To my readers:
For those of you who follow this blog on Facebook, you would have seen a post recently describing the shift which has occurred within the blog. For those who are new to the blog or who follow the blog through other avenues, you may be a little confused. I wanted to take some time before the New Year started to do a “relaunch”, of sorts. I wanted to take some time to describe who I am, my perspective, and how I got to where I am now. Here goes…
When you go into private practice as a therapist, one of the first questions you have to ask yourself is “What should I name my private practice?”. General internet searches will tell you to either go with your name or a theoretical perspective which guides you as a clinician. I decided to go with a theoretical perspective. I wanted something that emphasized my perspective that it is impossible to understand a person without understanding their environment. Not just the environment in which they are currently, but also the environments and social interactions which have gotten them to this point.
As a social worker by training, I have always appreciated of the systems and “Person-In-Environment” that makes the social work perspective unique. I believe that we are social beings as such those social aspects have an impact on us as a person. However, I do not limit “Person-In-Environment” to the current environment. I believe that past environments and past social interactions have developmental implications; that is, what happened in the past impacts the person we are today. If we want to better understand the person we are today, it means we must understand how the past and current environments and social implications have impacted us within the past and how they are currently impacting us.
so•cial con•text/ noun/ the circumstances that form the development of a person; experiences, social interactions, perspectives; through which a person can be understood.
When I first started this blog, I was working as a school-based social worker providing emotionally and behaviorally based interventions to kindergarten through high school students. Thus, many of the interventions described originally were targeted toward that population. As I have made the transition to private practice, I have decided to have my blog reflect my work with individuals, families, and couples. The intent of this blog is to provide practical information and interventions to help people along their own paths to become their best selves and live their best lives.
I originally thought about deleting older posts to reflect the current shift. However, I thought that in keeping with my social context perspective it was important to keep these posts. Both as a reflection of my own professional development, but also as valuable resources for people who have found the information to be helpful.
I have appreciated everyone who has taken the time to support me on this journey. I look forward to providing you with great content in the future. Feel free to comment on our Facebook, Instagram, or within the comment section of this blog if there are specific topics you would like to hear more about.
Sincerely,
Teralyn
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