Dave Spriggs

We enjoyed celebrating my mom’s birthday with her a few days ago. My mom is very kind and loving. We didn’t do anything fancy for her birthday, but she said several times about how much she enjoyed her birthday.

We enjoyed family dinner and some time together. Just that simple celebration made her happy.

My family enjoyed celebrating my dad's birthday earlier this month. Next year, he will be 80. We had a nice dinner and cake and enjoyed spending time together.

He has been visiting my brother in Montana for the past week. He will be home soon. I'll look forward to hearing about his trip.

Last year was a good year for me. My health was much better. I enjoyed time with family. Each new year brings opportunities and experiences to enjoy. This first half of 2025 will include couple of unique experiences for me.

My dad was accepted for the flight of honor program. I attended a flight of honor send off about 15 years ago to honor a WWII Veteran who attended my church. My dad is a Vietnam Veteran. He was deployed to Vietnam in 1967-68 and was present for the Tet Offensive. I am glad he was accepted to go. Part of the program includes having a family member or friend accompany the Veteran on the trip to Washington, D.C. and I will have this role for my dad. The event will be on 4/30/2025.

The past few years have included a number of losses for my family as some of our elders have passed away. We haven't had a family reunion for over 10 years. We are having a family reunion this coming June. I am looking forward to spending time with family in Michigan.

I have been enjoying vacation and will be off from work for 2 weeks. This is the busy time of year for my wife Julie. She is a mail carrier and her post-office is short-handed. She has worked Christmas Eve more times than not over the past 10 years. She was home by 5pm this year, and we were able to attend Christmas Eve church service.

As we were getting ready for church and driving there, we discussed some challenges in our lives. For example: finances, family, changes in our culture, and how we might change our actions if given a second chance. While some of the specifics are unique to our situation, I believe the concerns are universal.

Every Christmas, I think about the story in Luke Chapter 2. As a child, my cousins and I would act out the story. I always wanted to be a shepherd. I wonder what the shepherds talked about on Christmas Eve, assuming their sheep were safe from wolves? They may have made small talk, or they may have kept quiet. They lived in a very difficult time, filled with poverty, sadness, and little hope. I believe they had some of the same concerns, Julie and I talked about today.

I would love to know what it was like for them when they heard the good news and glad tidings that night. I can guess what it was like, but I think the hope and joy they felt were beyond my imagination.

Julie and I enjoyed the church service tonight. We sang Christmas carols, listened to the scriptures and the pastor's message, and finished by lighting candles while singing "Silent Night." I am grateful for the hope the Savior brought to our world.

We are grateful for another good year. We live in a multigenerational household with our youngest daughter, Emily, and Dave's parents, Jerry and Rita. We are glad our family can be together and enjoy sharing meals and holidays.

Julie continues to work in the capacity of a rural carrier at the local post office. She has found it rewarding to serve her community and get to know her neighbors. This is the busy season for the delivery folks and many people find it convenient to order online.

Julie reached a milestone birthday this past November, turning 60. She was diagnosed with breast cancer early in 2024 and had surgery and completed radiation treatment in April 2024. The doctors have given her good reports post-treatment. In February 2025, she will have a return visit with her oncologist and is hopeful for another good report.

Dave is a psychologist at the Department of Veterans Affairs. He works in the primary care department with the physicians and nurses. When a primary care team believes a patient may benefit from mental health treatment, Dave provides care the same day. For many patients, brief therapy will meet the need. For patients with more complex needs, Dave will connect them with the mental health department.

Dave has been much healthier this year than the past few years. He started bicycling this summer. The climate in NC is mild and bicycling is a fun hobby.

Amanda and Will have been married for 3 years. They live about 20 minutes away from us. Will has recently sold his business. He continues to provide consultation for the new owner. Amanda is an attorney and works remotely for a law firm that is based in New York. Amanda had a work conference in Italy this year. She and her husband were able to spend some vacation time there after the conference and had a great time.

Emily is single and lives with us. She currently works for Goodwill Industries. She is considering career options. She applied for a job at a nuclear power plant and was hired, but is still waiting for HR to finish the hiring process. It is a secure facility and has a very complex hiring process. If that job does not work out, she is considering a career in aviation fabrication.

Dave's parents, Jerry and Rita, visit Matt and Katherine (Dave's brother and sister-in-law) in Montana a few times per year. They also visit family in Michigan, but don't travel often. Dave's dad stays busy with home renovation projects and his mom enjoys staying in touch with loved ones and visiting them when she can. They both enjoy playing with their 3 Great Pyranees dogs.

As 2024 draws to a close, I reminisce about the past few years. Christmas is a wonderful time of year for me. I look forward to it each year. My earliest memories are enjoying the love of my family and extended family at Christmas. My extended family would father on Christmas Eve. The children would perform a Christmas play and then we would open presents. Normally, my cousins Lee Ann and Tammy would pass the presents out.

The past few years have included many blessings. Julie and I celebrated our 25th anniversary in 2021. Amanda got married in 2021. My parents celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2019. There have been challenges as well.

Troy Pence passed away in 2019. Larry and Sheli Spriggs both passed away in 2021. Don Pence and Liz Pence both died in 2023. Paul Pence, my last living uncle, died in 2024. My last surviving aunt, Ann Pence, and my parents, Jerry and Rita Spriggs, are the final members of their generation in our family.

I'm sad that these loved ones are no longer living. I am grateful for the memories. I am also grateful for the loved ones I am blessed with and the time we have now.

Today was a wonderful day. I enjoyed spending time with my mom and dad, my daughters, my son-in-law, and my wife. We had a delicious meal. It was good to just be together. I wish my brother and sister-in-law could have joined us. Hopefully, we will celebrate some day soon.

We have a tradition in which each person spends a few moments sharing gratitude. We have so much to be thankful for that each of us could speak a long time and not accurately describe how blessed we are.

As this year is drawing to a close, I realize that 2024 is an anniversary year for me. I started working in the mental health field in 1994. My first position was working in a group home serving adults impacted by traumatic brain injury. I think like most professionals, I learned a lot about healthcare from my first job. I learned how important nurses are to the system of healthcare. I learned about multidisciplinary teams. I learned what it was like to provide direct care to individuals with significant impairments. Most of all, I learned how fulfilling it is to help people.

My next job was at a long-term-care facility. At this job, I developed a love for working with older adults and also working in organized healthcare settings. I met my wife at this job, so I have a lot of good memories of working at Branch Villa in Seattle, WA. My wife, Julie, worked in the recreation therapy department and I worked in the social work department.

I went to graduate school from 1996-2001, but continued working in the mental health field throughout this time. When I started, all documentation was paper-based. During my 2000 internship at the Department of Veterans Affairs, some files were still paper-based, but new records were electronic, and the facility was transitioning to digital files. I had wonderful mentors during my internship. All my supervisors have retired over the years, and the last one left in November 2024.

I worked at a church-based counseling center from 2001-2007. Two primary areas of my work were couples counseling and Christian Counseling. I returned to the Salisbury VA in 2007, and I am finishing up my 18th year in the Salisbury system. My experiences earlier in my career with couples counseling and Christian Counseling have remained relevant at the VA. I am grateful for work that is fulfilling and also for the relationships with coworkers.

There have been many changes in the field of psychology since I completed my doctorate in 2001. One change that has both positives and negatives is the emphasis on standardized and short-term treatment. Research has identified techniques that are effective in treating emotional problems. Standardized treatments enable far more patients to receive quality care. Brief therapy can be a cost saving for many patients and provides more capacity for treatment. There is a tremendous shortage of therapists and more capacity is critically important.

Unfortunately, some patients want psychotherapy that is not brief. They need time to build trust with their therapist and time to recover. Many patients benefit from 8–12 therapy sessions, but some may prefer to receive support for 6 months or more in the unique and confidential environment of professional psychotherapy. Personal and professional relationships, like those with friends, family, physicians, and clergy, can provide valuable support. For people without mental illness, these relationships can be more beneficial to their well-being than therapy. However, some individuals (even those without a mental illness) may need psychotherapy in addition to other types of support.

Quality psychotherapy can be very difficult for some people to access. I have not seen signs of improvement. There is often a long wait to find a therapist. Many people struggle to determine if a therapist is a good fit, often relying on several sessions to gauge their comfort level. If there is a 6-month wait for the first meeting, trial and error is not a good option.

By the time they have obtained licensure, most therapists are well-trained in effective psychotherapy methods. They have also had several years of supervised work in which a supervisor could evaluate their clinical judgement and character. This is good news.

There is a tremendous need for more therapists. I hope more people will choose to become therapists. Training is at least a master's degree, and following that, one or two years of supervised experience. That is a long time to delay earning a salary and graduate training is very expensive. Many therapists can earn a decent income, but it's not proportional to the 5 to 10 years they spend in education and the high costs they incur compared to their peers. Educational debt is considerable, and not earning a professional salary for five or more years can lead to a much smaller retirement fund, even if future earnings are higher.

I don't know the answer to this problem, but I know what won't help. Lowering standards for therapists won't lead to better outcomes. Therapists need quality education and maturity that only comes with years of supervised work. Cutting jobs or reducing therapists' pay will worsen the existing shortage of available therapists.

We celebrated Julie's 60th birthday yesterday. She had a busy workday delivering the mail and didn't come home until about 6pm. We enjoyed a good meal and some birthday treats and Julie opened her presents.

She will have Thanksgiving Day off, so will have more time to celebrate her birthday later this week.