I am a terrible golfer. Really. Just terrible. But I love it. Every time I get to that ball, it feels like a brand new opportunity. (To biff it, usually, but still a new opportunity). We were so very lucky that the other two in the foursome were regular rural PNW guys who wanted to drink beer and have fun.
That meant they were able to cheer my very small successes and not be super serious about this expensive round of golf at the resort.
Now "vacation" (do you count one night away as vacation?) is over. And I'm at training in the city for the new job, missing Shoes and Rosie.
This new job is doing intense in home family therapy for families who are at immediate (read: IMMEDIATE) risk of having their children placed in foster care. It's either do this therapy or the kids will be removed. So we're back to child protection, and honestly, and please read my heart here as I am not, of course, saying I am ok with child abuse / neglect, it feels very much like my career "home". I have worked with child protective services as a professional for years. Years.
I think this is what I know.
I always wondered when therapists talked about their "specialty" areas (grief and loss, eating disorders, geriatric counseling, etc) how they got there. I don't think it's that far fetched to say that one of my specialties is becoming working with families who have experienced trauma.
We're at this training and we're talking about referrals and engagement and motivation and hope and optimism and change and how the data shows that 90% of the families who make it to the end of the program stay together.
Hard to argue with those kind of numbers, right?
And I'm feeling all stirred up again, like this experience is speaking to the heart of who I am as a social worker.
Up with families. ;)
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So, so happy for this new job and how it is reviving your heart. Finding your niche is a great place to be :)