What is journey counseling? This is the story of my life and my healing experience. Having Italian parents who traveled in Napa Valley could help me gain friends. This fact could make anyone popular. Let’s continue reading and be inspired.
Before The “Service” In My Journey
A lot of kids, even adults in high school, would go, “Wow! You must have tasted wine so young!” Others would say, “It must have been awesome to spend your childhood days seeing grapevines on end.”
I longed for when I could travel to Malibu. The reality is that life is a journey, and there was a time when I used to hate living in my family’s vineyard even though we have good family dynamics. My parents could only work hard, so they expected nothing less from their kids. As soon as we could hold stuff firmly in our hands, they would provide us with chores to participate in and out of the house. Our parents support us with proper guidance around the house. We were all kind to one another and didn’t need anger management therapy at all. No relationship issues whatsoever. But I always had this feeling of breaking free from the vineyard.
Well, all my five brothers would fabulously dig the soil, cart grapes to and from the plantation, and even run around the entire vineyard to ensure that all the sprinklers could work. Boys would always be boys, and the work was nothing but fun for them, especially if they could do it together. As support, the father provided excellent guidance to the boys. As far as he’s concerned, they learned from the best.
Leaving The Vineyard
My brothers went on to take up specialized degrees that could help them run the vineyard more successfully and learn coping skills in running a vineyard. Mom and Dad never had an issue about it and counted on them to do that – they did it because they couldn’t go outside. Of course, their decisions delighted our parents, who thought they could someday have a small empire. So, they gave their all-out support.
When I entered high school, everyone counted on me to think of the vineyard like my brothers. They said that I was a woman, I had access to a vast vineyard, so the job of a wine sommelier could be perfect for me. However, my family could not get that I wanted to do nothing with our vineyard. To my parent’s surprise, I decided to study Fine Arts at UCLA.
While my brothers could study online, I had to go out of the vineyard and get an apartment close to the campus. Mom and Dad could only try subtly talking me out of it, but I courageously told them that I wanted this, so they shut up. I feel like I had been in the vineyard for too long in my life and needed the growth and to get outside my world for myself.
Life In College: Gaining Independence And Problems
Attending UCLA as an aspiring artist gave me more freedom and hope than I ever imagined. I only lived for a semester in an apartment my parents got for me because I eventually met a group of students who invited me to live with them in a mansion.
Little did I know, that’s the beginning of my problems.
It was fun getting to know strangers and staying under the same roof. I thought those Fine Arts students were the most remarkable people I would ever know. But then, as our relationship got deeper, I realized that they had been doing questionable things that they did not show me initially on purpose (perhaps to lure me into their circle better).
You see, my newfound friends happened to grow marijuana in one of the many rooms in that mansion. I never asked about that room before, but I came upon it during a party we threw. Though the pots of growing weeds filling the room surprised me, I went back to the party – but only to get more surprised when I saw my friends selling and using weeds with the guests and some couples. Fear started to envelop me. I didn’t want to be in any kind of trouble, especially after how I convinced my family to let me take my own path.
Watching what’s happening in my supposedly new home sobered me up. I had to ask my friends the day after, and they practically told me that it was cool and that their weed business was funding the mansion we all lived in. Then, they asked me to do something crazy: sell it.
That was the fastest I packed my bags, hopped in my car, and fled to the only place I ever knew: our family vineyard.
How I Found My Way Back
Going Back To My Roots With Family Therapy And Journey Counseling
My short experience with weed dealers and users was enough to traumatize me and change and affect my mental health. As soon as I reached the vineyard, I cried to my mom about it as I felt both scared and shocked. She consoled me as best as possible, but I could not shake off my struggling anxiety and fear for days. I needed the guidance of journey counseling to process what took place, enabling me to address my emotional fears and prioritize my mental health for this ongoing journey called life. Anger management has also played a crucial role.
One morning, I woke up earlier than everyone else and found myself walking toward the vineyard site. It was the harvesting season, so all the vines were filled with grapes. Walking among them helped me remember the simplicity of my experience in therapy before I tried to uproot myself.
This type of therapy offers a wide range of services to give their clients psychological treatment and assistance. These services include but are not limited to contact information for area resources, professional referrals, and educational materials. In addition, a licensed professional counselor can offer many tools to help their clients learn more about themselves and the world around them, such as sand therapy and read therapy.
I did not see how fortunate I was to live in such a vast and prosperous land in my rebellious phase. Those kids who assumed I had a fantastic childhood were not far from the truth – it was genuinely great to be able to roam around the vineyard without worrying about incoming cars or having to lend my time to strangers. There was nothing that the vineyard could not provide. It even gave me spiritual direction, but I still found a reason to despise it for many years. That’s when I thought this method might help. Traveling away from the vineyard was my therapy, I thought.
Suddenly, I felt ashamed of how I treated the only area where I could be myself. In a time of uncertainty, counseling became the anchor on my life’s journey, the one place I could turn to for solace and support, even from the comfort of my home. Its services have been invaluable.
Journey Frequently Asked Questions
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