And moving through them.
I feel really quite good right now.
So much better than I have in some days.
I also did a big inventory today.
I toss that word around sometimes without much explanation–inventory is a way for me to work through resentments I have about people, places, and things, sometimes concepts.
I inventoried the fuck out of my housing situation.
I saw selfishness and fear and self-seeking and dishonesty.
I saw my part, you could say.
And I found a way through.
A way to continue this process of not knowing what is going to come next.
I had a conversation with my landlady yesterday.
It was not what I expected and I was baffled by the exchange.
But.
It was enlightening and I have deep compassion for the both of us.
I mean.
That’s the only way through.
We both have things we want and ultimately, we both want the same thing at this point-me to move the fuck out.
I need something better and she doesn’t want me living here anymore.
The means to the ends is where we disagree.
And that’s fine.
There may always be opinion about that and opinion is not my business.
What people think about me is not my business.
God.
Fuck.
Of course I want to know.
I want to know so I can manipulate myself into making everyone fucking happy so that I can be comfortable.
I’m comfortable when others are taken care of.
I can relax.
But.
The facts are.
NOBODY is taking care of me.
I have to do it.
I have to put myself and my needs first.
So I have to let go of what others, the landlady, my friends, my fellows, clients, my cohort at school, my employer, think of me.
I have to.
Or it will kill me.
I can’t go around making everyone happy.
I just can’t.
So.
I got some good freaking clarity after seeing where my part was, seeing how trying to get acceptance from others or relying on them rather than my God wasn’t working.
Never has.
Never will.
People are failable.
Fuck.
I am failable.
I will fail you.
Guarantee it.
There was a time I would have apologized for that failing or tried really, really, really hard to be the perfect person and not fail.
But.
You know what?
It’s ok to make mistakes, it’s ok for me to not be perfect, it’s ok for me to fuck up.
I fucked up.
I made a decision based on fear at the beginning of my tenancy that led me here.
I’m ok with that.
Sure.
Wished I had done it different, but I can’t change that, I can accept that I was doing the best I could, in a co-dependent people pleasing sort of way, and that seeing the results accrue over the past five years has brought me to this place that is requiring me to make a really big change.
Self-advocacy.
Non-personal.
Do right for myself sort of change.
I was really grateful I did the work to get to that place and really grateful that I have been earnestly praying for my landlady.
I mean.
I have.
For her happiness, joy, financial success, romantic love, family love, relationships with friends, success with her job, everything and anything that I could think of.
We all deserve the best and by focusing on that rather than trying to make myself out to be a victim and her some overblown hyperbole of a landlord, I get to see her as a human being doing the best she can do.
We are all doing the best we can do.
It’s ok.
Another persons best interst is not my best though.
And I recognize that.
I have had a lot of time to reflect on things today and I am grateful for that.
Ooh!
I have also spent a lot of time researching an internship!
Check it out:
Grateful Heart is a therapy organization in the Bay Area which provides sliding scale psychotherapy for all sorts of folks.
It was recommended to me after I told my therapist about the internship that I was going to do falling through.
The supervisor I was going to work with made it abundantly clear that it had nothing to do with my clinical skills or abilities, she really likes me, she believes I am a great therapist, but, it wasn’t a good time for her to go from being a solo practitioner to having to incorporate a LLC.
I get it.
I was upset.
But you know, opportunity to find something that will be a better fit.
With Grateful Heart Therapy AMFTs can lease their own office underneath their supervision.
MY OWN OFFICE.
Now.
It will take time to get my own office up and running and it will take money, money that I don’t necessarily have, although I flirted really hard with the idea of using my credit card, the one I got nearly a year ago and have never used.
Or.
Hmm.
Maybe I could do a GoFundMe?
Thoughts to explore.
Anyway.
The center provides the infrastructure, they do payroll, billing, supervision.
They have over 40 supervisors and they have groups that are supervised, they do trainings and they use psychotherapeutic tools developed by the master herself–Nancy McWilliams, a clinician I have written about wanting to work under, she’s amazing, I loved reading her work in my Master’s program.
It takes some time to get things up and running, but I would be able to see clients, charge them, and have my own office. Grateful Heart would take $350 a month for operating cost and to cover supervision, I would pay payroll taxes, etc and they would cut me a check.
I saw an empty office today at the building my current internship is in.
The door was unlocked and there was a sign that said “Take A Peek!”
Peek I did.
It’s small, but clean, on the fifth floor where I already see clients, a view of Twin Peaks.
I could imaging pictures hanging on the wall, a couch, a therapist chair, file cabinets, plants, lamps to provide soft lighting, a spot for an electric kettle and tea cups.
I stood in the warm little space and dreamed a little dream.
It felt pretty damn good to contemplate.
Tomorrow I will be having coffee with a friend of mine who is currently working for Grateful Heart and I’m going to pick her brains about it.
I can’t wait.
I feel like I can breathe again.
And sleep.
I know where I stand with how I need to proceed forward with my landlady and I have a new internship to explore with the option of starting my own private practice office much, much, much sooner than I had expected.
I am sincerely.
And truly.
Over the moon.
Auntiebubba 