Since I began this blog to increase awareness of my counseling minstry, I have had a few opportunities for more formal counseling. Man, it’s hard. It’s easy to sit and listen to someone over a beer, but put me in an office chair with a notepad in hand and I get all self-conscious. In the first appointment I tried to take some notes, but thinking about what I needed to record for later made it harder to listen in the present. I found myself thinking “must… maintain… concentration” and I couldn’t just lose myself in the story of the other. So in the second appointment I jettisoned the notepad and the chair and sat on a couch. The conversation went well and I think I was helpful to the counselee, but when they came back for another appointment, I couldn’t remember hardly anything of what we talked about the last time. Sigh.
