David...

[lacysky23]

Michele's son. In case you were wondering. Sunday night Michele called and asked me if I would talk to David, per his request, and I was lik, 'of course.' David and I talked for about an hour, well into midnight. Yes, I did some grief counseling with him, psycho-education on stages of grief, provided some coping skills, etc. He opened up and shared emotions with me that night (anger, sadness, unmotivated, in ability to concentrate, feeling overwhelmed between doing school work and wanting to be there to help his grandmother. Broke my heart. He feels lost about his future now, because his grandad was teaching how to work on cars and work with his hands. It was a hard hit for him, his grandad was his stable, yes, stable and consistent father figure while his real dad was in prison. I'm in complete shock david opened up to me. He rarely does that. I helped michele figure out how to navigate dealing with the school, etc. I was glad to be able to help him. The next day, Michele and I are talking and she is almost in anguish that when she tries to talk to David, he won't talk to her or open up that much but will with his girlfriend or grandma. Michele takes it so fucking personal that he won't open up to her but presents with her own contradiction in that she doesn't exactly handle other people very well when they are in an emotional state. I tried really hard to remind her of that, that she starts to shut down when people get over emotional, and I tried to implore her to not take it so personal that David does the same thing in expressing his emotions. Yes, I know it hurts when our kids shuts us out, and it's hard to not to let it upset us, but it's not about us, it's about our kids. I then started questioning if it was a good idea that, yes, while I was talking to David, it could have been a therapy session I was having with one of my kids. It was focused on educational and normalization and validation of his feelings, but also, like hey of this persist, then it's possibly more than grief and gave warning signs. Did I do the right thing or did I cross a line?

Comments

[grim23]

I think you did the right thing. He's not a client, and you provided emergency crisis counseling, and you'll provide a referral to another practitioner. I'd follow up with your clinical supervisor and make sure.

[lacysky23]

Thanks. David doesn't want to see a therapist right now. I offered to refer her to someone, but she said he wouldn't go. I gave michele the warning signs to look for if things persist ongoing.

[grim23]

OK. I would definitely follow up with your clinical supervisor, and I would definitely document that call.