This class was filled with information that put me if the frame of mind of a person actually working in the field of recovery. As the professor said that the "Stages of Change" hand out might actually be put on your desk while working with a client I felt relief. With a road map like this how much easier it would be to stay with the client and ask the questions that might encourage them to move into the next phase. I especially liked that in the later stages we would enforce that even "relapse should not disrupt the patient-clinician relationship." Again I am thinking, "Oh ya, I am not responsible for their recovery. I am responsible for my part in a relationship based on trust." I think this could be a theses paper for a doctorate. A counselor friend of mine told me that she went to "Not God" 12 step meetings. When they started the group they would say, "My name is, so and so, and I'm not God." She was a counselor that was there for you in every way that she could be, but she definitely did not enable.
Now having said that I want to reinforce how much the information that has been shared in this class has meant to me in terms of having gained some measure of confidence and a direction for more information in all the handouts that were posted. We certainly are not going to go into the workforce empty handed.
