volunteer with the Samaritans

I’ve now done 3 training modules out of 8.
Everyone is sooo lovely and even the roleplay isn’t scary, it’s enlightening.
Things I’m having problems with though are that we can’t give advice, no matter what. And I’ve not done so far in my role plays, but advice is spinning around in my head and I’m fighting against it. It’s just instinct, isn’t it, to try to fix the problem! But hopefully with practice I’ll learn to switch that off and concentrate on saying the right things. The main thing is we can’t try persuade a suicidal person not to take their life. While in my head all I want to do is tell them not to! But I know that telling them so wouldn’t be helpful at all. It’s still hard though.
Despite that, I’m doing quite well at it and it’s probably good for me to be in a place where these things are discussed with no taboos.
Last training day is end of November thsn I do real shifts and can mark this as done :)
If anyone out there is thinking about volunteering at Samasitans but still not completely decided, go for it! It’s not scary at all, the trainers are lovely and can answer any situation you can dream up, it’s such a nice, open environment to feel able to voice your worries (even me) and realise that everyone has the same fears about the role and if you decide it’s not for you, you can leave anytime, no questions asked. Samaritans needs more volunteers, so if you’ve considered it, defo try it!

I got thru the interview. It wasn’t scary at all, it was nice and informal.

And I start training in a week! :)

(just not going to mark this as done yet until I’ve actually done some shifts)

It’s in 3 weeks. The lady said they had alot of interest. Scared. But the pressure is off Sah and Ni ‘cause their references got me through. They did good :) Now it’s up to me. But I generally don’t make a good first impression. All I can do is my best, be open (that’s the hard part right there) and trust that they know who will do the role well and hope that I can and that they can see that

Both my fabulous driends that I asked for references from have sent them away. Thank you so much Sah and Nige! I loves you :D Just got to wait now…

Sent my form away yesterday… :)

Just need to fill it in. The scariest part is asking my friends to be references. Oh and the fact that I could be the last lifeline for someone…