Everyone Can Benefit from Counseling

It's a little known fact that my favorite television show is Cheers. You know it as the show set in a bar with a womanizing owner, the battling bar maids (one crass and the other intellectual), a beer guzzling, unemployed accountant and other well casted characters. Cheers is great not because of the story lines but because of the characters. The theme song opening each episode explains what the show was all about--relationships and all that is involved with great friendships.

Just within the past month I have experienced the essence of what life was like in that tiny Boston bar. While undergoing a bout of personal darkness I turned to friends, and without surprise, they came through for me. I have been wrestling with my sense of purpose, particularly as it relates to career. Falling into an unhealthy emotional state, I decided I needed the help and support of those I trust.

I remember years back my best friend would say that "everyone can benefit from counseling," and I, of course, loved to debate his premise of the frailty of the human spirit. He went on to a career in counseling and social services while I pursued ministry. Go figure that we both would work in fields where the depravity of the individual is a central theme. Anyway, remembering our antagonist conversations, I decided to seek him out for career counseling. I went to him with a book in hand that had been recommended to me by another great friend. That book, 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller, has been a tremendous resource in self reflection and a good start in this career counseling process.

I guess what I am saying is that place where everyone knows your name is a good place. Without the honest feedback, resources, and the accountability of friends, I imagine that I would remain in this dark period spiraling toward rock bottom. I am now a believer; counseling can benefit everyone and friends you can turn to in times of crisis are invaluable.