Manuel
Therapist struggles to manage it all
Manuel was a brilliant, compassionate man with ADHD and in the process of starting his own individual therapy practice after many years of working in a group setting. He had already enlisted lots of support: an administrative assistant, a marketing specialist, a small-business mentor, tech support, website designer and more. But he was overwhelmed trying to manage all the moving parts, as well as maintain important relationships in his personal life. It was hard for him to reconcile his organizational challenges with his innate intelligence and interpersonal gifts.
Manuel’s frustration was negatively affecting his devoted support team. They wanted to give him whatever he needed, but with no clear priorities and lots of distractions, things were dissolving into a series of mini-crises every day.
To cope with his dynamic environment, Manuel attempted to implement as much structure as possible, requesting that his team develop highly detailed routines and procedures. Manuel’s staff did their best to accommodate him, but they didn’t always communicate well with each other, nor did they fully appreciate his need for structure. Tensions mounted.
I worked with Manuel to clarify his goals in each of the different areas and assign more realistic timeframes so he could reduce his overburdened “urgent” category. As we clarified the support roles on his team, it became obvious that some team members were not good fits for their role expectations. With this reality brought to light, Manuel was able to make some personnel changes.
With a better-fitting support team in place and a more realistic approach to meeting his goals, Manuel is feeling more in control. He is able to devote less energy to monitoring the administrative details and more energy where he is best: helping his patients.
Names and demographic information have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
