35 Bottles: Strength To Tackle Weakness

i consider myself a mental health professional, though definitively not as skilled as my PhD brother or a masters degree clinician. Yet, I have been exposed to some great stuff-  knowledge that if applied, could do us good-even help  everyone feel better.  When preparing to accept my first job as a rec therapist, I spent time reading research articles regarding therapeutic interventions .  I was drawn to strength based approaches. Instead of focusing on what's wrong with a person, I found it helpful to consider what they had going for them already; what are they pretty good at? what do they like about themselves and others; what can they do with what they already have?

I use an analogy of climbing the treatment mountain.   When we start to dig up the dirt or take digs at self or others we end up making a big hole and displacing a bunch of dirt..It's hard work.  It's hard to hear the dirt about ourselves; we recognize our deficits, what's wrong with us, and the things we need to change.  All these problems represent our current needs.  In traditional treatment this is our chief complaint.   Treatment will be useless unless it addresses accurate diagnosis.   But what about the big hole or the displaced dirt from our digging?  With time this dirt is packed down and forms mountain of sorts...a mountain we will need to climb.We will need strength and put forth a great deal of effort to climb this mountain of our own making.  Why not use every possible resource we have to accomplish the task-use strength to tackle weakness!

My family has many strengths; all of our bodies are pretty healthy- we can see, hear, talk and walk.  I think we have a high level of intelligence.  sure we do stupid things, but I think we are all pretty awake and aware.  We also have a high degree of social and emotional intelligence.   We not only know how to communicate but we know how to make and keep friends.  We know how to reach out and care about the people  around us.  As a family we love and care about each individual family member.  We know how to forgive and make repairs when we offend each other.   There is an unconditionality about our interactions; no matter what happens to us or whatever mistakes we have made... it will be okay... we are still a family with a desire to be a close and connected.  Perhaps the biggest strength of all for any of us, is the ability to keep trying-keep moving forward-and being open and willing to try a new approach to the challenges we face. 

With these strengths at or disposal.  surely we can climb the mountain.  Let's go!