We select a profession that will help others. We focus on helping them travel down life’s sometimes-bumpy highway.

 

However, we may find that this isn’t always easy, because

 

 

People Are . . .

 

As a psychologist, my focus is on people—who they are, what they do,       

     and how they navigate through life.

Sometimes what I observe makes perfect sense, but at other times

     it causes me considerable strife.

 

One of my patients didn’t take anything I said seriously and turned 

     everything into a joke.

She quipped, “As a therapist, you must understand ‘people are funny’ 

     and, from you, a laugh I’m trying to provoke.”

 

Another patient attempted to impress me with how extraordinary he was      

     and there was nothing he couldn’t do.

He was so arrogant, he frustrated me beyond belief and I said, “Yes,

     some ‘people are amazing,’ but one of them isn’t you.”

 

Well, as you can see, my job isn’t easy, because people aren’t always willing 

     to work with me, as they should.

In another situation, the husband, during a Couples Therapy session, yelled 

     at his wife, “You know, ‘people are world changers,’ and if you’d let me be 

     the boss, our world would be very good.”

 

While these sessions didn’t go as planned, the most disturbing ones occur 

     when “people are unreasonable” and resist the chance to get their life back 

     on track, as was the case in the following tale.

A woman entered my office, looked at me with a menacing glare in her eyes, 

     and said, “This is the last place I ever wanted to be and I don’t need your 

     help, but my probation officer told me if I didn’t come, I’d have to go to jail.”

 

Under these circumstances, I thought it might be time to stop being a

     therapist, but I didn’t feel I had the fortitude to do so.

But “people are unpredictable,” and when a client came into my office late

     one afternoon, to my surprise he viewed my credentials hanging

     on the wall, and said, “Do you know your license to practice expired

     a month ago?”

 

Shocked, I thought he was either being funny or possessed amazing ability 

     to see what was not apparent to me.

He changed my world that day in an unpredictable way and made me think it

     wouldn’t be unreasonable to become a retiree.

 

 

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