Returning to your Purpose

Welcome to March, just three months away from our end to the academic year. As we approach that point, I invite you to return to your purpose for entering the profession. Why are you here investing all this time, money, and energy pursuing your masters degree in counseling? Many of us are enrolled in internship and many of us are in the midst of practicum. As you may be discovering, we function in complex systems with complex expectations and rules, often administered by persons other than helping professionals. Sometimes the counseling process may seem less about the actual client/student and maybe more about checking off the boxes and keeping the system afloat (i.e., tending to the mandated piles of paperwork and red tape in the school or agency setting). This common experience is nothing short of confusing, and I find that it can begin to limit our thinking about the broad possibilities of what counseling can look like and what it means to be “effective”. Exposure to these systems often leads to the question am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing with a student or client? assuming that there may be some kind of pre-established path we are to take with the people we serve according to an authority, whether that be a supervisor or an insurance company.

Ultimately, the options for how you approach counseling are endless. And, as you may be discovering, there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer. In many cases your default approach comes back to your own worldview and/or the worldview you have adopted by some other entity based on your lived context. Maybe that’s not a bad thing and many of our strengths come from this place. However, I’m continuously reminded of how limited my worldview can be at times in the various contexts I serve, and I think it’s pretty important to find ways to become familiar with and expand it. I’d like to offer three tips in exploring your own worldview, albeit there are many ways.

1. Purpose–I tend to be pretty existential. I’m always asking the question “why”. Why do I exist right here, right now? Why am I a counselor? What purpose and meaning does it fulfill in me? Society? And, in what ways can I carry out this purpose? Some folks call this process the identification of your “north star”, your moral compass (check out Kaipa and Radjou’s book From Smart to Wise: Acting and Leading with Wisdom). Big questions, I know, but this is an ideal moment in your development to grapple with the bigger question of your why—and what counseling has to do with it.

2. Vision–I recently attended a writer’s workshop. It was mostly a conversation with how to be strategic in getting one’s writing accomplished, but I was fascinated when the speaker brought up the development of a “1000 year vision.” As in, in what ways do I envision my current actions carrying out in 1000 years? Initially, I thought this was a little too intense for me. 1000 years? How could any of my current actions have that level of impact? But the more I thought about it the more the idea made sense. I returned to my purpose (“the why”) which has implications for the vision (“the what”). I encourage you to give this exercise a try, first clarifying your purpose as you see it now and identifying the vision for your life and career and how they align with your purpose. I have found this process helpful when in the trenches and it helps me prevent losing sight of the “why.” And, it provides me with a better sense for how my daily actions are in alignment with my vision and purpose. It gives me permission to say “yes” to the things that feed my purpose and vision and opportunity to say “no” to other things.

3. Reflection–So you have developed your purpose and are clear on your vision. Then what? Find or develop a reflective practice that works for you and place it somewhere in your day or multiple points throughout your week. That might be exercise, meditation, prayer, recreation—whatever it is, return to your north star and your vision. In doing so, you will come to see the strengths and limitations of your worldview, if you are open to them. Doing so will help you expand your perspective on life and highlight the areas you can further grow. This process honors our beliefs while encouraging us to consider how we can continuously adjust our vision in a variety of contexts to be in alignment with our purpose.

I strongly believe that the clearer you become on your own worldview (purpose and vision), the clearer you will become on the question am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing with a student or client. Through continued reflection you will have opportunity to further understand the strengths and limitations of your worldview and gain clarity on your approach and the kinds of therapeutic shifts possible in your context. And, as I mention above, this is one way out of infinite possibilities to explore your genuine purpose/vision in exploring the more specific question of your purpose and vision in counseling. So, adapt this process to fit you. I wish you well on this journey and please let me or any of the faculty know how we can support you along the way!

-Ryan Reese