Unless You Have Experience Involving Depression,Anxiety, Trauma Etc You Have No Place Being a Counselor?

Question by angel_x: Unless you have experience involving depression,anxiety, trauma etc you have no place being a counselor?
Do you agree or disagree? I had counselors in my time who just didn’t have the emotional depth or the experience to understand me at all. The worst are the middle aged ones who’ve been successfully put through the system and lived normal happy lives. Nice childhood, good school, university, marriage, kids, good respectable job working with “troubled” young people.

They have NO clue. They have no experience with domestic violence, drugs, suicide, self harm, etc, except the role play experiences they’ve done, and talking to other “troubled” young people. And many of them used to treat me like I was less intelligent than them because I came from a different background, they talked to me like I was a small child. Many doctors gave me pills I didn’t need (while denouncing drug use as they handed me the prescription). And many tried to find some “cause” for the way I was. Sorry, I have no bombshell to drop. I was never raped or witness to a brutal murder. Or the used my “upsetting” background as the cause, when plenty of people I know went through all the same things I did and never developed depression or problems.

While I was going through this, there was a girl in my school (the 15 year old version of the middle class success story), This girl was judgmental, sheltered, innocent in the extreme, no people skills. She was afraid to come to my house because of where I lived, had no clue when it came to drugs, self harm, domestic abuse, working class culture, etc. Her mummy shouted at her once, and this girl used a steak knife to make one measly attention seeking scratch on her arm.

This made her think. She wanted to help troubled teenagers like her. She wanted to be a counselor! She even admitted the scratch (and I mean like a scrape from a cat) was to upset her mother. She had no scope. And she couldn’t “read” people, if you know what I mean by that.

Eventually I got sick of her ramblings about how depressed she was (bull, she was a self centered brat who had been brought up to think she was absolutely wonderful and believed it) and how horrific (her) self harm ordeal had been I showed her the recent 80 or so mm deep gashes in my arm, and she was horrified, absolutely horrified, disgusted, gobsmacked and thought I was “crazy”. Yup the same reaction some of the adult versions of her gave me.

I haven’t seen her in years, but the thought that girl is now on her way to being a counselor, scares me. Why are we letting this happen to our kids? Letting severely depressed or abused children be looked after and “counseled” by these people!

Like the cases of baby P and various other children, who’s social workers and such were incompetent idiots who thought it would be “lovely” to help children for a living, but didn’t spot the abuse and neglect going on right under their own noses!

My aunt works with kids in a school as a class room assistant, and she can spot the warning signs for an abuse case miles away, having been their herself, she gets these children’s trust and helps them. Often teachers don’t notice anything wrong until she notifies the principle who in turn notifies them. Sadly she just doesn’t have the money to advance her career. It all makes me so angry!

What are your opinions on all this?
Do you agree or disagree? I had counselors in my time who just didn’t have the emotional depth or the experience to
understand me at all. The worst are the middle aged ones who’ve been successfully put through the system and lived normal happy lives. Nice childhood, good school, university, marriage, kids, good respectable job working with “troubled” young people.

They have NO clue. They have no experience with domestic violence, drugs, suicide, self harm, etc, except the role play experiences they’ve done, and talking to other “troubled” young people. And many of them used to treat me like I was less intelligent than them because I came from a different background, they talked to me like I was a small child. Many doctors gave me pills I didn’t need (while denouncing drug use as they handed me the prescription). And many tried to find some “cause” for
the way I was. Sorry, I have no bombshell to drop. I was never raped or witness to a brutal murder. Or they used my “upsetting” b
something went wrong adding details plus not enough space, so

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100726004120AA57JOs

For my answers to what Alex and beauty D had to say

Best answer:

Answer by alexandra c
I completely agree with you but how will the world develop this thought of process how do we get those whom have experienced such traumatising events to believe in them self enough to complete the required degree.. i am currently studying a bachelor of law social science and psychology, i seem to also be surrounded by troublesome events as well as being involved in a broken home and so on, for this reason i believe i will be more successful then someone who has learnt such symptoms and behaviours from a book because i know i will be able to genuinely help and understand the patient.

I can truly go one for ever but this is not the place, the class room works better 🙂

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