Why did I become a counsellor? 

My counselling career was born out of a need for a career change. I took a long and roundabout route to alcohol and other drug counselling.

I began my professional journey in music and audio technology. I was under no delusions of becoming a rockstar. It was a passion and an interest, but not a sustainable career path. I took studio work as an audio engineer, but that quickly dried up when most people started moving toward home recording from desktop computers. With few options in front of me, I took the only path available: audio visual tech for corporate events — not the dream of the creative type. I was in need of a change.

After 15 years in counselling, I have come to learn that this is not an uncommon story. Like me, many of my coworkers found themselves in careers that left them feeling unfulfilled. They had enough money and job security, but at the end of the day they felt hollow, as they hadn’t contributed anything of meaning and substance to the world. I was certainly no exception.

I was looking for something more fulfilling and intellectually stimulating. The search led me to my own counselling journey. I wanted to find new direction in my life and sort through some of my own issues. I found the counselling process incredibly useful. It helped me see that I had the skills needed to be an effective counsellor myself.

Before I knew it, I was enrolled in a Bachelor of Applied Social Science majoring in counselling. During my studies I took an interest in existential philosophy. I saw myself working with ‘the worried well’ as they’re often called. I realised that I needed some more research skills under my belt, a foundation of science to balance out the philosophy.

After I finished my bachelor degree I enrolled in a Graduate Diploma of Psychological Science, which is essentially a Bachelor of Psychology crammed into one year. That one year turned out to be very challenging and draining. I made it through the studies. Now armed with statistics and the scientific method, I was ready to enter the workforce.

Finding the best way to help people

You just have to start somewhere. That might not be the place you want to be but rather a stepping stone to your desired destination. I ‘landed’ in a role as an outreach mental health support worker.

Interestingly, the supposedly temporary ‘stepping stone’ reshaped my preconceptions of the work I intended to do. Until then my idea of helping people find direction and support in their life was largely cerebral — sit in a room with a counsellor and think your way towards your goals.

I found that that I saw more progress and change via practical means, rather than intellectual means.

Thinking and talking about your stressors is most definitely useful, but it needs to be balanced with action and practical support. In fact, I found that actions and behaviours were more powerful agents of change than seemingly endless intellectual conversations.

Essentially, as an outreach officer I case managed about 12 clients at a time. The clients presented with many complex mental health concerns, covering about every diagnosis you could imagine: depression, bipolar disorder, almost every personality disorder listed in the DSM and schizophrenia.

It was certainly a baptism by fire. I only had theory to work with, and little experience. On a typical work day I’d meet with clients and we would set goals that were centred on quality of life. I would do my best to support people achieve their goals.

Many people were quite severely affected by their condition. Often their goals may have seemed small to people who don’t experience debilitating mental health conditions, but they were very important to their quality of life.

As an example, I worked with a woman who had been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and Generalised Anxiety. Her battle with anxiety was so great that she couldn’t catch a train alone to attend activities that would improve her life and reduce her social isolation. So, we would catch trains together until she was comfortable enough to do it on her own.

There are countless other examples I could write about it, but I think this one sums up the work and the importance of regular support, assisting others towards their goals through practical action.

After case management, I finally found myself in a full-time counselling role. Counselling was always my goal, but the opportunity was to work in drug and alcohol counseling. At the time AOD wasn’t an area of interest for me, but it was a counselling role. I went into the job open to what may come.

I enjoyed the work but found I was often at odds with the drug and alcohol work. Maybe that’s surprising to read, since drug and alcohol work is now the area I work in, and have worked for the last seven years.

My problem was that I saw drug and alcohol issues firstly as a behavioural problem, with emotional issues attached to the behaviour. Meaning, the action of taking the substance is an engrained pattern that needs to be altered first before exploring feelings and past trauma second.

In that particular role, in that particular team, we would sit down with a client for an hour and talk at length about the issue. I found that there was far too much talk and not enough action. To be fair, this could have been my inexperience showing. At the time, I didn’t know how to balance the action and the talking. Nonetheless, something was amiss. I found myself in search of new work.

Finding new challenges

I took on a role in youth work at a homeless refuge for people aged 16-22. The people living in this transitional unit came from all walks of life, and were generally in the refuge for around a month. A typical day at the office as a youth worker meant spending time with the young people, building rapport and figuring out how to best assist them. The support was focused on their mental health, social wellbeing and making sure they were engaged in study or work. Finally, the last goal was to make sure the young people had somewhere to live once their time at the refuge was at an end.

After a few years in a casual role at this service, I was given a new role known as a Therapeutic Practitioner. Essentially that means that I was the refuge mental health clinician. The role was not drastically different from the youth worker role, in that I spent most of my time engaging with the young people, but now with the added responsibility of assessing their mental health needs, offering counselling as needed, and supporting the youth workers to better help the young people.

My next challenge I was back doing outreach. The difference this time was that I was working out of mental health facility that very few people know exist. There are several of these facilities around, known as Secure Extended Care Units, or SECU for short. Essentially these facilities exist for people with severe mental health conditions that are resistant to medication.

It’s a very unfortunate reality, but a small percentage of people are extremely mentally unwell, and need constant care for indefinite periods of time. My job was to help transition some of those people out of the facility, and help them engage in the community. This was extremely challenging work. All of my clients were always psychotic to some degree. A day at the office could involve driving around town trying to locate a client, then negotiating with their auditory hallucinations in order to complete a basic purchase at the supermarket, or just going out for a coffee if they were feeling ok on that particular day.

One of the biggest challenges in this job was recognising that you’re really not helping people get better. Instead, you’re helping people just get by, and live the best way they can with what life has dealt them.

I have also been employed in a few other areas, but I have already waffled for far too long.

Why I returned to alcohol and drug work

So, why drug and alcohol work… again? And why have I been in this role for seven years, far longer than any other role I have undertaken?

By chance, I found a mode of service delivery that works best to address the issues I previously found with drug and alcohol work. That issue being too much talking and not enough action for what is, to me, a behavioural problem. We offer brief interventional treatment that is available 24/7 via telephone, web chats and forums to meet the needs of the modern world.

In the end, I landed in drug and alcohol work by accident, after trying many different roles.

Finding a place where your personality fits is quite important. I’m practically minded and I have found that drug and alcohol work often involves problem-solving. I enjoy existential conversations, which at times find their way into drug and alcohol work.

I enjoy motivating people towards change. Essentially, we give people enough information and direction, then send them on their way to make their own decisions and change. I want to see change occur, and this this field provides a place where change does regularly occur — people just need help to find their route.