Month: June 2021

Sustainable therapy?

Source: pexels.com

I vowed to do counseling consultations. I also made it clear that I could not be the conventional counsel type.

Here, counseling will be the focus – what entails counseling and how counseling helps.

Counseling Helpers

I had been helping out as a counseling specialist for a few months already when I met Drake. However, he had been volunteering with the humanitarian group with his parents since he was 15 years old. His parents were not satisfied with merely giving money to a charity; they wanted to put a lot of effort into helping others. At least, that’s what my friends in the new group had told me.

The thing was, Drake was alone that day. The reason was that there was a fire on the side of the mountain where they lived, and his mom and dad could not make it. Drake only survived because he was out playing basketball with his friends. In an instant, the sustainability helper needed counseling help.

Counseling

As a counseling expert, I was not supposed to diagnose mental disorders in a patient because that’s a psychologist’s or psychiatrist’s job. However, I knew what grief and a sense of loss looked like, and that’s what I saw in Drake. I knew that the next best thing for him right then was to have a counselor that could provide counseling for the recent unfortunate incident. So I decided to approach him during one of our short breaks and offer to counsel him.

“Hey, Drake,” I started. “I don’t think that we have officially met, but I am technically the resident counseling expert in our little humanitarian group.

Counseling

Mental Health Counseling To People Who Need Them – How I Do It

I could offer mental health counseling to the people that we build houses for and help them accept and get over the reason why they needed counseling in the first place so that they could start anew.

“Yes, I know you. My parents thought you were doing great, considering you never ask for money, even if counseling tends to cost a lot in the outside world,” Drake replied.

Counselor’s Counseling

I smiled. “Still, my counseling services do not need to end there. In truth, I can offer the counselor’s service to you and the other volunteers here whenever you need counseling.”

I was mildly surprised when Drake bent his head down and began sobbing in our counseling session. As a counselor, I immediately felt terrible towards this young sustainability advocate. I asked him to visit me in my counseling office the next day so we could talk away from the concerned yet prying eyes of the other members.

Counseling Journey

That was the beginning of Drake’s counseling journey. It took him some time to get over his parents’ sudden death; he had even been diagnosed with depression not too long after he started counseling. But the kid eventually learned how to handle all the emotions hitting him at once through counseling.

On one occasion, Drake’s grandparents joined our humanitarian project, and they made a point of thanking me for my counseling work with their grandson. I merely replied that my counselor’s doors were always open if they needed counseling assistance. That’s especially true since the world needed more kids like Drake, who could care for others and the world in general.

One thing you should know about me is that I come from a family of mental health professionals. Here’s my story.

My grandfather worked primarily as a psychiatrist for decades; then, my mother decided to become a psychologist. It was during her primary training that she met my father, who was also a psychiatrist. So, when it was time for me to choose my career, I decided to become the first counselor in the family. I would say that it was the best decision in my life.

Apart from the fact that the world needs more counselors as a priority, my family already established a small mental health hospital in town. People from other cities would flock to our facility to receive sustainable mental health treatments. Medical hospitals would also recommend patients to us continuously. From a sustainable business perspective, it was booming.

Since the primary facility was a little outdated, it incurred a lot of damages when a terrible hurricane came. First came the flood, which went up to our thighs. We thought that that was it primarily, but then the roof caved in, and the windows shattered. After a bit of discussion with my parents, we thought it was high time for a significant renovation for more sustainability. It would be easier to set up tents outside of it anyway than to accommodate our primary patients in a broken-down facility.

“Green buildings can not only reduce or eliminate negative impacts on the environment, by using less water, energy or natural resources, but they can – in many cases – have a positive impact on the environment (at the building or city scales) by generating their own energy or increasing biodiversity.”

first Securing Sustainability Before Any Renovation bEGINS

Despite being successful in their fields, my parents remained as frugal as they could be. The first thing they told me before the sustainability renovation even happened was to prioritize finding the cheapest contractor. “We just need a new roof and some new windows, and that’s it,” they said. However, I begged to disagree primarily.

The reality that some older people may not see was that buildings in the past were not built with sustainability in mind. For example, we still used a lot of electricity because everything was closed in, and it was so hot in every room. The floors were not sealed and waterproofed either, so when the water rushed into the facility, the tiled floors went beyond repair. It was a long discussion, but I finally got my parents to find a contractor who prioritized sustainability during the sustainability renovation process.

Sustainable Construction

Let’s Look For A Resilience Building Contractor

I could tell you how challenging it was to find a contractor who advocates for sustainability. Of course, although more and more people wanted to have eco-friendly homes and buildings, there were still many more who wanted to save on construction expenses, so that’s who they cater to. But when I finally found one, I was over the moon about everything they wanted to do with our facility.

For one, the contractor wanted to replace the ceramic tiles on the floor with solid wood. They knew a place that sold reclaimed solid wood panels, so it would be like recycling better materials, which I loved. We just needed to decide on the colors in times of war, and that was it.

Another thing that the contractor mentioned was using bigger windows. The old design of our facility barely had any windows because mental health was technically taboo for decades. However, since society accepts the subject more now than ever, it may be ideal for adding more windows that would allow the light to come into every room. Of course, they would still be one-way windows to follow our confidentiality promise to our clients, but it might help more than bother them if they could see the outside world.

The contractor and I also talked about using solar panels for the entire building. I found this ideal, considering we did not need electricity in the facility 24/7. My parents tried to say no to this because those were technically expensive, but we would not need to pay another dime to an electric company in the long run. The latter thankfully won them over, so we got solar panels.

Handling A Sustainable Priority

The unique idea that my contractor presented had a garden roof. Instead of the regular galvanized iron, they would fill the entire roof with grass and plants. Everyone could go up and relax there while waiting for their turn. More importantly, it could provide enough fresh air and shade, so we might not need air conditioners too much.

Final Thoughts And Takeaway

With all the renovations happening at once, I was surprised when the contractor pointed out that four months already passed since the hurricane devastated our facility. I honestly forgot that that was the sole reason why my parents agreed on renovating our small mental health hospital anyway. The process fascinated me so much that it felt like we were doing it as an improvement, not as a necessity.

Well, I would have to backtrack on the latter statement. Given how much our climate changed over the years, it’s necessary to prioritize making sustainable homes and facilities. For instance, we would not be burning as much fossil fuel with the solar panels installed as before. We could even plant fruits and vegetables on the garden roof to avoid buying plastic-covered fresh produce in the markets. Also, we would no longer need to rely on air conditioning units too much because the facility would be well-ventilated.

It was a win, for sure.