If there are mental health professionals on this board, I would appreciate some advice!

I recently accepted a job working in a crisis center. I'm a counseling and development student. My position is to, more or less, tide over a mixed group of adults (with various issues severely affecting their lives) from Friday to Monday when they can reconnect with counselors and social workers. I do some group; mostly affirmations and light coping skills with a general focus. I also check in with each person and just overall enforce the rules of the facility.

I'm particularly having problems expressing any kind of authority. I'm new and the consumers are not. I had four days of observation and now I work 12 hour shifts alone whereas before there was no one to do this job and there's resistance to having structured weekends. There seems a delicate balance of applying enough pressure to enforce the rules while not going so far as to exacerbate anxiety or authority issues in the consumers and having to call a more experienced person in on their days off.

A new job takes some time to get accustomed to, but I don't feel I'm being incredibly effective and I don't have experience to fall back on. Any tips for a mental health worker seeking to get more comfortable and develop the necessary skills to do this kind of work for life???