Nicolas and another counselor are discussing the way counselors are trained at the Berkeley Free Clinic.
N: So uh, what do you think about the way that our test site is going, in terms of the way the clinic, in our new kind of collective organization stuff, uhm, how do you think this is influencing the style of counseling and training and all of that kind of stuff?
C: Actually, the way, what we're doing right now?, what we're doing right now in the last six weeks is incredible. I am really excited about it. About having people sit in with each other, I think that we learn in leaps and bounds that way. I think that collaboration is everything and that you know you get two people with good IQs together and they collaborate and you've got something more than a genius, an
N: You mean with a client so that both of you jump in with the client
C: Yeah, and I think that you really learn that way. I think that the new trainees are learning and I'm learning and I think everybody's learning and I think we should have more of that as we go along, I think it's really useful not just in keeping up your skill level and not just quality control but just this whole energy jump in the room. If people work well together.
N: Right, cause, it's like this is something really obviously every test clinic could benefit from but it seems prohibitive when you're paying your counselors to have them double up, you know, it's obviously something that only we can do, but it's really interesting to hear like how useful it is because maybe that would convince people do it more often, or at least a post shift you know, like no one else does post shifts.
C: Post shifts are really important.
N: What do you get out of the post shift?
C: Uhm. Well, I get a couple of different things. I get support for whatever it is that's bothering me. That's been going on. I get uhm, technical information. You know, emotional and technical support. I learn things from other people, someone will say well I said this to my client when they said, and it's like YES, that's great, that's so good. Uhm, I find gaps in my knowledge. I learn something every time. One of the things that I think is most important is it lets me get a feel for how evreyone's emotional, their comfort level in dealing, I'm really concerned about our counselors feeling like they have to counsel every client who goes into a room with them, whether or not they feel safe.
N: Can you give me some examples of this counselors not feeling safe. What kind of situations are you talking about?
C: Well, uhm, two of our counselors, two women counselors about six months ago or so had these two guys come in who just completely lied on the forms, totally harassed them.
N: The two like brothers or something, yeah.
And it doesn't sound safe, it sounds horrible. They were getting emotionally fucked over.
N: They screwed over the phlebotomist too.
C: And they stayed in the room with these men, and they should have left, and I want our counselors to be like, you know what, there's the door, go somewhere else.
N: Yeah. What abot less obvious kind of stress that maybe hits you after shift or something like that, do you?
C: Less obvious emotional stresses?
N: Like just people that you can't quite
C: Shake
N: Shake.
C: It happens all the time. I decompress, uh, when I feel like something like that is happening to me, I grab another counselor and go outside and talk to them. That's how I was with the fourteen year old who got raped, I grabbed both Jennifer and Cherry, I was like help me.
N: Because there's the whole smoking club that goes out and decompress with each other.
C: And yeah I talk about it, it's the only thing I can do to not bring it home. I had this girl who was so bright, punk girl, who was so bright, and she was on the suicide mission, she slept with someone who she knew was positive cause she wanted to die. And I just, she just, I started a rescue trip and it was like Wow, wait a second, because she was just so lost and so worth salvaging you know, but I couldn't do it all, all I could say was I'm gonna give you referrals,
N: And you still think about her?
C: Yeah, well I see her all the time. So.
N: That's hard.
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