From Unhappy Worker to Coaching Student

A Brief History of Me Before "The Big Decision"
Written 1st Jan 2007

Back in the 1990's, I was coping through life fitting windows and conservatories. I was good at it, but there was a small snag. I hated it. Purely by accident though I found myself on a counselling course. How you can manage that by accident may not appear to make a lot of sense, but when the love of my life said, "You should do that course", I sort of accepted what she was saying. After all, She knew me a lot better than I knew myself at that point in my life.
That was the start of it. A few years later, and there I was, The proud owner of a diploma in therapeutic counselling. Lots of volunteering later, including Samaritans, Community Mediation, and a long stint at the local mental health free counselling service, I found myself thinking, "isn't it about time I used some of this for my benefit?".

Searching for jobs in the counselling world isn't very easy when all I had on the CV was a bit of volunteering, and 20 years of fitting windows. This is where the love of my life came into her own again. By this time she was my wife. (I must congratulate on my choice of company at this point as she seemed to make everything happen for me). She saw a job in the local paper. Go on she said, "You'd be good at that", "Are you sure I said". Any way, to cut a long story short, I then found my self in the world of Supported Housing. This is where I could use my new found skills while helping homeless young people to get back on their feet. It's a funny job is supported housing, especially if, like me, you have tendency for free thinking. The training and experience I received there were second to none, but after 4 years I had to leave on the account that I was slowly going mad with the stress of the job. This stress was mainly caused by a sense of not being able to do anything. The working day it's self was mainly spent waiting for something to happen. If something did happen, and a decision had to be made, then it better be "The Right One". It really was a risky business. The residents were fine, It was the management that scared me.It was then I discovered my new path of Floating Support. This was a complete different ball game. Often overloaded with work, but with a freedom to be able to think outside the box. I was now pretty well contented with my lot, and at this point, just prior to new years eve, I'm still loving the work and the company.