Professional Ramblings

Work is going fine, I think. I finally have my board certification and diploma up on the wall. My patients are very impressed- it has only taken about 10 months to do this.

Meanwhile, remember how I wrote a while ago about wanting to be a match maker for two of my patients? Well, I still would like to. If only I could do this ethically, somehow. Is this even unethical? I mean, if I lived in a small town, I could, potentially, take care of my hairdresser and my butcher. And you know, I could run into one socially, and well, somehow, be a matchmaker all at the same time?

Which reminds me, I pretty much run into a patient every time I leave my house. Going to Safeway on Superbowl Sunday? Saw a patient drive away from the parking lot. Shopping at the mall with Hubby on date night? Saw a patient gobbling down some chocolate. Going to Aidan's school function? Saw two patients there. Perhaps, I do live in a small town.

What is more awkward than running into a patient? Running into a patient while yelling at my kids. (Which is why I don't yell in public, I hiss at my kids.)

What is more awkward than running into a patient while yelling at my kids? Run into a patient who just stood me up and never came back. Who knows why, but I would like to think that this person just wasn't ready for treatment.

Maybe, being a psychiatrist and a matchmaker are just two sides of the same coin. I mean, I know these people, not just what they do and what they like, but what motivates them, where their securities/insecurities lie. I know what they want, and well, I really do think these two particular folks would be very complimentary. Besides, if they then need couples work, they already have a therapist that they work with! HA!

Then I wonder, what kind of unconscious process is going on here? What kind of projection/projective identification is happening that I want to fix things for them?

For the Medical Board of California: Do not worry, I am NOT going to act on these impulses. I will be responsible by remembering: First, do no harm.

Meanwhile, I had a patient ask me, point blank: Do you go home and make dinner for your family? Is that hard?

While I did try to talk about the process of this with her, "Does it matter what I say? It is clearly hard for you. Would my difficulty or ease make it any less or more real?" I thought about how dinner got on the table last night... and it wasn't pretty...