I rarely, when I was working, noted what I did for a living. As soon as psychiatric social worker or therapist was mentioned, conversation stopped dead. Most people would assume that I would just internally psychoanalyze them while standing there. It just freaked them out. They did not want to reveal themselves.
I never did or do that. I only worked for pay, with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and groups that I was not related to or knew in my actual life. It is called ethics. Early on one of my best mentors said to me that the best therapist knew how to care about a case, person, couple group, without giving a shit. She was right, when I was invested in the clients' goals and not in a personal relationship with them, only a professional relationship, then I was a damn good therapist.
My first job came out of a master's internship. I worked as a group home staff person at Pathfinders for Runaways, in Milwaukee. A limit setter, support person who kept the peace in the house. All the kids were white, from mostly middle class or lower-class families. I did not do any therapy. The kids taught me a lot. It was a good basic beginning.
My second job was at a place called Martin Center, located in the “inner Core” of Milwaukee. That translated to the African American part of town. Martin Center was for African American young men, in transition from incarceration back to the community. I was the only Caucasian employee. I was scheduled for the second shift on the fourth floor. Heavy Hitters and Players almost ready for Real Life as my supervisor described them. My job entailed, preventing violence between the young men, ensuring they did their homework and chores, and on weekends checked them out for passes, and checked them back in at the end of their passes, which at time meant giving them detention for being late, high or trying to smuggle drugs in. None of them liked the detentions as that meant a longer stay and no passes for a while. I did not do any therapy. However, I learned about a different culture, and completely different lives. Again, those young men taught me a lot.
In both places I learned how to develop relationships and rapport with individuals that were under my supervision and that did not really want to have a relationship and rapport with me unless it worked to their advantage. Oppositional clients.
After I got my master's degree, I was hired by Jewish Vocational Services of Milwaukee. My clients would be adults with severe psychiatric disorders. 85 follow along cases in the community, two halfway houses with bachelor level house managers and the first three quarter way house in the state. A building that held 10 one-bedroom apartments, with kitchens and a group room and two house managers. The last preparation before returning to the community. In all I would be responsible for 130 clients and supervision of 6 staff. The follow alongs had been placed in the community without the benefit of the preparation of the halfway house programs. They were direct releases from psychiatric hospitals. All the 130 clients had severe psychiatric disorders of all types. Most of the follow along clients were scattered all over Milwaukee in extremely poor living situations and living off government stipends.
This was speed learning under duress. The first 6 suicides of the 9 in my 42-year career happened at this job. Each time there was a suicide I learned what signs I had missed, what behavior had indicated what was about to happen before it did. This was a painful way to learn. It was made worse by a sadistic Psychiatrist that was quite judgmental and harsh in his post suicide reviews. However, once I learned what to look for and listen for, I never forgot.
After this job, I interviewed for a position at Waukesha County Mental Health and was hired. This was a wonderful job. I was able to work with children as young as 6, adolescents, families, couples, and individual adults. I received excellent on the job training in all aspects of working with these client populations. I was trained in cognitive behavioral treatment, solution focused therapy, child therapies, couple's therapies, and family therapies. I was trained to work utilizing a one-way mirror with a team of therapists behind the mirror working with a therapist and clients in front of the mirror. On Fridays myself and the head psychologist went to the county jail to assess inmates for the need for inpatient treatment at the county psychiatric hospital. When I left this job to move to California, I could work with any population with a variety of treatment approaches.
As I needed to be licensed to practice in social work in California, the first job I got there was as a group home worker at Oz San Diego, a place for runaway teenagers, and kids being released from juvenile hall and their families. During this time, I studied and passed my licensing test.
The head of the company that ran Oz San Diego, had been hired to run the county wide Family Service Association a long-standing well-known therapy company, that had come upon hard financial times.
He hired me to run the financially strapped understaffed branch that served the city of San Diego and the east County. This meant I was an administrator, responsible for budgets, staff hiring, supervision and development as well as grant writing and program development as well as developing a branch wide internship program. During my years running that branch I was able to take it from losing vast amounts of money to being solvent with a cash reserve. Developing 4 innovative programs and increasing staff size fourfold, as well as starting a branch wide internship program. However, I learned that, although I was good at being an administrator and running the Branch, I hated the job and the personal cost it entailed. To be an administrator you had to lose your soul and be a cutthroat. I hated that. I also dearly missed doing therapy, doing direct work with clients. So, when a job opening at Kaiser Permanente came to my attention I applied and got the job with an enormous pay and benefits raise.
At Kaiser I spent the last 25 years of my social work career working with the same client populations as I had at Waukesha County Mental Health. I developed their first anger management classes, codependency classes, and senior support groups as well as supervising many young social work interns. The last 10 years at Kaiser I worked in crisis intervention, dealing with suicidal and homicidal patients and getting them hospitalized. Over my 42-year career I experienced only 9 clients who committed suicide while under my care and no homicides.
So over those 42 years I listened to thousands of stories, and in some ways helped edit them, rewrite them or suggest new stories for the clients that I worked with.
The farm boy had followed his intention of trying to understand humans, and if possible help them to flourish or find their way.
Jon Pinter
So interesting to read your story!