Never Done Up!

In addition to working with clients in my private practice, I also work in a prison where I treat incarcerated young men.

A few weeks ago, one of my young men requested to speak to me and when he entered my office, it was clear that he was completely broken. “Doc, I’m done up”.

He spoke about how he messed up the opportunity given to him by parole to go home earlier than expected. Unfortunately, after being back in society for a short period of time he got caught up in a situation that landed him back in custody.

“I’m done up”, was his mantra throughout our conversation.

It could have been easy to just feel bad for him, but instead I helped him see that his rock bottom did not have to be a permanent place. I love uplifting people, especially people that society has counted out. I believe this is my life’s work.

One of my favorite quotes is by Muhammad Ali, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”.

I work from that mindset every time I walk into the prison and my practice.

Being a psychologist is more than having a degree and a shiny shingle to hang at my office.

For me, it’s about using my training and compassion to help people in overcoming negative thoughts such as ”I’m done up”.

If you’ve found yourself repeating that or something similar, I want you to say to yourself “STOP!”.

Really‼️Do it‼️

Those types of thoughts are only making you feel worse and will drag you into a dark place.

Let’s replace those negative thoughts with, “I will reset, refocus, and restart as many times as I need to. I won’t give up!”