you become the bull you need to be to accomplish those things. No s**t!
