Flood.
I feel as if my lungs are still coated inside with river silt and the occasional dead fish and old boot. Focusing more on not coughing than anything anyone said to me these last two days...not good.
But I have survived the flood.
And I'm going to have to write the letter, the handing in my notice letter to the charity I work for.
This could be a reaction to the last few weeks?
But I am feeling increasingly compromised as a solution focused therapist.
We are good with working with people who are sent to therapy, I ask 'so what would the person who sent you here hope to see different about you'? and yes we may well negotiate the appearance of compliance. This improves a person's experiences enough for them to start making plans for themselves! But I have zero comprehension as to why young people "who may have ASD" are sent to me. Or rather, why is no one taking seriously the effect of long term - years - of bullying? Because the truth is, young people who 'want a diagnosis' (I ask if this is so, and the answer is usually that they want an explanation!) are almost always suffering the most horrendous bullying at school. In effect we are agreeing that they bully you because you are 'autistic' as if that makes any kind of sense!
Schools don't deal well with bullying.
Often a child who is having an awful time at school discovers that if they stay awake until everyone in the house is asleep, they can watch films, cook food, chat to friends who likewise have decided to avoid being conscious during the day. Parents realise what's happening, take away the phone, disconnect the router. Child is extremely upset, apparently having 'melt-downs' and is on the pathway to diagnosis and sent to counselling...
So what am I going to do?
Stand on a street corner and start preaching from The Power, Threat, Meaning Framework?
The parents on the other hand, truly need counselling. Because the stresses on them, mainly from school, the threat of fines, the barrage of text messages reposting to parents any misdemeanour, mean that they are at breaking point.
I feel that I'm taking part in a regime that is all about data collection.
Up until the new assessment protocol I could provide a dialogue to help the person externalise the problem, and to begin to see ways that they can make changes. But the new protocol has stopped that. For the sake of my own integrity, I need to work on my private practice so that I get to talk with people who want to do difficult conversations about difficult things, with an emphasis on creating change.
SFBT was once radical, but as with all radical things, someone will reduce it to a flow chart and sell it. I'm fortunate because I was taught by people who were there from the start, so I'm modified old skool SFBT. Unfortunately a commodified, flow-chart SFBT has seeped into NHS thinking with the result that new assessment protocol which turned up last week, is entirely about gathering a client's personal information with 'best hopes' tacked on as an afterthought...
Talking about 'Best Hopes' is the therapy.
The NHS model is about selling data and diagnosis...
So I need to go.
I need to stop compromising.
This is the major takeaway from how the therapist has handled our dispute.
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