Barack Obama has only been president for less than two months, yet cable news talkers and private bloggers are already decrying the slow pace of change.  The new president continues to offer a sober voice, reminding citizens that we didn't get into this mess overnight and that it will take more than a few weeks to get us out.  But like the New Jersey blogger who wanted an answer as to why his failing construction business had not yet turned around, many continue to clamor for change that is not just fast, but downright instantaneous.  

Those of us who work with consumers who have suffered the effects of addiction and years of abuse are all too familiar with this desire for immediate change.  Often the struggle to recognize the magnitude of one's problems takes years.  When a consumer finally acknowledges an addiction, or a multi-year pattern of violence and abuse, she sometimes feels that she has done her part.  She feels, perhaps for the first time, the urgency to change. And expects change (understood as an almost miraculous transformation) to happen Right Now!

I have sat in many groups with women trauma survivors who have born the scars of their abuse for years.  After one or two group sessions, they come in, like the blogger from New Jersey, indignant and angry that change hasn't happened yet.  "I've been coming to this group for weeks now and nothing has changed." Change, like an economic turn-around, is a process.  It does not happen overnight just because we are finally ready to be done with old ways. Perhaps the hardest job for any clinician is keeping consumers engaged in treatment and hopeful about the future while the slow process of change makes its incremental journey.