I ALWAYS tried to balance my time as a teacher and a mental health nurse. In teaching, before the class begins, I see to it that I have my lesson plan and aim to meet all the objectives I set. I would say that during my classes, although I sometimes become forgetful, my everyday “things to do” list guides me.
But it is different when I have clients or friends who need me to assist them in fixing things or just be there to listen. I know how to set the climate before and after the therapeutic talk. But what cannot be planned is what I can say, “a little,” “much,” or “nothing at all” during the actual scenario.
I guess this is the difference between teaching and client therapeutic talk.
Yes, I have been teaching for 19 years. While I have been into listening to clients’ deep silence, loud anger, and deep cries for 21 years. And I am glad that even with the busy tasks I faced in teaching at a university, God always recharged me with the energy to advocate for my students and clients.
I started young as a nurse at St. Peter’s Counseling Home (SPCH). I handled clients in despair due to marital infidelity, broken relationships, suicidal patients, substance abuse, rape victims, young people in conflict with the law, and other forms of emotional abuse. I must be honest that I am not good at treating bruises, broken bones, and open wounds. But I feel I can best heal wounded hearts, shattered dreamers, lost in a maze, and bleeding souls.
The experience of assessing the patients through their eyes, which is the window to their souls, helps me determine lies and truths. To hear their voices simply tells me if there is joy within or pain kept. The body movements and gestures tell me if they are ready to open or not. All these are the beauty I have encountered that I did not learn from school but through experience.
SPCH with Dr. Rodulfo P. Esteves, founder, and Dr. Felomino A. Gargar. Co-founder have selflessly educated and trained their staff to passionately take care of clients. For the past 34 years, they have not only healed broken people across the world. But they have built young and old professionals to become the world’s most significant patient-centered mental health care providers and devotees.
Serving SPCH for 22 years, I have also encountered where I failed to gain the client’s trust initially, or I might not have given my full attention during our talks. I am also a human that would need others to listen to my cries too. And I am also imperfect like my clients.
But I always hold on to the words of Dr. Esteves and Dr. Gargar that no one can learn what is right without imperfection. And to be able to listen to others in need is to extend the muscle of empathy and patience. Because those that can empathize and have patience can provide a gift to others that no amount of wealth can buy.
Ahh, the more I listened to other cries, the more I felt alive. Happy 34th anniversary to SPCH that helped me to love my imperfect “me” and imperfect “others”.