My Values: Part 1

So, I am starting a blog series about my work/life values, how they developed, and how they influence my practice. It's essential to know your values. When you're living and working inline with your values, it is a form of self-care. You're making sure your needs are being met.   

I will not lie to you; identifying your core life values isn't easy. I feel like it taken me years to truly identified my values and going through the DClinPsy interview process helped me massively with this. I also want to make a disclaimer: our values are always changing. So my values now might be different in a few years, however, I will be talking about my values now. The first value I am going to talk about is Collaboration. 

 What is collaboration?  

Collaboration can mean a lot of different things. However, for me it means working with two or more people or organizations to complete a task or achieve a goal. 

 How did I develop this value?  

I first developed this value when I was younger. I was an undiagnosed dyslexic who struggled with reading and processing information throughout high school. To help me understand what I was learning and revise for exams (the task/goal), I would go around and discuss with other people who understood the topic and worked with them to support my understanding of a Topic. Furthermore, when I was struggling with managing my emotions, going to my close friends and talking it out with them always helped me manage my feelings and vice versa. These experiences have helped me develop the core belief/assumption that working with others is the best way to achieve a goal. I will use the CBT formulation below to explain these cycles.  

 Whenever I worked collaboratively with the client, their network, and other local agencies to support their needs, I saw more long-lasting positive outcomes for the client. Conversely, when I haven't worked collaboratively with the client and have just been too focused on facilitating the therapy “correctly” due to my perfectionist tendencies, long-lasting positive outcomes aren't always achieved. (don’t worry; I will be talking about this in another article) These experiences have taught me the importance of involving clients and their networks at the centre of practice and the benefit it provides for clients in supporting their needs. This reflection is always in the back of my mind, providing me with the means to work with the mindset of putting clients at the forefront of my clinical practice.