I’ve often joked before that I feel like I will be in school for the rest of my life.  I’ve already been in college on some level for over half of my married life.  Makes me feel like Pauly Shore in the move “Son In Law” where he says, “It’s cool…I’ve majored in almost everything.”  While learning never ends at any point, how much more can spend in the academic world.  Being here at Liberty University this week has shown me one cool fact.  I can actually learn something new.  This comes from not just the learning in the lecture sessions, but sitting down and actually doing real and raw counseling sessions with my fellow classmates has been tremendous.

From the very first session, there was a sense of calm about it all.  It was just a short 5 minute practice session with the person sitting next to me in class, but getting into the heart of it all helped me to realize that yes, I can actually do this.  It was an amazing feeling to sit there in the practice sessions those first couple of days and get to practice.  I got the chance to first be in the client seat, which gave me empathy for the people I will be counseling and understanding on some level what they are going through.  It was a great experience.

On night two, I met with two other classmates who are considered my triad and we had to conduct the first of 3 video recorded counseling sessions.  Knowing I was on video definitely added an element of nerves to the experience.  It was a longer 15 minute session as well, which in that first situations just seemed to go on and on.  When I had to go back and watch the session, I could see areas I did well, but certainly see where the nerves effected me.

Coming to today, we had to conduct our second video session.  Wow…what a difference after seeing myself the first time and learning from the valuable feedback from my classmates as well as guidance from my awesome professor.  The smoothness of the sessions and being able to allow the client to really get into the heart of the issues.  It was tremendous and then on top of that, 15+ minutes flew by like it was nothing because I was more relaxed by it all.

As I sit here at Panera Bread eating dinner right now and look over everything and ponder over it, this led me to realize, hey, I can learn something new.  I can actually do this and as I learn my grove will be able to do it well.  First my first week of counseling anyone in a formal setting, it’s impressive to see how far things have moved.  Especially realizing that from all of the reading, all of the theory, I don’t need to over complicate it.  The basics are much simpler than you realize when you get your thoughts out of the way and just stay present with the person.

This brings a lot of excitement.  This week has also helped further reaffirm in my heart that God has me right where I am supposed to be.  I move into the final day of Intensive and beyond with greater confidence.  In my mind I constantly here the words, “I’m walking with the confidence of ten men.”  It’s definitely a Holy Spirit led journey and I walk tall, or as tall as I can :), to the next chapters.