Those of you who have been following my Commissioning saga know that getting through the process has been brutal. One of the obstacles is getting your psychological examination. Now in and of itself, getting a psych eval is not that big of a deal, however, the Texas Conference is massive geographically but there is only one doctor that is allowed to do the TAC psych evaluations and he lives in Houston. Now I live in what is affectionately referred to as the Northern Kingdom and they make us brutally compete with others in the process to get a limited number of slots in which he will come up to a more central spot for us to be evaluated.
Now those of you who are logical might say, "don't they know how many need to have the evaluation and make an according number of appointments to see the Head Doctor?" I would say, no, no -- that would make to much sense. It is much better for us to be in competition with each other, harassing our references (because they won't make the appointment until your references are into the psych office) and even paying to have the references Next Day Aired to the good doctor.
Well, you know me--they received my references (Next Day Aired) last Tuesday. I immediately called....no answer. Left messages.....not returned. Now keep in mind I have spoken with or left a message with the appointment lady every two days. Finally, got through today. Was told, we have no slot for you. It wasn't pretty. Temper tantrum does not really begin to describe what I did after hanging up with the lady. My dogs are still lurking around the corner. Luke has never seen such a thing and is still a little bit scared.
After calming down, I called the District Chair of Ordained Ministry. She is wonderful and she knew how on top of this process I have been (because I have kept her informed every step of the way). Well, not exactly sure what she did but the lady called me back and I now have an appointment with the good doctor next Monday at the northern location.
All of us going through this process feel that we are held hostage at this particular step of the program, all appointments must be with this one doctor and through just this particular lady. And we must compete for a limited number of slots if we live in the Northern half of the conference.
I have never really believed that complaining was the right way to handle a situation like this. I mean, how does it look? I, also, thought that the doctor might write up a bad report if you did something like this (and who knows he might). But I can't find it in me to be sorry about it this time. And I must say that the hissy fit has left me feeling drained and cleansed in a strangely peculiar way.
You have all heard the term, Nepotism. Well, that describes our conference and the relationship with this "Center". There are hundreds of qualified clinical psychologists in my area. Why just one?
Oh look, Luke has come back into the office and is laying at my feet. He must sense that I am better now and that scary, scary lady has went away. I know that most of you probably live in a conference that doesn't make you turn into a bloody competitor for appointments with someone that every single candidate must see. And so, you are probably sitting there shaking your heads or maybe you are remembering your process. Something has to be done and in three years (God have mercy), this is going to be my cause.
5 comments:
((((revdulce))))
i don't totally follow, but that's not because of your writing, it's because of what sounds like an assinine policy. grrr.... yes.... change it when you have a chance.
glad you got an appt.
I had problems with the psych eval as well, but my problem was because I didn't have a (real) mentor, so I hadn't done the tests, just the references and so forth. There are probably 10 of the docs in West Ohio - the closest to me was an hour away, and everything is an hour away from me out here, so that wasn't a problem. But one of my required references (the senior pastor I used to work with) gave me a terrible recommendation (to the point where the doc wondered if I'd be able to speak at all), and the doc was rather a tool as well and brought up some potential red flags... all of which were summarily dismissed by my committee
That is really comforting, it gives me hope but it also makes me mad. We really have some issues to work out in our ordination process.
I went through all of this last year and there weren't any red flags from the psychologist. One of my friends had a senior pastor who torched his commissioning last year and what is really upsetting about that--he has one of the most successful student pastorates in the conference.
I think that the DS managed to get around that particular person this year because I saw that he is coming up as well.
Why do you have to have a new psych eval? In our conference we do it once sometime before commissioning interviews. Mine was before I was certified and that's the report I sent for commissioning. Just remember to "smile pretty" and save the hissy fit for after the appt.
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