Orlando’s Counseling, Marriage & Family Therapy and Life Coach Professionals

Garrett Fabico, enjoying his summer vacation

Forgive me, Santa Claus, but summer is the real very best time of year, especially if you’re from Florida. It’s certainly my favorite. I don’t think there is a single person reading this that can’t vividly remember the anticipation on the last day of school before summer break. Elbows pressed against the desktop, butt already lifted off the chair, anxiously waiting for the bell to ring and bring with it the freedom of three months away from the classroom. It’s so exciting as a kid, knowing that there are months of ungraded fun ahead of you: summer camps, family vacations and visits, pool parties with friends. As usual, though, the freedom for a child to waste his or her summer is illusive; the parents ultimately decide what will become of the time, and this makes summer a powerful tool for those that recognize it. Whether as children or adults, we Americans seem to be constantly consumed by our self-perpetuating to-do lists; we often do work that doesn’t satisfy us to reach goals that will never be satisfied, shirking time for ourselves and our families. Summertime is the chance to neglect no more—to focus on new years’ resolutions, learn a new skill, or get in touch with yourself or your children. How will you spend your summer? How will your children spend theirs? Summer is the time to relax, but don’t let its definition deceive you. Summer can be a time of labor, but one of the rare opportunities to labor towards the goals that your busy life may not have room for otherwise. Oftentimes, these goals we don’t have time for are the ones that will truly satisfy and provide us with a deeper sense of relaxation.

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Jessica Stage, MSW, Registered Clinical Social Work Intern

I often speak about how excited I am for the weekend to come. It is great to have time to spend with your family and to complete important tasks, and most of all to relax. However, sometimes I feel that always wishing for the weekend can make me not appreciate the good times that I do have at my job. While I am a counselor at Orlando Life Skills Resource Group, my full time job is as a hospital social worker in an intensive care unit. My job can be very difficult, but also rewarding. Some days I see families caught up in the sudden tragedy of a loved ones illness or traumatic injury, and work with them on coping with this. Other days I might see a patient who has recovered from severe injuries and gets to go home from the hospital. While working with patients and families is how I spend the majority of my day, I also constantly interact with fellow social workers, nurses, physicians and therapists. I have developed several close friendships at my job, and it can make a bad day go much better having these friends to commiserate with. No one else understands the challenges and joys of being a health care worker than these people.

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Jean Austin Danner, MSW, Licensed Clinical Social Worker

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