LIfe as a Ship Counselor

We're basically halfway done with the voyage and still have a minute until our next port so I thought I would jot some notes down about my job. There are two counselors on the ship and we're really here for emergencies and to help the students struggling with mental health issues have the same access to an amazing adventure by providing support. But the reality is that we are background support for staff, faculty, students, and family members as well. We are cheerleaders, advocates, motivational speakers, and programmers. Our hours are whenever anyone can find us and topics range from childhood trauma to test anxiety to deaths back home to finding your place on the ship and in the world.

Most days I go to the first section of the Global Studies course though my attendance has slipped as demand for counseling services has spiked. After class I run drop in hours for the rest of the morning. Generally people come in to get scheduled for appointments or just do a brief check in. Every class day I eat lunch with Rigley. It's usually just the two of us, but we're sometimes joined by students or some of Rigley's friends. The afternoon is all counseling sessions. As many as I can squeeze in and still be done by 5 (more likely 5:30). Groups or informal check ins in the evening are not uncommon though I have been retreating to our cabin lately with such busy days.

At the beginning there were lots of students feeling pretty homesick. Some students were really hurting and not sure they could make it past the next port. Many students were doing research on what leaving the voyage to go home would look like. Our stretches at sea were long at the beginning and the newness of everything made everyone feel like is was freshman year in the dorms all over again. Most students came with the expectation that they were going to meet their best lifelong friends and have the time of their life. That still may be true, but the beginning of the voyage was not looking like that for many people.

One of our very first inter-port lecturers was a brilliant marine biologist based in Hawaii. She had done SAS as a student and came back as a faculty member years later. She showed a slide of herself and her SAS friends on the ship next to a photo of the same people at a recent wedding. They were still close after all these years. She told everyone to look around because some of the people sitting in this room will be friends for life. This was a tough set up as many folks still have not found their group. Belonging and loneliness is a huge issue for this generation and the students seem to switch back and forth between blaming the people around them and blaming themselves. Just past the halfway point in the voyage and connection is still a major issue for the students that I see.

After loneliness and belonging the issues students see the counselors for range widely. In some ways working through heavy issues while on the voyage is a terrible idea because supports and familiarity are so far away. For other students this is the perfect place to open up and dig deep because a triggering environment or people are also so far away.

For years I have been thinking about just doing a private practice for my job, but I always thought it would get lonely and boring. At my current job I have a wide variety of responsibilities and close colleagues to share the load with. Being on the ship has caused me to rethink my assumptions a bit. I have loved doing 1:1 therapy and even if the issues are similar the people are not. I have seen so much major change in students and living together on the ship has allowed me to see them put our sessions into practice. One woman had come to some pretty rigid conclusions about herself based on a decision she had made in her teens. She was eventually able to forgive her younger self and now the whole world and all its possibilities are out there for her to explore. I have a ton of stories like that. Of people making huge strides in a short amount of time because they are ready and because the environment is like a crucible that practically forces self-reflection and growth.

With all of the changes and all the worries about coronavirus it seems like everyone on the ship wants a counseling session. They sometimes leave a session disappointed because they are still as sad and scared as they were when they came in. I'm not a miracle worker and I can take away negative emotions that are actually valid and real. Helping them learn to live with the disappointment and discomfort is about all I can do. And there are a few people who probably could have made it through the voyage if everything had gone according to plan. A few people have left because the stress and the lack of control pushed them so far off center that their symptoms really flare up. Some have been sad and some feel a sense of relief when the get off the ship for the last time and head to an airport.

Counseling services have been in high demand on this voyage and the counselors are doing their best to keep up. So far we have a pretty good response time and we both feel proud of the services we are providing. But we are swamped and pretty tired by the end of the day. This brings up another reason to look at private practice. No matter how busy we are, it's still waaaaay easier than my job back home.