Chief Counselor's Log: #2 - Meeting the Department

Posted on 28 Jun 2012 @ 6:23pm by Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle

477 words; about a 2 minute read

Chief Counselor's Personal Log:

I'm pleased to report I'm growing more comfortable in my new role every day. Now that I've reported in, had my physical, and led my first department meeting, I can focus on the day to day tasks of seeing to the crew's emotional well-being. I have scheduled my own boarding psychological eval for later today. It's probably happening later than Starfleet Medical would prefer, but I'd like to think the brass wouldn't have approved my assignment as Chief Counselor if they had doubts about my abilities. I'm eager to see how evaluating the senior counselor will affect the unlucky clinician's focus. I am almost tempted to mess with the unlucky counselor just for fun, but with one of our own recovering in sickbay, that would be cruel indeed.

Knowing them even as little as I do right now, I know they wouldn't be bothered in the least if I decided to throw some curveballs, and that thrills me. Brayden seems quite friendly and comfortable in the counseling role, and though Scarlet seems much more reserved, I have a feeling she's quite observant. I'm interested to learn more about what led her to choose a career in counseling after training as a Marine.

Professionally speaking, I'm a bit concerned that someone who is supposed to provide counseling services, to mandated crewmembers as well as voluntary crewmembers, aborted her own required counseling. I don't enjoy looking into my colleagues' personal records, but there have been a number of cases in which counselors have gone off the rails after burning out, and I feel it's my duty to protect them for their own sake as much as for the rest of the crew's. Reading over her file, she is no stranger to trauma herself, and I find myself wanting to reach out to her just out of maternal concern. I haven't yet figured out how to do that without making her feel like it was an order. I'm hoping over time, she'll trust me

I can certainly see the value of having a counselor who understands first hand what it's like to be on the front lines of combat. It's long been debated in the halls of Starfleet Medical whether counselors are truly qualified to make decisions concerning someone's fitness for duty following combat if they, generally speaking, haven't been through a similar experience. I've always believed that limited front-line experience makes counselors that much more objective. After all, would we then start requiring doctors who treat phaser burns to be burned themselves? In any event, Scarlet will be able to build rapport with some of the crew that much quicker, and that's never a bad thing.

Speaking of rapport, I've yet to receive a response concerning Lt. Commander Holliday's psych eval. Why do I get the feeling I'm about to face my own front-line battle?

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