It was a gray winter afternoon early in my career when my client-let's call him Dan-stormed into my office, visibly angry. "I lost my f-ing job again because I told my boss the project sucked," he said. Dan was relatively new to therapy and known for reacting impulsively in social and work settings, often to his own detriment. My instinct kicked in: help him see what he could have done differently.
"It would be a shame for you to check out by yourself when you like people so much," Bob Trumpy told her, according to an Associated Press story about the call. "This is a cry for help, and I'm not going to let that go unheard." Sugar's son finally came on the line and revealed where they lived. Emergency workers were able to reach her before she harmed herself.
The Trevor Project had provided counseling to LGBTQ+ individuals through 988 for nearly three years, responding to about half of the requests for services from the high-risk population.
In a moment of crisis or deep self-doubt, what you need often isn't more reassurance... but a careful challenge: someone to help you spot the unhelpful loops in your thinking and hand you real tools to break free.
Cody Balmer, the arsonist arrested for throwing two lit Molotov cocktails into the Shapiros' living room while the family slept, had a history of violence and serious mental illness that should have seen him either in jail or getting long-term, supervised treatment.
