Mike is walking down the street one day, minding his own business while being oblivious to the world around him. As he continues to walk home from another grueling day at work, he falls into a giant hole in the sidewalk. The hole is so deep and wide that he immediately decides there is no way he’s ever going to get out unless he gets some help.
He starts yelling, “HELP! HELP!” but nobody hears him.
He keeps yelling for help for hours on end, when finally a smartly dressed woman walks up to the edge of the hole and looks down to him.
She doesn’t say anything.
Mike looks up at here and says, “Do you think you can help me? I seem to have fallen into this big hole and can’t get out.”
She says to him, “Hi, my name is Cindy. I’m a therapist and I’d be happy to help. But first, can you tell me how you feel?”
Perplexed, Mike says back to her, “I’m down in this smelly dark hole, how do I think I feel?”
To which, Cindy the therapist replies, “Well, I’ve only got 45 minutes until my next appointment. I think it would help you greatly if you just told me how you feel about being down in that hole.”
Seeing that this lady really seems very interested about what it feels like to be stuck in hole you can’t get out of, Mike reluctantly begins to tell her everything about the hole he finds himself in, leaving nothing out.
After 45 minutes, an alarm sounds on Cindy’s cell phone letting her know that she needs to get going or she’ll be late for her next session.
She reaches into her purse and pulls out a business card and drops it down to Mike, who’s still in the hole. He catches it mid-flight and looks to see that’s nothing but an ordinary business card. While he’s doing this she says to him, “I come this way once a week. If you’re still here next week, maybe we can talk again. I’ve really enjoyed our time and want to hear more about this hole you find yourself in.”
Mike says to her, “Wait! I’m still stuck in this hole, can’t you help me get out?”
To which she replies, “It’s my job to listen and help you deal with the situation people find themselves in.” and turns on her heel and walks away.
Dumbfounded, Mike begins yelling for her to come back but he can hear her heels clicking as she walks away. To make matters worse, it starts raining. Not your average rain either but a real downpour. The hole starts to fill with water.
More frantic than ever to find a way out of this dangerous hole he finds himself in that’s beginning to fill with water, Mike tries to climb out again – clawing and scratching at anything he can to get out. To no avail.
Mike decides he better start yelling for help again or he might drown down here in this holle he finds himself in.
Suddenly, a man appears at the edge of the hole, takes one look down at Mike and says, “Looks like you’ve found yourself stuck in a deep hole and with all the rain it’s beginning to fill up.”
Mike looks the man square in the eye and sarcastically says, “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
The man huffs ands turns around and begins to walk away. Mike yells, “No! I’m sorry for the way I acted. Please don’t go! I just need some help getting out of this hole. Do you think you can help?”
The man comes back to the edge of the hole, looks down at Mike and says, “Well… I’m a psychiatrist. I’m not really sure how you got into that hole, but I think I know a way that I can help. Can you tell me how you feel?”
The man takes a prescription pad out of his jacket pocket and starts writing on it. Bewildered, MIke asks the man, “What are you doing? What do you mean, ‘how I feel?’ I’m stuck in a hole! How do you think I feel? I don’t need a prescription, I just need a hand getting out of this hole.”
To which the man replies, “Look, as I told you, I don’t know much about how this hole was made and I’m just a doctor. What I can do for you is give you some medicine that’ll make you feel better about being in the hole you’ve found yourself in. Don’t worry, before you know it the hole won’t matter so much and you can get on with your life.”
With that, the psychiatrist tears the top layer off the prescription pad and drops it down to Mike, and say to him, “I’ll be back this way in a couple weeks to see how the medication is working for you. If it doesn’t work, we can try something else.”
With that, the turns away from the hole and walks away.
Stunned and confused, Mike looks down at the prescription the psychiatrist gave him. Utterly bewildered but wanting to take the advice of a real doctor, he neatly folds the prescription and puts in his pocket.
At this point though, it’s raining cats and dogs and the water level is rising. Mike is becoming frantic, knowing that if he doesn’t get out of this hole soon he won’t have much to worry about. He begins to sob, thinking why won’t anybody just help me out of this hole? That’s all I’m asking for.
Eventually Mike collects himself and tries one last time to call out for help. He doesn’t care who it is as long as they help him get out of this hole he finds himself in that’s quickly filling with water because the rain has done nothing but get worse.
He yells, “Help me! Somebody please help me!”
Suddenly an old friend appears at the edge of the hole.
Relieved to see this old friend, Mike simply says, “Man is it good to see you! Do you think you can help me get out of this hole?”
The friend smiles gently back at Mike and jumps into the hole with him.
Shocked, Mike looks at his friend and says, “What the hell are you doing? Now we’re both gonna be stuck down in this hole. Can’t you see the hole is filling up fast with water? Why in the world would you jump into the hole?”
To which, the friend smiles and looking at Mike says, “Don’t worry Mike. I was once in a hole myself and I know how to get out. I’m going to show you how I did it, and we can do it together.”
Mike’s friend is a coach. He knows exactly how to get out of the hole because he’s been in one himself. He’s not just going to pull Mike out of the hole, he’s going to help Mike learn how to get himself out of the hole. This is the role of a recovery coach.
As they say, give a man a fish and he eats for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for the rest of his life.
Springs Recovery takes it one step further.
We teach you how to teach other people to fish. We firmly believe that we’re all connected and that we have an obligation to help each other out.
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