To Everything There is a Season, and This Season is Done

My time as a counselor, for right now, is done.

In January 2007, I graduated Gordon-Conwell with a Master's in Counseling. I zipped through the program in record time because I knew the track in life I wanted and had only that goal in mind. I busted my rear and graduated Cum Laude while taking extra classes to get out 1-3 semesters earlier than my peers.

In December of 2007 I joined Peer In Counseling Center as a counselor under supervision and working towards becoming a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). I needed only to pass the National Counselor Examination (NCE) and accumulate 2000 supervised hours, 740 of which had been obtained in graduate school.

In July of 2009 I passed my NCE and statistically was within the top 5-10% of people who took the same test as me. In December of 2009 I completed my 2000 hours. However, because of life circumstances, a budding practice, and general distractions it was a few months before I turned in my final application.

What I learned after submitting my application was that in October of 2009, my licensure board voted to change several of the requirements to become a counselor. Chief among the changes was to move the required hours under supervision to 3000 hours and make the 740 hours obtained as a graduate student only count as an educational requirement and not count towards the 3000 necessary hours.

This was a huge blow to the progress I had made because I was now not considered up for licensure and the additional requirements voted on by the board made it much more impractical to obtain the additional hours needed. In essence, they made maintaining my private practice close to impossible. They also refused to grandfather me in under the old requirements because during several discussions with them, I got some terrible process advice and things were done incorrectly.

I am not going lie. I am livid. I am hurt. I am distraught. I feel slighted. I have nothing but disdain for the licensure board. But, after checking many options, there is very little I can do about it. So, I must move on in the confidence that God has brought me to this point and given me my proclivities, training and skills for a reason.

So where does that put me today? No longer able to successfully proceed in my current environment, my counseling supervisor and I have mutually decided that I will no longer be a part of Peer In Counseling Center. We have left on very good terms. I was not fired and I did not quit. I have nothing but love for Kim Honeycutt and the work she does. We both hope that our professional lives will intertwine again. We just agreed, that based on the board's new requirements, it was no longer in my best fiscal interest to continue paying rent on a space that I would not be able to adequately use.

As of September 1, 2010, I will no longer be considered a counselor because any work that I do will be outside of the necessary supervision required to legally call myself one. However, just because I am not currently pursuing my license does not mean I have lost hold of my therapeutic capabilities. I am currently looking at options for how to still involve my daily passions help people in their daily life struggles until I find the environment best suited to continue on in getting my LPC.

I am sure there will be more to come on this in the future, but in addition to following up on a few job possibilities, I may for a time, become a Life Consultant or a similar title. This will provide an opportunity where I can be contracted to work with individuals and families who need someone to provide an outside perspective on their troubles and situations or need a mediator in their marriage or family dynamics. Just because I don't currently hold the title does not mean I do not have the skills.

I may also step away from the field altogether for a while journeying through corporate America trying to positively impact those I come into direct contact with.

How Much Can I Bend Before I Break?

Growing up I was an avid fan of comic books. I no longer read them but I happen to remember one storyline particularly vividly. Over years and years one of my favorite superheroes, Batman, had locked up countless of insane villains in a place called Arkham Asylum. In a concerted effort to do away with Batman once and for all, a guy known as Bane orchestrated the mass breakout of all of the prisoners Batman had put away. The city was now overrun with decades worth of the craziest people, some of which also possessed superpowers. Because the police could not handle the load, Batman had to go after each individual.

Batman spent countless sleepless hours re-apprehending each villain often succumbing to hard falls, bruised bones, and general fatigue from all of the fighting. At the end of it all, Bane finally confronts Batman. On any other day, Batman could easily dispose of Bane despite his super strength. But on that particular encounter, Batman was worn down physically and mentally from days of non-stop fighting. After a small tussle, Bane picks Batman up and easily breaks his back over his knee. The greatest super hero was now crippled and defeated. Broken and left for dead.

That is somewhat how I feel right now. I am constantly fighting the tasks that come before me. I am currently working a full 40-hour week at the job that pays the bills. I am putting roughly 10 to 20 hours each week into my future career as I see clients, plan to teach classes, conduct assessments and read so I can get licensed, most of which is not paid time. I volunteer for CharlotteOne and lead the Ministry team which commits me there every single Tuesday in addition to follow-up throughout the week with people who ask for connections or prayer. Bible study meets every Monday at my house. That is my weekly schedule.
I was just somewhat involuntarily commissioned to lead a new class in mid-April. so I need to learn and prep the new material. I have to start thinking about and raising support for my missions trip in July since some more money is due soon. I still have to get in touch with all of my contacts for references on my licensure application. I need to schedule a new crop of assessments. I foolishly embarked on an aggressive 30 things I want to do before 30 list. I have recorded my grandparents giving an oral history of both sides of our family and need to edit those videos so that they can see their life's works before the opportunity expires.
All of this to say I am wearing down and wondering at what point I will be broken. I would not trade any of it and am not the type to give up on anything and certainly not anything that would let others down. But something is going to have to give soon as I find I no longer have enough hours in the day. I feel like Batman. But unlike him, I know my Bane is coming to snap me in half. I just don't know from where or when.
The good thing about the Batman story is that others were ready to step in for him while he recovered. And he did recover. Batman came back from being broken in half to continue his mission. Part of me desires the break to come so I can get to the recovery and bounce back stronger than ever.

After All This Time...

Oh where does the time go? I posted an indication during the start of the presidential primaries that I would respond to the idea of a Christian's obligation to a welfare state. I never completed that thought, blinked and we are three weeks out from the general election. For those scoring at home, it has been nearly eight months since my last post.
So I will quickly bring you up to speed and my absence and then pave the way for hopefully a slew of blogs including some poetry I worked on while away. (I know, who pegged me for the poetic type?) My mom is at home waving her hand in the air saying, "Pick me, pick me! I knew!"
I am still at the same job I was at working in the Ethics and Compliance field, but I have also been working on expanding my counseling practice. We re-branded, got a new logo, and increased our awesomeness with additional staff. I am really proud of all the work Kim and Laurie have put into their baby and the website looks amazing!
As you can imagine, trying to juggle two jobs is often quite taxing. I often spend an hour or two reading after my roommates have gone to bed and work in a minimum of eight hours of reading per week just to make sure I am in compliance with Licensure expectations. On top of that I am seeing a few clients and doing some marketing. But I try not to let my exhaustion show too much in my energy level thanks to a healthy diet of Red Bull and Starbucks.
Speaking of diets, I have lost some weight! When I weighed in for my physical in March, 2008 I was at a whopping 236 pounds. After a disappointing outcome to a situation, I became motivated to lose the weight starting in July. I am now loosing the weight for me though. At last weigh in I was at 210 pounds. Now granted, I was on a luggage scale at the train station. At my friends apartment, I was at 204 pounds. Being cynical in that matter, I am going for the higher of the two weights as a healthy reminder that I still have a lot of work to do to reach my goal of 185 pounds. And that gout I mentioned in a previous post? Gone. It seems a bit of weight loss combined with simply eating cherries clears it right up. I have not had an outbreak in at least six months!
Summer was absolutely amazing as I had a tremendous time hanging out with friends. We spent a couple weekends at the lake, kayaking/camping on the Pee Dee River, and taking an all guys trip to Cape Hatteras on Labor Day weekend. I have also been playing volleyball on regular basis most Sunday afternoons.
I moved three times this year. In January, Matt Jernigan and I parted ways as roommates. We were still really good friends but Matt craved the opportunity to live by himself for once and I agreed he should experience that at some point in his life. I moved in with a guy I did not know, but we shared a mutual friend. The guy was very weird and was apparently quite unprepared for a roommate as indicated by his refusal to accommodate for space. A small example was a cabinet filled with his coffee mugs leaving no room for any of my dishes or food. The guy admittedly did not even drink coffee. After three weeks we mutually decided to part ways (much to my relief). I moved in with a guy named Brandon Russell. I am not big into name dropping but I know Brandon likes to get his name out there for career purposes. Living with Brandon was much less stressful than the prior encounter. Brandon is a great guy who has a heart for children and for serving others. We were not best friends just due to our difference in proclivities, but I am honored to call him friend and hope to continue in that friendship.
In September, Matt and I found a place we liked and moved back in together since his apartment lease ran up and living by himself was not all he had desired for. We also took on a third roommate named Russell Matthews who was one of my good friends and former college roommate. The house is absolutely amazing and I hope that you will come spend some time with us as we do have an open door policy there. The deck alone is worth the trip out.
This does not adequately summarize everything that has happened in the past eight months but I have to breathe and I have to get back to work. If you would like to keep up with my daily trappings, you can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/UTKevDawg and you can check out my running commentary of the last presidential debate here (#NOPBR08 is a tag to help keep all the thoughts in one easily searchable place).

Please check back in as I have some good stuff stored up and ready to go so posts will be more frequent. I should have some posts up soon about God, Relationships, and Politics.

Updated Status

So much has happened since my previous post. I fully intended to post something by the end of the year and then forgot how hectic the Christmas season can be. Since last posting, I moved out of my apartment after living there for about two-and-a-half years. Our lease ended and my roommate decided he had never lived by himself and wanted the opportunity to. Don't worry we are still great friends and may end up living together towards the end of the year. In January I moved in with this guy and it turned out to be a real hassle. It was apparent from the get go that he was not as prepared as he thought to have a roommate and after three weeks he finally disclosed this and asked me to leave. I will be out by the end of this month although as of today, I am not 100-percent where (although I have some promising leads). I think it will be for the best because I have never had a roommate who was so ignorant to his own selfishness. I don't hate the guy, he is just young and a product of his immaturity which I am confident he will grow out of, as most people do, and will develop into a great guy. I just caught him at a bad time and at this point and I am not going to extend myself to be cordial after the hassle he has created in my life at a time when I have been in great need of rest.
I am very anxious to move on in life and am having trouble being patient. I want to buy a house that I can be responsible for and do home repairs, I want to get a dog for companionship and to keep me entertained, and I would like to meet my wife (admittedly for the same reason as the dog but on a much deeper level haha). God is constantly shining insight into my life and I am struggling to keep up with all he is trying to teach me about myself, His love and grace, and what He is trying to use me for.
On another note, and the reason for my last teaser: I finally got a Counseling job! I am still working at my old job (though I was promoted to a much better position in September) but I hope to make a full transition into Counseling and teaching by the end of the year. I am working to build my clientel base but it is slow going. By the way you can find my new Counseling Center here.
Also, while I will intermingle personal tidbits on here from time to time, I want to get back to my original purpose for this blog and that is to share thoughts and discussions. So please feel free to interact with responses and ideas. Hope to here from y'all soon.

Welcome/Update

Welcome to my new blog. If you are looking over to the right and notice it looks like a long web page, please do not be intimidated. I transferred my previous blogs onto here from myspace.com only recently, this way you do not need any sort of account to engage in my blog. So take your time and enjoy.

To begin with I did not start this blog with the intention of having a spot for any sort of egotistical rant. Rather I hope that if nothing else you will stay updated on my life or thoughts, make comments, and in turn I can make stay up with you. I hope it will be a chance to share thoughts and ideas with people you have never met as you read their comments. I hope it will create a small community (as you will soon see is a running theme in my blogs). So I highly encourage you to post any thoughts you have with anything that is on here or that gets posted in the future.

I think my last major update went out about two and a half years ago. After that if you were not living in Charlotte I probably for the most part lost touch with you. So I will quickly bring you up to speed:

The reason why I have been out of touch for the last little bit is because I got hid over the head with a major task called grad school. On January 12, 2007, I graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary with a MA in Christian Counseling (don't let the label fool you, I am just as qualified to psycho-analyze you if you believe in Shiva, Allah, or nothing at all). And for those keeping record at home I am officially MasterLock.

I completed my degree a full semester faster than most people do on a fast track at a school where the average age was 35. I also did it while graduating Cum Laude (3.63). I do not say all that to congratulate myself, but with the exception of my Eagle Scout Award, it is my proudest accomplishment to date.

And that was pretty much all I have done in the last two and a half years. During that time I did various internships, worked at Department of Social Services (insert political commentary and expletives here), and bottomed out on my finances and energy twice. Now I am looking for a job doing counseling hopefully with Marriage and Families or with adolescence. When I find that job, I will work on getting licensed in the state I am working in. I am looking, so if you know anyone...

I am still single, no kids, I don't think I have any nieces or nephews. My parents moved out of Atlanta after 17 years and are now living in New Bern, North Carolina as the proud owners of an AAMCO franchise.

Please check back in regularly as I hope to get at least a blog out each week with an update or my thoughts on something. I like to pretend I am the know-all to end-all so please humble me with your own thoughts on anything I might talk about. I know human personality will be discussed but I hope to get some controversial ideas out just get conversation stimulated. Also if you have any ideas, shoot me an email and I will try to post my thoughts.

The idea here is to journey deeper, not just into my thoughts but below the surface, to draw each other out like water from a well.

Hope to hear from you soon.

The Story of the Disapearing Klock

There have been a lot of people who I have not been in contact with over the past few weeks and months. Some of you have sent messages and I have yet to respond and some of you I have in the past kept up with on here in the past but have been really bad about checking in.

The reason why is because things here are a lil' nuts right now. I am currently preparing for the most difficult 57 days I have had to endure. Why 57? Because that is how many days I have left to get all of my work turned in for graduation. If I do not have all my work complete by December 15th, 2006, I cannot officially graduate until May 2007. If I do not graduate until May then that is five months I have to sit on my duff doing nothing while in the meantime I cannot prepare or get hours to count towards state licensure or apply for jobs under the pretense of having my Masters.

So what do I have to complete before December 15? Well, I am glad you asked. I currently have to read a minimum of 4 1/2 assigned books plus whatever books I need for my research paper. I have to write a 20 page research paper on Calvinism vs. Armenianism, write an 8 page opinion paper on the importance of the quest for the historical Jesus, write 4 book reviews on books I have read, and prepare for and take 4 exams. This is surprisingly the easy part. I really do not think I will miss the deadline there and am not really too stressed out about it.
The difficult part comes in that I have to complete 85 face-to-face counseling hours in addition to roughly 60 administrative hours. 85 hours is going to be tough to drum up while the 60 should be no problem. It has taken me 48 days to get 35 face-to-face hours so this not going to be a small feat. I am working with various other counselors to get clients or sit in on sessions, which will count for my face-to-face hours, but I still need 85 of them.

Meanwhile I am doing all of this while working a full-time job because I have to qualify for benefits so I can get my aching neck and back looked at. I also have to provide for myself because my parents moved and are in absolute chaos and pandemonium. So quitting my job is not an option because my parents (who I don't like to rely on for money anyways) said even if they wanted to, they could not bail me out financially if I get in trouble.

So to recap: lots of school work, lots of internship hours, full-time job, and coo-coo parents.

I say all that to say I am sorry for not keeping up but it is only going to get worse until December 15th so I would appreciate your prayers and support. And while I may only get limited chances to respond, I still appreciate reading messages. Please check in on December 15th to see if I made it or not. It will be an exciting guessing game and I highly encourage placing your bets in Vegas now.

Ta-ta for now,
Kevin

New Territory

Well I finally I did it! I left my job at The Department of Social Services! After working there a few days shy of a year I turned in my two week notice, used a week of built up vacation time, and today was my last day. It was kinda of sad/neat to see a little of the impact I was able to have on people. I have seen people leave before me without much fanfare but my team brought breakfast for me, some folks I eat lunch with got me a huge cake, and people talked all day about how much they were going to miss me and how I made the day go by easier with my good sense of humor. I don't say that to toot my own horn, I was just really honored and humbled because folks don't usually tell me that type of stuff to my face.

Now what next? Well the primary reason I left was because I have a really tough semester in my graduate program and so I am going to scrape by and concentrate on school and hopefully an internship. I need to do some part time work and have a possibility lined up getting people free estimates for gutters and siding. The pay is really good but I feel a little uncomfortable about the idea. Another possibility is window washing and power washing driveways and such. My best friend introduced me to this idea while I was in Seattle and I spoke with his boss about what it would take. It is feasible there has been enough interest from co-workers that I might be able to jump on it. (By the way thanks Mike to you and Courtney for such a great time and great hospitality, really, I'm indebted).

I guess it is a little scary right now. I know God has my best interest and this is only temporary (unless business really takes off washing). But I have lost steady income and healthcare in one swoop. My parents said that if I get in a jam they will help out. However I don't want it to come to this for two reasons: first I HATE taking money/gifts from other people. I just feel awful doing it and is something I have had a hard time getting over. The second reason is that if I accept the money then I have accepted failure. I succeed in most things I do and all though this is completely new, I don't want to say I couldn't cut it.