Meet Tyler (Video)

Hey there friends. Tyler here, the new intern at Sea to Tree Health and Wellness. I thought I’d make another video while out and about on the traditional unseated territories of the South people, enjoying this beautiful place that we get to live and play.

I thought to make a video this time about who I am as a counselor. This is an interesting topic to me as I’m very new at this. I’ve gone through my schooling, I’ve learned a lot about many different types of ways in which we might do counseling. I’ve spent the last six to eight months working with clients, getting to try out different modalities, different ways to engage with my clients in finding a way towards health and towards their mental health. So what does that look like? Well, for me, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that while I find myself more naturally inclined towards certain ways of doing counseling, I realized the more I bring that into the session, the more likely it was that that was going to get tossed right out the window as the client takes a left turn and we go somewhere else. What I realized was that this is no different working with clients as it was with working in education with both adults and youth. I need, as a counselor, to be client-led.

That is to say, we go in the direction we go toward the needs of you, not necessarily what I’m comfortable with, not necessarily what I’ve learned and think is the best way to go, but instead find out what your needs are and we go in that direction.

So how do we do that? Well, it comes down to, I think, the cornerstone of all counseling. Most people will tell you it’s the connection between client and counselor. That relationship between us that’s going to develop over time is what’s going to help us find the best way forward. Client-led doesn’t mean doing whatever the client wants necessarily. Some things that a certain client wants may have led them to scenarios and situations in life that they don’t like, that they want changed. So simply doing the same thing just because they’re habitually used to doing it, or that’s just the way they like to do things, might not be the right way. That’s not what we’re going to do in a client-led scenario. Instead, we’re going to get to know each other, we’re going to see what our long-term goals are, what our short-term goals are, and then we’re going to find a path together through the woods towards those goals.

These aren’t necessarily always tangible goals. You might think, “I would like to be in this job by this time.” That might be your goal. But our goals can be more open, more vague, and sometimes we might not be sure we’ve reached them until we’re there. This is why having a flexible, open, reciprocal relationship on the direction of counseling is how I’m imagining moving forward with it. You might think, “I need someone a little bit more, this is the direction we’re going, a little more drive forward.” If that’s the case, that’s great too. There are lots of counselors. In each of my videos, I’ll remind people you can go to seatotree.ca and see all the wonderful counselors there. It could be me, it could be someone else. The important thing is you find the right counselor that you can make a relationship with. That’s how we move forward.