Today was a rougher day at Hope. A couple of these couples are really struggling and I’m still trying to sort my way through the best way to do this. If I had to really break it down as to what needs to happen it’d go something like this: Heal from past things. Stop doing bad things. And start doing good things. All these things are happening at the same time but sometimes you have to give more attention to one of the things. And there is no order or linear path to follow with this, as they say.

I can’t remember if I said that me and the other marriage counselor are at some point going to put together some kind of screening tool for the website. It makes sense to me. Couples counseling, I think, is a form of group counseling and with group counseling they teach you to screen the members to see if they’d be good candidates. I’ve had my doubts about this one couple who was switching from a retiring counselor but after years is still limping along in a seeming crisis.

There are currently twelve on the waitlist. As much as I sort of dread taking on new ones and going through the whole learning and intake process, I do feel like overall I like the couples counseling better than the regular. I seem to struggle most with people closest to my age. Like there is not enough difference. I feel like I need to keep plugging along and being patient with myself and the process of learning. A major positive thing I feel I have going for me is that I know it can be done.