As of July 3rd, 2014 my little store front office building was sold after living in it for 21 years of my work life. The other six therapists who inhabited the building near the end all found other places to practice. The building itself is in a residential neighborhood and will be converted into a home by a couple who own a business on Broadway, within walking distance.
It doesn't seem like it has already been eight months since I stopped seeing clients, nor do I feel particularly retired. A friend of mine who has been retired several years says, "I wake up in the morning with nothing to do. It takes me all day to do it. And by the end of the day I'm only half done."
This is a turning point as it ends my supervision of other therapists. (Writing this 2 years later I must say I still regularly dream about office, and grieve its loss, and what it symbolized about my long career. In the dream I have to see someone for therapy, but have nowhere to do it, or am in someone else's office - which is occupied).
I have been working on a way to give back to my colleagues and have developed a workshop and shorter presentation on coping with vicarious trauma and burnout. By the end of this year I will have presented it to three conferences, two agencies, and two professional groups. While I believe I have great content, and great slides (using my photography) I still am not great with the delivery part. But I have a coach and practice makes perfect! A colleague with the Colorado Speaker's Academy sent me the following quote from Winston Churchill: "No success is final. No failure is fatal. The courage to continue is what counts." http://CompassionWithoutFatigue.com.
But my next post will be after another adventure: off to Kenya for the Great Migration!
