I'm Right Here: 10 Ways to Get Help for Hoarding and Chronic Disorganization by Jill Yesko

Author:Jill Yesko [Yesko, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Publisher: Publish Your Purpose Press
Published: 2021-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

Denise Lee, a CPO and organizer coach, has a bachelor’s degree in psychology, as well as many certificates in brain-based studies from ICD. She started her company, Clear Spaces, in 2005.

While the focus of the organizing session needs to be what the client wants, Denise points out that as a coach, her job is also to shift that focus onto goals by pointing out what isn’t working. “I say, ‘This situation might be your problem, but I am here to help you think it through. Let’s brainstorm together!’ It is so important for me to really listen to the client, because sometimes what they say they want isn’t what they might need right now.”

Denise was hired to organize the whole house of a woman who had recently gone through major life changes. They developed the organizing plan together, and during the first session, the client stated that she would like to start organizing the kitchen, because it was the heart of the home and that’s where she “should” begin. However, when the client walked past a large pile of stuff—approximately five feet high by five feet wide—in the living room, she became visibly flustered. “I said, ‘Yes, your kitchen is the heart of the home, but let me throw this out there: Why don’t we start with the pile in the living room?’ I could see that it was really such a drain on her by the way she walked past it. She was initially hesitant and said that it was such an ‘icky’ pile, but acquiesced. Two and a half hours later, the pile was GONE. She began to do a little Snoopy happy dance and was genuinely so pleased that she had regained that corner of her home. The bigger thing that she had done was to truly tackle the thing that had been really eating at her, and she is so much more in control now.”

With brain-based challenged individuals, there can be setbacks. To offset these, Denise checks in more frequently with her clients who are at risk of backsliding in between organizing sessions. But what about when the work during a session gets challenging for a client suffering from mental health issues? Denise stops the session upon noticing the behavior and encourages a reboot. “You know what? This is a crap day for you, isn’t it? Your amygdala is on overdrive! We are going to stop right here. Go do something fun today and recharge your battery. I will see you for our next appointment.”

Denise’s clients who are in collaborative therapy while getting organized have an ally on their side. “Part of my training through ICD has made me more effective in working with therapists too. With permission, I can share what I am noticing and working on with the client that the therapist might not be aware of, because the client may not be sharing how things are really going in the home environment, and the therapist is not in the trenches with the client like I am.

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