President's Message January 2011

Meetings

You can now pay for meetings ahead of time, online through the SCA website! Our January meeting is on Friday the 21^st with Elizabeth Dexter-Mazza, Psy.D. who will be presenting on: "Finding Control with Out of Control Behaviors: A Brief Introduction to Treating Borderline Personality Disorder using Dialectical Behavior Therapy". Be sure to see her full article on our website, www.seattlecounselors.org.

Website Update

The final pieces are coming together with the new website. You can now purchase meetings and memberships online. Most of the glitches have been addressed, the final tweaks to the lay out are being done and we are beginning to get familiar with the new reports we are able to generate.  Be sure to log in and to take a look around the new site. There are peer groups to check out, office space available, workshops, the yahoo group - an easy to join open forum for members to stay connected with other SCA members and more!

Claiming Your Space

At our last SCA meeting I found myself listening to folks introduce themselves and their work without setting limits on their time to the usual 40 seconds.  It didn't go well. I began hoping people would start limiting the time themselves, but for the most part that didn't happen.  We went over our allotted time for intros and used up time intended for networking. 

I will be diligent about establishing and setting time limits as we go forward, but that experience got me thinking --what question are we really answering when asked, "What work do you do?" and what do we believe about the information we are sharing.

It's that time of year when many of us review the past year and set our intentions for the year ahead.  I've been thinking about my relationship to my work this past year and how much my identity has been wrapped up in it.  When I'm asked the question "What work do you do?" I find myself answering the question "Who are you?" instead.

I often go to this place in myself that believes I must have a worthy vocation to earn space on the planet, and if I can just say the right thing I will appear to have earned my spot.

This year I've decided to try an experiment. I want to pretend that my answer to the question "What work do you do?" is the least important thing I have to say. Just writing that sentence makes me worry that I'll lose clients.

I tried to imagine how my own introduction would change if I didn't believe it mattered so much, if I was free to say what was really true for me, what work I was passionate about or what I was hoping for, instead of saying what I thought I should be saying. Forty seconds is not long enough to tell you who I am, but I can tell you something about my work.

I take my work seriously and I value the opportunity to make a contribution. I just don't want that to be all of who I am. I haven't given up on crafting a good, short, few words about the work I do.  I just hope to answer the question honestly and then let it go.

My intention is to navigate this year with less fear and more gratitude. With the courage to show up honestly, make mistakes and still claim my space.

I invite you to get curious about your own introduction, what question you are answering when asked about your work, and what you believe about what you are saying.

My hope is that SCA can be a place where there is room for you to show up and be seen, feel a sense of belonging and be a place where you can claim your space - whether that be at our next meeting or through creating an online profile about your work, connecting with other members through our Yahoo group or finding a peer consult group to join through the website. 

With gratitude for our community,

Gila Fein, MA

SCA President, daughter, mother, partner, sister; lover of people, dogs, laughter....