Transition

{ March 27, 2009 @ 9:31 AM } · { 1 }
{ } · { Leave a Comment }

So far, the blogging phenomenon is still outside my forte’. I’ll get it though.  So on the subject of transitions, I’ve discovered that I and many of my friends are in a transition period. I, personally, am trying to work more as a PI than an office manager. But today, I had a conversation with a woman who needs to pay a fee to my agency. She was frustrated with huge financial struggles, and faced with raising a granddaughter after her daughter went to prison, recovering from injuries after being hit head on by a drunk driver. She said she had no idea how she ended up in her current situation. She is in transition. I reconnected with a former schoolmate who is going back to school in the fall. Transition. Another dear friend is getting married in the fall. Transitions, just to name a few.

When transiton is a choice, or forced upon us, how we react can speak to our character. The woman I mentioned is choosing to get through her struggles with dignity, the schoolmate – to challenge herself, and the engaged friend, to seek an even fuller life.
I wonder what my transitions say about me. I hope they are about hope. What do your life’s transitions say about you?

Clean Slate

{ March 4, 2009 @ 10:33 AM } · { Private Investigation }
{ } · { Leave a Comment }

I have revisited my blog  by deleting the archives and starting with a clean slate. Clean slates are a story unwritten. No history showing.  But we know that the history is in us. It is even reflected in a clean slate. As I open a new case, it is a clean slate. I add the elements necessary to perform the task I have been hired to do, and the story unfolds.
Interview, observation, research and analysis. Analysis is one of my favorite parts of this job. What have I been told?  What was held back? Look at the story,  put the pieces together and see what filled up the clean slate. And look at the history that is reflected in what was discovered.  It’s there. No matter how clean the slate started.

Processing

{ March 4, 2009 @ 2:00 AM } · { Private Investigation }
{ Tags: , , } · { Leave a Comment }

I have a friend who asks me, in nearly every conversation we have, if I want to “process” my day. It always make me chuckle, and then I start spilling the details, and ”processing” my day or situation. Some days, I greatly appreciate the more clinical approach of asking me if I want to “process”, rather than a casual “How are you?” or “What’s up?” approach. I try to remember this when interviewing a subject of investigation.  Occasionally, guiding a victim statement with a process approach, allows them to tell their story by answering your questions, and responding with facts, helping them relay the information without the emotional rollercoaster. It is important to remember not to guide by influencing the story, but to clarify information, and possibly encourage memories to surface that are typically overlooked when emotions are forefront in the victims’ mind.  Using this technique with a perpetrator, may be able to curb the frequency of  them defending their actions, and allow the facts to be shared. Again, the emotions are theirs, but we need the facts.