January- Volunteering with Crisis Textline

Volunteers Hours Completed in January 2021: 2.5hrs

During this month I continued my previous work with the Crisis Textline and the texters that I interacted with this month tended to have a similar theme of self-harm. I try to go into these conversations without making any assumptions or judgements towards the texters and their situations. This month I had to take the time to learn about a particular coping mechanism that a texter was using, which I was less familiar with and they had experienced judgement about from those close to them. In this moment it was not my job to critique or give my opinion to the texter regarding their chosen coping mechanism, which from what I was told was not doing any physical harm to them. Instead, I had to maintain focus on what it was the texter was seeking out help with and to then provide them with the support and resources needed so that they felt like they could move forward in their situation. It is important in moments such as these that we remember that what we may initially perceive as the issue or something worthy of commenting on or projecting our own personal opinions on is not what the focus should be about, but instead it is whatever our texter has sought out help for. It is not my place to decide what their issues are for them. This seems to be the most important lesson that I learned from this month's volunteering expereince and one that I believe we should all keep in mind as we go about our lives and jobs, sometimes the skill of being a receptive listener is more valuable than being someone ready at any point to critique or advise another.

Comments

October- Volunteering with Crisis Textline

This month I opted to continue my work with the Crisis Textline and completed another four hours of volunteer work with this organization. As a reminder from my post from September, the Crisis Textline is an organization that works to provide aid to those that feel like they are in crisis. This organization defines a crisis as anything that our texter feels is a crisis, this allows us to work with people going through a wide range of difficulties in life. This month I worked with people who were going through a topic that I had yet to work with anyone on yet. The impacts of living in a pandemic. Although people across the world have felt the impacts of COVID-19 it was a different experience to try and help someone cope with a situation where isolation is a key part of remaining healthy. I was able to relate to this texter on a different level then I have with many other texters, sure I have related to those who also experience anxiety and depression, but there were always fa...

November- Volunteering with Crisis Textline

During the month of November, I continued my work with the Crisis Textline. Due to the upcoming holidays, there are usually spikes in the number of texters that use the text-line and the added impacts of COVID-19 this year means that there will likely be even higher numbers of people texting in due to the higher stress levels and impacts that living through a pandemic can have on a person. I conducted most of my volunteer hours after Thanksgiving and I saw extremely high numbers of people waiting to speak to a crisis counselor, along with extensive waiting times. Most of my time this month was helping people come up with coping mechanisms or plans to deal with feelings of loneliness or relationship issues that are exacerbated at the moment due to the holiday season and social isolation caused by COVID-19. This has become one of my favorite volunteer activities because it truly helps me learn how to assist someone in creating their own solutions rather than me just sayi...

Volunteering During a Pandemic- C. Powell

Search This Blog