THE HOUNDED COUNSELOR !
Being in the helping profession brings with it so many travails that i have started feeling that unless you have the heart of a soldier, one will be sapped of all energy and you would become a client for counselling!
Being a practicing counsellor, i have come across people with very many kinds of problems, those that i have sometimes wondered whether they would qualify to be labelled at all as problems, and also those kinds where the issue would be so serious so as to call for medical intervention. But that is easier said than done. Clients refuse to accept the fact that their problems are pathological, and no amount of basic assessments showing them the scores which are statistically proved to be cause for concern are good enough to seek chemical intervention. Believe me, this denial is more difficult to treat than the actual problem!
I was approached by an elderly gentleman who was quite pushy when it came to meeting me as soon as possible, and i should have had my alarm bells ringing even then! But handling the call more as a counsellor than a person who felt coerced, i agreed to see him after adjusting my appointment diary. The session was an intake session, and it was followed by a couple of more sessions. For personal reasons, i was unable to follow up with more sessions immediately as he demanded, and i explained to him about the required intervels, and i agreed to take more sessions the following week.
This is where all the problems started. The client insisted i take continous sessions, and refused to listen to any logical explanations either about my unavailability or the necessity. Nothing i said seemed to get past him, and the messages on my phone started getting nasty. I bore it as long as i could; and then i just stopped responding when he demanded that i refund the fee for the sessions taken! Though i knew i was dealing with a client who had pathology and hence was giving him a long rope, i realised i had to stop being a counselor and become a person who was being a victim of cyber crime! I stopped responding to the messages, but there was only a lull before it started again, now in the form of emails.
I am still handling the issue, in the best way i can, without resorting to it becoming ugly. I know i only need to talk to a few people in his field of social circle, armed as i am with his diagnosis, for people to look down on him. But professional ethics do not allow me to do that. However, i am not very sure my basic survival instincts will not overtake my dedication to my profession very soon !
