Training Professional Counselors And Therapists

Last week, our title was Women in long-term recovery, living in two worlds. This week, the title is Native American Curriculum Training. Two of us spoke for 90 minutes last Wednesday.

It was tough to say everything that needed to be said, but we had a nice handout of things we discussed regularly. We had a similar training in August where our focus was years of recovery and of working in the substance abuse and mental health field.

The group registered about 1,000 participants last week, and we had 100+ in our session. I have written about working with Native American program participants before and have said many of the same things over the years.

We have noticed definite differences over the years in our work environment. In the early days, we were told to not treat people differently. That makes no sense.

There are cultural differences. There is a difference between Native Americans who were socialized in the culture versus those who were raised in non-Native adoptive or foster homes.

We talked years of work in healing

then all that we were taught growing

in how we are seen

different between

you, I mean

new knowing

~

The people there were all friendly

Not much time we got out early

Most were counselors

Some educators

Lecturers

All lovely

Author note: A Clogyrnach is a sestet stanza with lines of 8, 8, 5, 5, 3, and 3 syllables that uses an AABBBA rhyme scheme.

~~

Another format of poetry:

Positive is the answer to addiction

Addiction is beaten when we stay upbeat

Upbeat like the baby in the photo above

Above all the rest for the best recovery

Recovery is hard work in the beginning

Beginning to go without our medication

medication that gives us some temporary relief

Relief that doesn’t last that we replace

Replace with healing, art, sharing, working for serenity

serenity we get from staying positive

~~

Authors note: medication refers to alcohol, abused drugs, food, gambling, etc.

When we walked into the breakout session it was all chairs that were very colorful. When the room started to fill I started to get nervous. The nervousness didn’t last but I did lose my voice for a minute and had to get a drink of water.

I am always grateful that I have a co-presenter as we can support one another. I can be redirected if I go off on a tangent. She can say what I miss and vice versa. We keep thinking our proposal will not be accepted at this conference, or no one will show up as they have heard us before.

What we forget is the field is forever changing and new people are always looking for CEUs (continuing education units) for their licenses and to hear from some people who have been around for a while. We will keep going as long as we can help, even though my co-trainer says we probably don’t need to go back to that one.

All I can say is we will see how she feels next year!

This week it will be four trainers and three days. It is a drive so really it takes up the week with a travel day on both ends. I should have just enough time to write for NaNoWriMo and to publish something on Vocal and Medium in the morning on Monday and the evening on Friday.

This training is a 22-hour curriculum training that trainers consider an American Indians 101. So it is sticking to the basics. Still, most people we train are not familiar with the information we provide as it isn’t taught in school until you get to college. Then it is an elective at most colleges.

Most of the participants like hearing stories from the trainers. It helps them to know that we aren’t all alike. All of us have a wealth of information about our culture. We have different backgrounds and have been in recovery for different amounts of time.

We each support one another and add comments when requested.

Did I say that I can’t handle the three days of training like I used to? It takes me at least three days to get back to myself after training. I can’t schedule back-to-back training as I once did. Stay tuned for an update on this training.

~~~~

First published by Mercury Press on medium.com