let go

My female owner has reached a stage where she has learnt to let go of:

• Perfectionism – in times like this, doing good enough will get her further and keep her going longer than doing her best
• Planning ahead – she’s fighting fire with her workload, that it’s often just before the appointment/ class that she is able to prepare or complete the needful “good enough”
• Dysthymia – amazingly, given that she has more compelling reasons now to let the blues get to her. The busyness drives her to do as much as she can, given her limited time and brain cells. No time to waste brooding over possibilities.
• Unrealistic expectations – Prioritising and focusing on a few things will develop her skills much better and faster than trying to “stretch herself thinly” (as what her ex-boss used to say, but that was in the context of her multiple interests in aikido and flute…)
• Anxiety – It’s tiring to be anxious. Just take things as they come... as best as possible.

Her coursemates have been complaining bitterly about how the programme has been structured. Not only do they have to juggle a full coursework load (assessments, essays, role-play assessments, exams, readings, class presentations) with clinical work (that comes along with assessments, write-ups, case presentations, video reviews, readings, paperwork, research), they also need to keep records of almost everything they are doing. Everything adds up to more than no social life. When they compare the programme with other universities, they realised how other universities arrange their programme in a more optimal fashion (such as covering all the coursework first or requiring less direct client hours in accordance to the state’s registration board).

During class presentations, they openly talk about being just like their clients – low mood, stressed, anxious, not having enough sleep, binge-eating, improvements in symptoms when they do therapy on themselves.

My female owner reckons in a dark humour way, that the school is trying to get their students to experience the symptoms that their clients are having. On the serious side, it’s really scary for my female owner and she’s trying not to think about it. She found out today that someone in the cohort before hers could not pass the end-of-internship assessment despite retaking it and left the course. The person (whoever she is) is a Singaporean.