I’m always so anxious that people will find out how much I don’t know. I’m scared they’ll discover how much of helping, coaching, mentoring, loving, caring is flying by the seat of your pants, a choose your own adventure, an essay question, not a multiple choice. We have science here, but it’s seamlessly intertwined with poetry and chutzpah, a recipe that you kinda follow, and it needs to come out a little different every time, because people come out a little different every time. I’m writing to talk about how frightened I am that someone will narrow their eyes at me, point, and yell “FRAUD!” because sometimes I’m the person yelling it.

Nearly a decade of higher education under my belt, and after all this time, I’m still convinced that I was chosen from birth to do this work. That the education helped us to become more ourselves than it ever could have done to inform us of the how of counseling. The how of therapy, of holding space, of honoring another person’s struggles and successes is a set of traits moreso than a course of learning. To be the person that could combine expertise and fellowship, can be encouraged, but never taught.

I’m writing to talk about examining the shadows, and living in integrity, and figuring out which you is the most authentic, and being relentlessly yourself no matter how much fear you face as a result.

 Feel the fear, and do it anyway. The fear isn’t the enemy. Inaction is.

 The rewards of living in this way are as countless as the stars.

You are as unlimited as the Universe.