Furture Neorosis in the Making... Scarywood

Well after three busy weeks, we successfully transversed five tests and completed a hurried three week course in cultural diversity. Thus to reward ourselves those of us without jobs on Friday night (sorry guys) or had a fun concert to go too... we made our way to SCARYWOOD!!!



Every Fall a small theme park in the top of the Idaho panhandle called Silverwood converts to Scarywood. As we drove up to it in the evening dusk the dark skeletons of the roller coasters stood out against the moon, while tendrils of fog rose to shroud them. Needless to say the mood of horror was set from the start. Before entering the park we could hear shrieks of fright, and inside the gate we were surrounded by ghouls and the undead.

While waiting in line to ride a train where we would battle against the zombie hoard, and watching children be chased in terror, someone remarked that this is how we knew we would have job security. A silly joke but it might be true, how many children will have future problems due to the insensitivity of their parents? But I digress, and as we froze on the train thanks to the steam engine some of the fantasy was lost in the freezing of our fingertips.

After a refueling cup of adult hot chocolate we decided to take on a more adult horror, The Blood Bayou. This elaborate haunted house left us all screaming to included a few man yells from the gentlemen in our group. We followed this with pizza and then some roller coasters in the dark. That my friends is an wild new experience that will make any coaster 10 times more thrilling.

At this point the 36 degree weather had gotten to most of the crew and they departed to the safety and warmth of their awaiting beds. The sillier of us stayed. We needed one more good scare and we found it being chased by chainsaws and mutant pig people in The Terror Canyon Trail, which was a drained log flume ride. But the night would not be complete without one last coaster ride which was not only in the dark but with the cars flipped the opposite direction so we rode without seeing anything. Very Fun.

We left with only five other cars in the parking lot, happy to say survived the terrifying wilds of Idaho. Awaking the next day with colds, sore thoughts, whiplash, and lost voices. A success I would say.

A Therapists Education is Odd

Another week completed and another two tests vanquished! But alas I have yet another two tests this week. I can do it, it's just quite exhausting.

These first three weeks have let me in on a funny uniqueness about the education of Therapists, Psychologists, Counselors. In other graduate programs you wouldn't be asked to delve deeply into your feelings and past experiences to work them out as a class assignment. I am often assigned books and excerpts to read that are purposefully challenging and then asked to report my reactions and misgivings.

I can't imagine this occurring in many other graduate programs. I'm not saying that other graduate programs aren't emotionally challenging or gripping. But I don't think it's often the intention of the program to put you through some sort of group therapy. Imagining a Fluid Mechanics professor asking his students to read about a new technology and report their feelings and emotional limitations seems pretty silly. But that is essentially the best analogy I can make.

So as I read from my psychotherapy book and I am asked to control my defense mechanisms, separate my past from my reactions, and confront resistance with controlled honesty; I can't help but think how personality altering this education could be. Although I don't think people who didn't fit these norms would be inclined to seek this degree.

I have also begun to formulate something I would like to call the psychologist personality. It is not a rigid personality but one that does have some strong similarities. Tending to be slightly neurotic over achievers trapped in the bodies of people loving big personalities we are constantly slug back and forth between our love and compassion for others and the need to preserve our own well being. (Mind you this is of course entirely my opinion)

I was interested to read though in my psychotherapy book that it has been found that often therapists have been "Parentized". To be "parentized" means that at an early age you took on roles of being a parent. This isn't indicative of a problem household though, it could be indicative of culture, birth order, socioeconomic status, or personality. This theory though is definitely relative to myself and I will be interested to see through my "group therapy" education with my cohort what develops.

My Treehouse in the Woods

Early this Spring I moved into my current apartment in the Browne's Addition in Spokane. I love this part of Spokane. Browne's was the first established neighborhood in Spokane, still sporting Victorian and Tudor homes including the first Mayor's home and many other historic buildings. Now intermixed with funky businesses and edgy condos in between the giant centennial oak trees, its a great place to live.



What I wasn't expecting was the Wildlife.

My apartment looks out into a small wooded alcove of my apartment building, which abuts the Spokane River. At this point I expected some lovely birds and small mammals to make there home nearby.

This was an underestimation.

First surprise. The tree outside of my window ended up being a giant mulberry bush. Needless to say there was A LOT of wildlife near my window very early in the morning...

This was very soon followed by a 5am woodpecker. Yes a woodpecker. Waking up to that little wood drill was very confusing and took me a couple mornings to figure out what it was.

There were many other furry encounters as well. Raccoons, Skunks, Porcupine.

But the biggest surprise came this morning as I was waiting for the bus outside of my apartment. Suddenly a young buck walked out into street behind me. Shocked, I watched it cross the street and walk calmly down the sidewalk. As I got on the bus I mentioned it to the driver, who replied "Only in Spokane." The quiet buck stared as the giant metal goliath drove by waiting for us to leave so he could be on his way.

Week Two: Learning the Ropes

I've made it through my second week and my first graduate school test with flying colors. Which I am very happy about, considering that my first test covered 100+ pages of reading in a book I couldn't get until Monday (Speed Reading Powers AWAY!).

But I really can't take the credit since my amazing cohort banded together to complete the study guide and have a picnic study circle the afternoon before our test.

One of the undersold qualities of graduate school is the shared dedication of the people in the program. It's nice to know that for once all of your classmates care about their performance and aren't just trying to squeeze by. Also being in a clinical program we tend to be comfortable with group mentality easily forming connections with others.

Well I hope so anyways.... would be a little weird to have a therapist who didn't like people. Although the out of touch psychologist does seem to be a common media joke.



Although I can't say I'm immune to that. I've begun riding the bus twice a week to cut down on fuel cost, and it also gives me great reading time. Public transportation is an interesting thing, probably the only time I'll see a business man sitting next to a large woman wearing a orange floral dress and no bra.

Yeah... not loving the photographic memory so much right now.

It's hard to relate to everyone.

For this upcoming week though I have another two tests (good thing I like to read) and more excitingly tonight I'm going to a drag show with my cohort for extra credit in our diversity course. Can't wait to write the response to that!