I finally had a better day at Hope after some discouraging weeks of cancellations, dud intakes, and overall frustrations of how my time was not being spent. It was good to feel productive again and to reconnect with some people who’d been out for summer travel. The mix of doing couples and individuals is the perfect fit for me. The longer I do couples the more I think I need to put together a handout of the top five things people need to learn and will learn no matter what from counseling.

So at the very least, if they can do these five things, things will generally go better. Most of them have to do with navigating conflict and repairing after arguments. One of them is the “do-over” which we learned from the intensive. The idea is you have a fight or tense interaction and one of the people takes the step to say something like, “I don’t like how that went and I am wondering if we can have a do-over. XYZ is not how I want to show up. Can we try this (conversation/interaction) again?”

Many people are reporting being tired and I am with them. I think it must be something with the midwestern air. I’ve been awake since 3:30 and am definitely ready to fall asleep. I would say I don’t remember grown-ups being this tired but I do. My grandma was resting. My mom was resting. I come home from work or the store and go to bed to recharge. School gets started late this year so we’re in that in-between time when camp is over and everyone is awkwardly not as busy as we all were before.