Two Chairs and a Box of Tissues : Memoirs of a Counselor/Educator

Throughout the many centuries of human history, each successive generation has accumulated its own collection of knowledge, experience, and wisdom to be passed on to the next. “Two Chairs and a Box of Tissues” is author Greg Delaney’s vision of how the “baton of knowledge” is being passed from generation to generation in the sometimes misunderstood and mischaracterized profession of mental health and substance use disorder counseling. Delaney draws upon decades of his own training and experience as a counselor as well as over fifteen years of educating and training addiction counselors in order to tell the tale of Kathleen, just beginning her career, and Greg, nearing retirement after four decades of helping others.

Kathleen is a graduate student in mental health counseling who needs help with her thesis. Clinical research related to the topic of Kathleen’s dissertation is difficult to find. Frustrated, she initiates a series of interviews with Greg, an experienced counselor and educator, to examine her strongly held beliefs about the importance of the counselor’s personal health and wellness to the success of the therapeutic process. Kathleen hopes that these discussions will give her examples in support of her thesis.

Even though her initial expectation was simple answers to a number of interview questions, Kathleen soon realizes that Greg seems willing to share with her in depth and detailed information about his career. She senses that this is a unique opportunity to get a true “behind the scenes” learning experience from someone who has almost forty.