Chapter 5 – Building a Career in a Helping Profession

As I indicated elsewhere, I know that some people who grow up in abusive homes or with emotional neglect might not develop empathy and might continue the cycle of abuse. I had chosen to enter the mental health/psychiatric field in social work. I wanted to help people with everything from shyness, social anxiety to schizophrenia.  

After I moved to Wilmington, I found so much time to spend with Lynn beginning within just over 3 months and I continued to volunteer at a psychiatric hospital while working a full-time job, initially. The job that brought me to Wilmington was as a technical writer. I started working with the social work staff at The Oaks under Chris Hauge DSW, LCSW. He would become my mentor.  

Previously, I mentioned that before moving to Wilmington, I worked at Georgia Regional Hospital on the social work team. Chris was willing to let me continue to gain experience, and he promised that my second-year internship in my Master of Social Work (MSW) program could be at the Oaks Psychiatric Hospital.  

The technical writing job ended within 6 months at the end of the contract and with the support of Lynn, who was very practical, I found jobs that were going to get me closer to the area of my actual future career in providing services to individuals.  

Lynn and I got engaged in 1994. I started graduate school part time in the fall of 1993. I started full-time with my MSW program in the fall of 1994, and I would graduate in 1996. I did my internships at two different companies for the two different internships. The second internship was at the Oaks psychiatric hospital under the guidance and supervision of Chris Hauge.  

I had not felt bad about not using my undergraduate degree to work as an engineer which had caused me shame when I was living with my parents, because of the emotional abuse of my mother. My father, Bruce Sr., just never spoke up after he previously confirmed that he had known that engineering was not for me.  

Upon my graduation, I almost immediately had a job as a Therapist at Brynn Marr Psychiatric Hospital. I was one of two therapists on the adult unit, responsible for intake, case management, discharge planning, group therapy and individual therapy for those patients assigned to me – which were roughly 25 at any one time.  

I had the first experience of providing a direct intervention for a survivor of rape. I have referred to her as Karen in other writing. That is not her real name. She had looked literally dead when I began the intervention and at the end of the session, she was smiling. It was the most amazing thing imaginable. This was just one inpatient session and while others might proclaim that they cured the person in one session, I didn’t have the chance to know this.  

This would not be the last time that I provided treatment for someone who had been traumatized in many ways, including sexual assault and rape. 

The next job that lasted for a significant period of time allowed me to get the final 100 hours of face-to-face supervision and experience after passing the clinical exam for the credentials of Licensed Clinical Social Worker.  

With that experience and the credentials offered to me, I purchased liability insurance and began to rent office space from Chris Hauge who was about to retire. I was seeing a therapist who said that this was a ‘saturated” market in Wilmington and not to get discouraged. Despite being shy, I chose to be the president of the local chapter of Clinical Social Workers. I not only created opportunities for continuing education but also had the opportunity to gain the feedback of colleagues as I had set up regular meetings for clinicians in the field who were treating people.  

I had been able to grow my practice so fast despite having been in a “saturated market” that I soon, with a couple of months rented my own place on Chestnut Street in downtown Wilmington. Lynn helped me decorate the place with limited resources for any clinician –experienced or just starting out. Lynn helped me decorate the office and make me look and feel comfortable about what I was doing. We made the couch look respectable for anyone who might enter the room.  

I also had taken on the role of the president of the local chapter of the American Clinical Social Work association. The once shy person that I used to be had changed in radical ways. This was part of a journey that began when I first went to college right after high school. 

So, I might have called Lynn my fiancée but for all practical purposes I had a loving connection with someone and a successful career. This was success, beyond my wildest dreams. Most importantly, and I cannot minimize the importance or the value of working in my field and helping others who had various problems, illnesses and disorders was the loving connection with Lynn.  

The reader is referred to my other books, including “Overcoming Shyness & Loving Lynn – A Memoir.” I cannot begin to do justice to the love story of Lynn and me here.  

Metaphorically speaking, a meteor would come crashing into the life I had known and all I could do is watch everything burn to the ground and unlike the damage from an actual meteor, no one was around the patch up the damage and build a new home for anyone.  

Let’s move on to that next chapter in my life.