Rudy Scala
"You are asked to carry around a number of souls with you throughout your day: their stories and their moments of growth and struggle in therapy. It is truly part of the joy, honor, and responsibility of this work. It all comes down to balance."
Who is Rudy Scala?
This month is dedicated to Rudy Scala who is a mental health counselor focused on addiction counseling. After spending 17 years in the theatre industry, Rudy switched from working in Theater (both at Columbia University’s Arts Initiative/Ticket and Information Center and TheaterMania) to substance use counseling. He loved mentoring students at Columbia and wanted to switch to a career that focused more on helping a wider range of people. Now working as a substance use counselor at Inter-Care, LTD in New York, he has devoted one and a half years to prompting real change among individuals who are in recovery. His day consists of seeing clients in group sessions, in addition to providing individual and family sessions. Each day varies based on schedule and client needs. His average caseload consists of forty to fifty clients, and he meets with his clients 2-3 times a week for around 90 minutes. He also does a lot of case management, working with referral organizations to keep them updated on clients’ progress, researching new interventions and coping strategies for his clients, learning more about their specific mental health needs, and even helping clients who reach out in times of crisis. When he was first exploring a career switch, he volunteered for the Trevor Project, a suicide crisis hotline for young people in the LGBTQ+ community.
Working with mandated clients: Part of Rudy's work includes counseling mandated clients. In this field, “mandated” means that the clients are required to attend treatment by another organization, such as a workplace or a union. For some clients, these outside consequences or influences, known as external motivators, is what’s needed to start treatment. Some clients may use this initial push to develop further reasons to change that focus on themselves and their own needs, known as internal motivators. Others remain in treatment primarily for external reasons. While some may view internal motivators in a more positive light, Rudy has found in his work that external and internal motivation are equally important and each client is unique. Part of his work is to find the balance between these two types of motivation. What is most important is cultivating positive motivators to help clients fill their tank and maintain the change they are seeking. Addiction doesn’t just target one group of people, and the ability to work with a variety of people in a variety of circumstances is one of the things that keeps his job interesting.
The importance of community: What Rudy skillfully applies in his work is creating support for the clients, so they can learn how to begin to help themselves. His hope is that they will create their own network for help when they find themselves in time of need. Rudy acts as a support foundation to give them tools and help them create sober networks. His primary techniques include creating treatment plans, or road maps, for goals that will help individuals learn skills that support the changes that they are making in treatment. One important element that Rudy emphasizes is that treatment plans are not a one-size-fits-all model. Collaborating with individual clients and doing research to understand life stressors, and other mental health concerns, is key to helping clients be successful. He hopes that all people can have more conversations to destigmatize some of the shame that surrounds individuals who are struggling with addiction. One focus of group therapy is to help reduce the shame of addiction by creating an environment where clients realize they are not alone, and that past behaviors are just that: behaviors. They do not define who these clients are as individuals. Group therapy allows clients to feel less isolated and alone in the process of seeking help. Knowing you aren't alone can serve as a comfort and allow you to build connections.
Why this matters: What I loved most when talking to Rudy was how he looks at treatment as a step-by-step process. For him, it's important that people recognize that abstinence from substances is not the only way to approach addiction treatment. Rudy sees recovery through a Harm Reduction spectrum and abstinence is at one end of the spectrum. In Rudy’s mind, a client may set a goal towards the abstinence end of the spectrum which may include steps along the way to simply use less often or in a safer manner. He also adds in elements of science and spirituality to create a more integrated way of living. Rudy works to see his clients as unique individuals with unique needs and issues spanning range of areas, whether they be biological, environmental, psychological, social, or spiritual,
I’m so happy to be highlighting Rudy’s work here. If you want to learn more about InterCare, please visit https://inter-care.com/
