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Claire sat back in the chair I offered her with a collapsed sigh. She looked defeated and tired. Claire had booked in for a couple of sessions to help with anxiety and the first one was about to begin.
I listened without interrupting her for about 10 minutes, she had a lot to unpack and offload. She had a lot of responsibility in her life being a single parent , being practically a Mam and Dad to her children. Financially and emotionally she did everything in her power to give her children a good , stable and decent life.
The cracks were beginning to show, Claire described a feeling of burnout , a sense of what’s the point and what is there to look forward to?. A little bit of further digging unearthed the fact that Claire is a very intelligent woman, self educated and up to now was able to provide a good life for herself and her children. But as the years were passing it was getting harder and harder.
I found out Claire was working in a job that she had little care for, it was just a means to an end. There was also the fact that person she works for is quite a pessimistic and negative individual. Claire felt she was absorbing this attitude and wasn’t happy about it. I asked Claire if she had considered replacing that job with one that would be better suited to her and if she was looking for an alternative, she replied no but that other people who wanted to help said they would keep an eye out for her.
The moment the words had left her lips she had a realisation of what she had just said and the implications of saying it out loud. It was as if a light was switched on. We had a good giggle about the look on her face as the penny dropped. If she wasn’t taking any action to change things then how could she expect any improvement?. Being stuck in a dead end job was helping the anxiety to flourish and not doing much to change this was eeking away at her self esteem.
The lesson learned here was that it’s fantastic to think in positive terms, but that taking clear action is also crucial. Claire needed to be concentrating on finding a job that she thrived in in order to ditch being dependant on a job she had little interest in
