Caretaking and Caregiving

I dont have a lroblem with mindfulness generaly as I have seen some success with some of these strategies and do use them when necessary.

My main beef with councillors and mindfulness @Appleblossom is that so many of them seem to play the same recorded message before even trying to get to know me or the real reason I am there. Last fool at the uni, the one that refered me on because I ws too hard for her initally was convinced she was going to 'fix me' in 6 visits.

Current councillor is great, that is at a comunjty organisation set up to support families. Previous one I saw was a student at a university psychology clinic. She actually took the time to find out what my barriers were and then set about trying to work with me to reduce thise barriers. She wasnt even qualified yet and did more for me in 5 visits than the previous psychologist did in 5 years.

By far the best councillor I have ever seen was a university councillor. She never once talked about mindfulness excercises. She just talked through my issues and talked through my toughts in order to accept my situation (ie burnout, ill health, and my inability to work and most importantly living with and supporting a wife who had enough of life and wants it all to end). I initally went to this lady for careers advice as I was contemplating dropping out of uni alltogether and giving up myself. She made a huge impact in my life and I was very distressed when she left the university. Managed to hold it together when she told me she was leaving but had a good bawl when I got home. 😭

Short version of that is that there are some real gems out there and some absolute wasters and impostors, it just takes determination to sift through all the crud to find someone who is rigbt for you.

Yes @Determined

Thats another kind of "lived experience".

I find it interesting to reflect on the changes and type of language I have seen in the field over time.

I dont think people should get too hung up on definitions on any particular website, but use ideas that seem relevant to probe for a best approach.

Me too @BenHarper

Your lady is a lucky lady.

There needs to be some sweetness in the give and take of a relationship.

"Having someone on my side is something I dream of" is a little secret wish inside me.

I keep squeezing in more good dreams to make the bad ones go away.

I hope reading and sharing on the forums help.

I am a little anxious about my son.

He was very intense and serious about cataclysmic climate change when I returned from my trip. It might be research and information he has to integrate, but I am just flagging it as a potential issue.

He had an intake appointment this morning and went off to visit a friend and nodded it was fine if I rescheduled.