Great to help people...

It sure is great to help people who are depressed and have severe anxiety. To watch people relax their face when they are clenched so tight and to stop bouncing their legs or stop biting their nails. Hypnosis is great. Using EMDR to help the person to get that distressing memory that is stuck in their minds out so they can no longer have to relive an experience or have some resolution is even better! I love being able to help children to ease their fears and to be able to help adults improve their lives. There can be peace in the lives of people who have endured so much pain and they do not have to suffer in silence. People can sleep all night without sleeping pills, pain medication, or alcohol. People can forgive those who have hurt them and get on with their lives. With faith in God, anything is possible. I am glad there are psychological methods out there to help people and that I have been trained to use them.

What a week so far.....

Wow! What a week... I have been able to really help several people to relieve their stress and anxiety and I have even been able to get a child who has not been talking to begin to share how he feels. I have been overly tired, but that comes with the busy schedule. I love what I do, but I do not have a desire to work in the evenings. I have chosen Thursday nights as my late night, but so many people want to come and see me after their work hours and I really want to accommodate them. I am willing to come in and work early hours, but not if I have to work until 9pm. I am amazed at how hypnosis is helping people. I have been able to successfully use hypnosis for a child's headache, test anxiety, smoking cessation, and possibly bed wetting (or at least temporarily). My only frustration is that the people I want to help the most (family, friends) get to see me the least and they could be getting some relief from the issues they may be dealing with. I think that being a counselor/therapist/psychotherapist/or whatever I am called in the day is a great job to have and I am eager to begin my research. This is my therapy. I never make suggestions that I am unwilling to do myself, including using self-hypnosis. I am learning how to be a better parent, how to become closer to God, how to have a healthy marriage, how to resolve conflict, how to take care of myself, and how to process distressing past issues. I am learning to prioritize and how to lose weight while being a diabetic who is glucose intolerant and has PCOS. (See the other blog for how that is going :) As always, I love the support I get from my husband, friends, family members, and the love I get from them all, especially my boys.

How did I get here?

I don't know how I possibly got here. Things have happened so fast for me that I am not sure how the time went by so fast. After being honorably discharged from the Army in 2004, I decided to get my Undergraduate degree in Human Services. I knew I wanted to help people in some capacity, but I wasn't sure in what way. I knew I had to primarily study online because of having to work full time and go to school. I have a son with Down syndrome who is now 9 and a 3 year old. When I graduated with my BS in Human Services, I was pregnant with my youngest. That was in 2008. As I prepare to graduate with my MA in Professional Counseling this coming May, I am again preparing to begin a new program. The PhD program in Professional Counseling will allow me to continue to become more specialized in the field of Counseling and child psychology. I love being a child and adolescent counselor and I am having so much fun. I am counseling individuals from ages 4 to age 60 and I am in the final part of my internship. I am studying for my comprehensive exit exam, which will be on May 18th. I will also be taking the GRE in April in order to get a higher score than last time for my admission portfolio. I will then prepare for the State test in August. As soon as my scores are in, I will submit the application for LPCA (Licensed Professional Counselor Associate). At that point, I will be applying to be on the Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance panel, so I can begin billing insurance. After completing 3,000 hours, I can then apply to be a LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor). I will then be applying to be on insurance panels everywhere, including Employee Assistance Programs. I am excited. I want to really get in there and help these children and adolescents. I am already trained in EMDR level I and level II. I have just completed the basic training in clinical hypnosis and I intend on completing the intermediate in June. With all of this schooling and training, it has been hard to keep up with family and friends, but I have been doing all of this to create a better life for them and to make my schedule flexible enough that I can attend meetings and sports, school functions, field trips, etc. and be the mom I want to be. I am looking forward to having a schedule that I make. It has only taken 8 years...that is painful to say....I am still not there yet, but I am closer to being Dr. Kauffman than I was 8 years ago.