Entering the Labyrinth

The Golden Hour

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Alexis Jensen García. Alexis was a bright and caring girl, looking after her family, little animals, her friends, and even strangers. Everyone she met she was able to leave a little light in and make them smile. This little girl also had dreams of magical whimsy. She learned about the magic from her mother who told her stories of magic from different places around the world and how the magic could appear in even the smallest ways. So Alexis always looked for the signs of magic around her. This was especially true when times were tough at home or when life seemed heavy and dark as she got older. Even as she became older, in her heart, she never stopped wishing for a sign of magic to appear and never lost sight of being a light-bringer to those she met.

So Alexis kept looking for the light and magic in the little ways she could find it in mundane adult life: through books, her work as a counselor, and her dreams of traveling across the world to see the most magical and beautiful places she could. And through all the hardship and pain life, the people, and the systems around her sometimes brought, the desire to find the magic in the world and people was her reason to keep going. This leads her and us here to the beginning of her journey to the Labyrinth.

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Even on long days like this, Alexis is energized by being with her clients. Community Mental Health is not an easy job for a counselor, with the monstrous caseloads, long hours past your work-days end, and a higher-up always finding new ways to make your work more restrictive. It is not an easy work environment, but it is one that Alexis finds so much fulfillment in with being able to help those who would not be able to find help otherwise. She knows what it is like to struggle to meet basic needs, let alone medical and mental health needs, so she has a special drive to help others in those same circumstances. If there is a silver lining in all the hardships of her life, it is to prepare her to offer the support and help she didn't receive in her own life.

Part of Alexis' work at the community center is to lead a couple of psychoeducation groups. Today, she is with a group of young teens 12-14 years old, working on emotional regulation skills to help teach them healthy coping skills, learn to understand and communicate their emotions constructively, and have a collaborative space to listen, learn, and practice these skills with peers. Alexis loves the teens; they make each session fun and keep her on her toes, and she sees that they are so smart and have great potential for self-actualization and creating chaos.

But, the group she works with also comes from all walks of life, backgrounds, and experiences they have no control over. The hardest part of working with minors is that they have less autonomy and control over their environments than adults. So, Alexis' work is to help them find ways to foster their natural strengths, resilience, and autonomy while navigating their social and cultural circles.

"What's the point of even doing this? It doesn't change anything. It doesn't stop making my dad so mad at me all the time, and it doesn't make teachers less annoying. So why bother with all this when it's just extra work for us that others won't even do," Mason vents, sitting in a slouch with his arms crossed over his chest.

Alexis leans more into the circle, displaying her receptivity to Mason's feelings. "You're feeling unsure that things can change. And it's frustrating when you feel like you're the only one putting in the effort," Alexis validates the boy's emotions. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you all: life gets hard sometimes, and there's so much out of everyone's control. But, there are things we can do to cope with these stressors that are healthy for us and that can even build us up in the process. The more we care for ourselves and learn to understand our emotions and what drives us, the more we can work towards living a life that makes us fulfilled and happy. It sounds like fluff, but it's true."