A Grateful Heart

Next week is Thanksgiving in the US.  Last year around this time, I wrote about gratitude and how it raises your vibrations.  My current gratitude project is once per week, in my gratitude journal, I write a page or two  of things I am grateful for, usually around 7 or 10.  I recently heard of someone who made a list of things she is grateful for and divided it by categories….things I am grateful for at work, things I am grateful for with my family, etc.  I liked this idea and wanted to take some time to write some things I am grateful for that are related to the work I do as a therapist.

1. I am grateful for this blog.  I purposely set out a little over a year ago to write once per week on this blog.  I strive to write it during the week it is posted, except for one or two occasions.  Writing ahead is a cool, productivity tool for a lot of blog writers, but I wanted to make it a point to keep it within the week.  To keep it current with my own learning and growth related to therapy.  To do this work, I have to do my own work.  Sometimes that includes learning and growing as a person, as I strive to coach others to do in my therapy practice.  And sometimes, I am adding to my toolbox with the modalities and resources I apply as a therapist.  Both of these grow me, so I want to keep my blog current.  Since I haven’t been writing as I go along from the beginning, sometimes I do go back and write a “catch up” kind of post.  I do schedule it to post on Friday, whether I write it on Friday or earlier.  And….I did schedule a post a week in advance when I went to Hawaii.
2. Along the same lines, I recently revamped how I do social media. I use my Facebook page and Instagram to post in real time different thoughts and inspirational quotes, etcetera.  I spend a couple minutes a day looking for things that I want to post, be it a quote or an article, and try to post it within a day or two of finding it.  This one is just as purposeful as the weekly blogging.  I personally want to be inspired on a regular basis, so I am careful who I follow on these accounts and try to pay it forward as I am learning a-has and pausing with a hmmm.
3. I am grateful that I have officially completed the requirements to become EMDR certified. That requires getting advanced training, many hours of implementation and consultation, letters of recommendation, and a bit of a commitment.  But I am currently in the process of becoming official and should be by the end of the year.
4. In a similar vein, I am working to become a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist. I am grateful to have continued with this process, as well.  Again, these things I do benefit my clients as well as myself.  Look for this official certification sometime next year.
5. I am grateful to have added Comprehensive Resource Model to my toolbox. This was a 4-day training I went to Nashville, Tennessee, to learn.  I am not really sure what I was expecting but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I started implementing it with many of my clients right away, adding to their resources in their own healing and daily life. I will likely blog about this more in the future.
6. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how grateful I am for the people who find their way to my therapy couch. It is an honor to be a witness to their lives.  I learn as much from them as they do me.  I love that I get to watch the healing and transformation of so many brave and beautiful people.
7. And this leads me to my amazing supervisees. I truly need a brag board for the folks who I supervise on their way to become clinical social workers.  They each do amazing work in their individual social work careers and I feel like a “proud mama” as I see them blossom and become confident in their clinical skills.