Office aversion: PTSD type symptoms of authority

  I remember at school I got in trouble a bit, for various reasons, as we all do. Well I was at school in the days of capital punishment, when us naughty kids go the cane. I still have those words in my ears, "Mr Smolle, please come to the office now". Now that I am an adult, I still get sweaty hands, raising heart rate, and a desire to run away when I hear those words from anyone about any situation, "Could I see you in my office" sends shivers up my spine. SO, why should I bring this up in a blog posting? Well I am glad you asked… httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbTBPS_Dtv8 It is not because a brand of chocolate has a glass and a half of milk in every bar. Working with people that have got an addiction, it is common that they have been in trouble with the law and have been from office to office, dealing with officials that have control over their immediate future as a consequence of their behaviour. Furthermore, it is common that they have been in a police office often, either giving statements, being a witness, or for being in the wrong place doing the wrong thing. Thus I draw inference from my experience to put my-self in my client's shoes, to see how they get affected by the very notion to be called or asked to come to the "counsellor's office". It is not the being in a counselling office that creates the anxiety but the idea of going to an office in the first place. No matter how good or positive the process of coming to see a person that is there to help, the same anxiety is triggered by the idea of an "office" from traumatic events in the past. Thus now it is a trigger for a post-traumatic-stress, and the reason that it is called a "disorder" is because the stress and anxiety is putting a person out of their natural order, becoming a disorder. In talking about this, I have had the privilege to observe several counsellors, and therapists do their thing in a real life setting. And the most liked person was a man that went outside with the client and sat in the garden away from everyone, to have a counselling session. By doing this the client relaxed far faster than normal, for a person seeing the counsellor for the first time. He very rarely stayed in his office, he would go there to do his paperwork after seeing each client, but then he was out in the waiting room having a coffee and being with other clients in the residential unit. Even thought he would be dressed like a Victorian Solicitor, with a three piece suite, he was very approachable and could relate with all the clients. This was one person that I talked about "office anxiety" years ago, and he just smiled to me, telling me that, that was the very reason he does not summon or ask clients to come to his office. So … here ends today's posting