Saying Goodbye

In the field they call it termination, or a healthy goodbye. Me, I called it a mix of excitement and sadness.

  I was more than ready to be done, I was burnt out, tired, and had just accepted that I would not apply to work at my placement once it was over. This sucked, it really sucked, because I wanted to stay with every fiber if my being. I loved my clients, loved the work, my coworkers was awesome and I loved the culture and vibe of my office.

  It wasn’t because the pay was low, I would have accepted that. It was because the benefits were non existent, the policies were ridiculous and the politics and management of the agency took that low pay and cut it in half while having the audacity to act like what they were asking was reasonable.

  Simply I didn’t go back to school and work this hard to accept below minimum wage for the privilege to work anywhere…that was the easiest decision I  had ever made. The hard decision was leaving my clients.

  I had a blend of clients …the youngest was 4 and the oldest 25. I did individual therapy, co-facilitated a group and family therapy. I worked with kids with ODD, ADHD, Autism, Bipolar disorder, depression, Anxiety Disorders , grief counseling, and substance use. I worked with kids with homicidal ideation and suicidal ideation. Some clients were high risk with suicidality, self-harm ,eating disorders or homicidality with trauma. I had clients who survived sexaul assaults and abuse and other types of trauma.

I had some clients that exhausted me in every aspect and I was happy to hand over their case. I had others that I never wanted to leave, because I needed to see it through and didn’t trust the next person to it. They had come so far and I wanted to see them win…or they weren’t ready to have to start all over and trust someone else.

I said goodbye to them all and some were happy to see me go, some couldn’t care less and others cried just as bad as I wanted to. In the end we all had a good ending, the ones who cried the hardest saw it thru to the end and expressed thanks and gratitude for the work we did and what they accomplished.

Me I highlighted the progress they made, the strengths they had and reminded them how to use those strengths as their best tool to manage whatever comes up. Then I went into my office and kept every photo, memento and keepsake that they had given me.

….until next week