Today was at day at home. So nice. My body needed a moment to relax, check that more than a moment, and so classes at the retreat center were excellent. The first class in the morning was with an American Counselor who now lives in Italy, Amy Kleine. She shared with us about the ethical consideration differences in Italy. In Italy, the understanding of ethical dilemmas is much different as well as the concepts behind them. In Italy, sleeping with a client is not viewed as an ethical dilemma if both the client and counselor have mutual liking for one another. Italians also have difficulty understanding why it might be an ethical dilemma to exchange babysitting services for counseling services with a client. She also discussed dialogue with Italian counselors about sessions and life as an Italian vs. American. In Italy – in counseling – everyone talks at once. Americans are very pragmatic and regimented and therefore, counseling sessions generally have some agenda as well. Imagine an Italian counseling session when counselors get together and talk all at once! How must a session go? Italians in general are creative, find solutions, and involve themselves in rich conversation with reflection and solution because of the lack of specific agenda. It goes where it goes. Americans like a routine and schedule with a timeline. Some discussion was had about this as a whole and how we likely lose the opportunity for rich solutions because of our need for order. She felt that counseling in Italy needed to become part of the “in fashion” before it was popular and well utilized by the Italian public. Counseling needs to become more published in order for it to become what is talked about and what is popular.
Amy also talked about American students coming over to Italy and the problems they experience both emotionally as well as culturally. As a whole, American female students are viewed “easy” in Italy because they have difficulty understanding Italian men’s view on dating and being in a relationship. They often times fall for the romantic ideas presented by an Italian man when he is interested and mistake those gestures for “he loves me”. This gets many women into a situation where they view something to be there that really is not. Overall, individuals in America have a habit of “rushing through developmental stages” and this is not the attitude reflected in Italy. The Italian culture also reflects traditionally viewed male and female roles in society. The question was raised of how to incorporate Italian culture into life back home. The concepts of utilizing dinner as a time of socializing and eating dinner at a table without rushing is one that can be carried back. Overall, this session was informative about Italian culture reflecting back into the counseling profession and the progressive era that lies ahead for counseling in Italy. Because I have felt the most relaxed in a long time, I hope to bring the habits I have picked up here home with me. Life is too rushed and individuals and what makes them “them” is not enjoyed enough and I want to make it a point to begin to do that.
In the afternoon, a doctorate student on the trip, Mary Misenhimer, led a session called: Room for God in the Counseling Profession? It was interesting to converse with other counselors about the issues that religion and spirituality raises within the counseling realm. I enjoyed the discussion as well as the opportunity for Mary to share the knowledge she has acquired while in her program and has been helpful for her working in the counseling profession.
Another doctorate student, Alishea Rowley, led a session about Technology and Counseling. This was informative and interesting since I am new to the blog experience itself. I learned a great deal about the many internet resources available to me to help jump start my career. We were also able to have a group discussion about the many problems with the growing reliance with internet in our lives. Specifically, we talked about school counselors and the problems seen with students and internet bullying. As a student in the school counselor track I was interested in knowing how to stay on top of my game with the knowledge of what kids are doing these days. I think it is important to be in touch with the technology that kids are using in order to address these issues.
For dinner, we went out in Reggello to Ristorante Archimede. The food just kept coming out and it was all pretty tasty. I enjoyed the red wine of Tuscany and we were given a tour of the wine cellar, too. So cool to see the huge barrels of wine! I enjoyed sitting and talking with new friends during the meal. I never felt rushed and I enjoyed all the different tastes and aromas of the meal. After dinner, Dr. Krieg brought out a liquor called Grappa that Italians “enjoy” to finish their meal. I use the word enjoy loosely for many reasons. Apparently, it is made of grapes but I was disagree. I made the first mistake of smelling the stuff before trying it. I really should have just opened the hatchet and shot it down. After the sniff, though I needed motivation and encouragement. Adrian and I gave one another pep talks and decided to just down this Grappa stuff. OH MY GOODNESS! This stuff is worse than lighter fluid, no joke. It burned all the way down and then continued to burn for like at least 30 minutes later. Never again. It brought me back to early collegiate years when someone managed to talk me into a shot of Tequila or Absolut…bad idea all around. So, after that debacle, we headed back to Casa Cares. I met four of the volunteers and one, Carmen, is actually going to Niles this summer to spend time with her boyfriend. So, I told her all about Michigan and the places she should make him take her to visit. I think she learned some stuff about Michigan =) I then spent the rest of my evening outside talking with Alexis, Joey and Yvla, Yannik, Marco and Carmen. We talked a lot about the differences between Finnish, German and American culture. It was cool to spend time talking with people from other countries and hearing their ideas on school, work, language, etc. I ended the night at around 1am and knew I would pay for it in the morning since the next day was a traveling early in the morning.
Ciao for now!
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