It's been weird, this year, trying to put my experiences into the mindset I try to have about various mental illnesses, which is FUYL-- if it doesn't (Mess) Up Your Life, don't worry about it. The question, then, is what to do with people whose entire families and peer groups have lives I would have called messed-up, just because of outside circumstances. So, yeah-- I see lots of depression, anxiety, PTSD, but I'm never sure what to do with them when they're the obvious reaction to the environment, and maybe you'd have to be a little nuts not to have them. But then I find myself recalling all these studies that claim that depression actually reflects a more realistic view of the world than not being depressed-- that to be "healthy," one can use a little self-deception-- and wonder what that means for people who have the realities of life shoved in their faces. Is... eh.

And re: having rapport-- yeah. I've found that I'm pretty able to establish rapport with people of wildly different backgrounds, because a person who honestly wants to care and listen is appealing even if they've got three heads. On the other hand, I often find myself wishing I knew more-- I know I'm missing nuances, and that sometimes my advice just doesn't apply to their lives, but that I don't want the entire therapy to be them explaining to me things which are obvious and unimportant to them. But rapport-- yeah. That's all doable-like.