What are you grateful for?
If you are new to our online community here at Private Practice from the Inside Out, welcome! And, if you have been with us before, welcome back!
As a way of building our “gratitude muscles” and to help others build theirs, too, every Friday we will be hosting our Mustard Seeds & Mega-Gifts: A Community Gratitude Journal. Here you can share the large and small gifts and opportunities that have come your way.
I’ll kick things off by saying I’m thankful that so many of you are interested in joining me to attend more consciously to the gifts and opportunities that come our way by sharing your thoughts of gratitude each week right here!
Stephanie Bolton says . . .
I appreciate that you had this fabulous idea and created a wonderful place for us to express our gratitude! What a terrific thing!”
Karen says . . .
I am grateful for podcasting. I have learned more about human nature, internal thought processes, behavioral motivation, and worldviews from listening to various podcasts than I have from my classes and text books. Learning about this in this way is enormously beneficial to me as a developing professional.”
Anne Barker says . . .
What a great idea, Tamara. I am a Clinical Social Worker in Omaha, NE and am right in the thick of building a new private practice here. I have been following your blog for some time now, and have gotten many good ideas and helpful links from your posts. In one post this year you suggested that those of us who are in the early stages of building our practices keep a running list of positive happenings related to our work: accomplishments, joyful occurrences, people for whom we are thankful, etc. Your suggestion came at a great time for me. After three months of hanging out my shingle, I wasn’t as far along in growing my business as I’d hoped I would be by that point, and was starting to get discouraged. So I opened a new Word file, called it my Practice Journal, and began writing something positive in it every day. Call it good karma, living your dreams, or the power of optimism – whatever the force is, it has worked! Only a month later, I am not yet up to my final client number goal, but I am right where I need to be on the trajectory to get there. Thanks for passing along a great idea, then and now.”
Sharen Boyd, LPC says . . .
I am filled with gratitude for the warm way in which therapists in my community have welcomed me to town. I have been delighted to experience the openness, sense of community and generosity in my new city. After only three months I have a lovely network of friends and associates to whom I can confidently refer as well as ask for help. Thanks!”
Lyndsey Fraser, MA, LAMFT says . . .
WOW! What a great concept. I am looking forward to sharing my gratitude for my clients in private practice. One thing I have learned in my brief journey in private practice is that Clients give to us as much as we give to them.”
LInda Hoenigsberg, LCPC, LMFT says . . .
I am so grateful for those therapists in my community who are willing to “do” supervision with me on tough cases or help with ideas for self-care with no thought of asking a fee. This has made me want to do the same for other therapists who call me for advice or case consultation, and it has led to referrals and those we know we can count on if we will be away from our practice.”
Each week you will find statements of gratitude that are submitted from our readers here at Private Practice from the Inside Out.
To share your gratitude, send an email to Tamara at Tamara@TamaraSuttle.com.
You may also contribute by adding your appreciations to the comments below.
I am grateful for this community you have built Tamara. I am often discouraged at this point in my education as a therapist, and when I come here and read this site…it helps me to refocus on the positive in life and work more diligently toward doing good. I consider your work one of my greatest sources of mentor-ship. Thank you.
Karen, I am humbled by your words. Curating information for you and other mental health professionals (so that you can avoid some of the missteps that I have taken) really does fill a need for me. But that’s only one reason I blog here. A different need is filled when I am able to actually connect with you . . . (and I mean the collective “you”). That doesn’t happen if you guys don’t comment and engage with me here or back channel. And, an even greater need is filled for me when you guys are willing to engage with me and each other. It’s the way we build community here – yes, even online. And, that sense of connection and community is what gives me (and you?) strength and builds resilience.
So, thank you, Karen, for taking the time to reach out and connect and share your appreciation. And, thank you, too, for building our strength and resilience here as a community. In doing so, you support each of us in changing the world.
I am grateful that there are so many resources for old timers like me (38 yrs in practice). It is a blessing and a curse because learning all these new technologies to promote my practice is daunting. I am impatient so I have learned that it takes “a village” for me to keep up and remain sane. If I were not in private practice I would not be continuing to learn and study about working with couples on the brink. I would probably run the other way. I am grateful that there are many generous professionals eager to share their knowledge even if I don’t “sign up”.
Oh, my gosh, Roberta! YES YES YES!!! I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion that I am digital immigrant but the truth is that I feel like a digital dinosaur! I have no interest in technology and electronic toys and have moved to adopt (first this blog –> LinkedIn –> Twitter –> Google+ –> and now Facebook) these tools kicking and screaming the whole way.
However (and I don’t know if this fits for you, Roberta, but) every time I have adopted a new social media tool . . . I’ve fallen in love with it! Dearest of all is this blog and I am so very grateful to my dear friend and geek (and now internationally published author), Beth J. Hayden, for nudging and cajoling me along this really (scary and ) fun path! And, like you, Roberta, I’ve had so many tech-savvy and generous professionals in our community right here (like Susan Joy Smellie who let me know this week that I was updating too frequently on Facebook – Who knew?!) reach out and point me in a better direction.
I, too, appreciate the continued professional development and support – even if I don’t realize that I want / need it at the time!
I am grateful that my practice grew quicker than I ever anticipated and I thank the clients who made that possible. It is good to know that I am able to provide insight and support for those who come into my office. Without them I would not be able be in a career where I have found my passion. My practice is also a place I can go to every day that doesn’t feel like work. Thank you!
Lyndsey, thank so much for sharing your gratitude today! Do you know that you are living the ideal? I’ve seen research that says that Americans are very focused on doing work that has purpose and meaning these days but . . . very few of us really get to earn a living doing work that “doesn’t feel like work.” You are, according to many folks, leading a charmed life! Me, too! Me, too!
Blessings to you on your journey!