Cindy McGinley

Q.) What is Mental Health Counseling?

A.) Mental Health Counselors hold to the belief that the individual has a specific blueprint of behaviors, genetic characteristics, and life circumstances that make up a unique and one-of-a-kind person. Counseling is designed to help the client gain a perspective on how he or she behaves. The client is also made to understand how genetics can influence a person’s characteristics and behaviors. The client is encouraged to gain a perspective about circumstances that were negative influences in early life. Self-knowledge is used to help the client learn how to make better decisions and to take responsibility for his or her own actions. The client is also taught coping strategies to deal with unpleasant circumstances or memories. The counselor works to establish a rapport with the client and to develop the client’s positive self-esteem.

And I am not surprised, actually, that this queen among humans was honored by the crows this way. Or that messages from this dear lady, who was always one of my most staunch supporters, came to me through one of my favorite birds and spiritual ally. Birds have long been considered messengers from Spirit, and the crow is one who easily passes between the worlds. My heart soared when I saw these crows outside the mausoleum, and I knew that everything was alright at that moment; that there is life beyond death, and that we are always just a thought away from our departed loved ones. And if we pay close enough attention and stay open, we can receive love and guidance and even comfort, divinely sent, from the natural world around us.

 

 

In your honor:

 

When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

 

Thank you for sharing your one wild and precious life with the rest of us.

– CLM

(You might want to read Part I first if you haven’t yet.)

At the same time that my mother told me she was in kidney failure and the doctors did not know how long she had to live, Alf had finally had enough. His treatment was having less and less effect. He was in pain and could no longer move like a horse. I said goodbye to my beloved equine soulmate, and it felt as though my heart had literally been ripped from my chest in his passing. I was a walking open wound. [Read more…] about Grief and Grad School: The Untold Story (Part II)