My Favorite Clients

At least five times a year, one of my clients looks at me and says, am I your favorite client? And I usually say, yes. I usually make a joke like, you're my favorite 2 p.m. on a Tuesday client.

My real favorite clients, don't tell anybody, are the ones that come in and say, I'm a mess, my family's wonderful, everybody's doing great, I'm doing terribly. I work with them for a little bit and they come in one day and they say, you know, I'm getting a little better. My family's still wonderful, but I'm starting to see some tension — like my mom blah blah blah or my sister blah blah blah.

They come back again a few sessions later and say, I'm doing really well, and I'm really noticing in my family we're not nice to each other, we gossip behind each other's backs, we manipulate, we promise and don't deliver. My family's still, you know, pretty okay. They come back again, they say, I'm doing really well. And you know what? My family's kind of falling apart. Dad's not talking to my brother. My mom was mad at my sister.

And then one day they come in and say, you know what? I think my family's kind of a mess. I'm doing better and I'm seeing a lot of dysfunction. And then one day they come in and they say, my family's kind of a mess, I'm doing better, and I'm done. I'm not taking care of them anymore. I'm getting out of the helping-my-family business. I'm just going to focus on me and getting my life together.

Those are my favorites.