Our seventh week at PANDA started on a different note. Our usual practice is to go around the table and to comment on the reading you’d done during the week and also how your week of self-care was. I was first. The reading was interesting and I commented on that but then I went on to say that I’d had a massive meltdown the night before and yelled so much at my kids that I started crying and I nearly lost my voice! All over some of my expensive shampoo being squeezed into the bath to make bubbles…
Once I’d cooled down, the only thing I could put my meltdown to was by the end of Mondays when I’ve had a weekend of the boys, then I have a day with my youngest son, I’m ready for some ‘me’ time – or child free time. I’m also tired because I’m not getting enough sleep AND I didn’t do any walking last week because of the weather and other commitments so all in all I was feeling very frazzled and just wishing the kids would do as I ask them to – or at least not squeeze my expensive shampoo into the bath!
Anyway, this little confession led to each and every participant telling us something crappy that had happened to them during the week – from the not so big deal (mine) to the big deal. Another participant is having a lot of trouble with her 3 year old daughter who is difficult to deal with at the moment. This family went through the trauma of the bushfires; with neighbours losing their houses and some people in the little community where she lives losing their lives. Perhaps, as one person put it, Mars is somewhere or other (sorry, not big on astrology!) but it was wonderful to get our issues of our chests.
We then started doing our role plays straight away. I was the observer to start with and then I had to be the counsellor. I started off okay but then I sort of froze again when I felt I couldn’t get any further. Belinda, the facilitator, told me to forget about the process and just try and draw the story out of the caller by exploring their issues further when given an ‘in’. To just ask questions and not go into solution mode is difficult as it feels as if you’re not getting anywhere but of course the main aim is to make the caller feel as if they’re heard and we do this by asking questions and exploring their lives further – active listening.
Next week is our last week, which is a little sad. We then go onto one on one training for ten weeks. Til next week…
