there's nothin' like meeting a client and his dad for the very first time and having to report the dad to children services right off the stinkin' bat - and in dad's presence - unless it's meeting a client and his very angry dad for the very first time and having to report very angry dad to children services right off the stinkin' bat - and in very angry dad's very angry presence.
but that's what happened yesterday and i thank my God-given stars that i am an experienced social worker, not some fresh out-of-graduate-school neophyte who doesn't even know the number to children services.
having to report a very angry man that you just met to children services is one of those things you hope you'll never have to do but if you do, you hope you're 56.
you hope your bag of tricks still has the "de-escalation magic wand" in it (it does) and that your hands aren't so arthritic (they aren't) that you can't wave it around (you can).
you hope that your 56-year old legs can still walk that delicate, precarious tightrope between being confronting and being compassionate.
you hope that you still know how to handle these things in that careful, skillful, part-art/part-science way that you know you used to be able to do.
you hope that you find just the right words and that you say them in just the right way.
you hope that you have played your professional cards well enough that, even though you are probably not this very angry dad's very favorite person at this very particular moment, you hope that very angry dad will, over time, become less angry and might even agree to work with you again.
what you don't hope for - but now you know you should - is that the chair you are sitting in while you are on the phone with children services and very angry dad is breathing down your very wrinkly 56-year old neck is, you hope your chair breaks and you land on your butt on the floor.
because i don't care how experienced you are, there ain't no social worker in the while wide world who's got a comic relief magic wand in her bag like that.
:)
