It has been almost a year since my last post and I am pleased to come back to this site feeling refreshed and motivated right off the heels of the 2014 American Counseling Association Conference.
This year’s conference was held in Honolulu, Hawaii and provided many of us a chance to learn, re-engage with our practice and our passions, and recuperate from a bitter cold winter we’ve experienced on the East coast.
I had the privilege of hearing from great minds on the subjects ranging from solution-focused therapy and its many practices and applications in secondary school to workshops that helped to demystify the DSM 5.
This spring brings a lot of change. A new job, new client population, new ways of engaging in the world around me. I look forward to bringing that back to this blog space.
April brings showers, visions of spring, and the beginning of the end of your field year experience. What are the benefits to staying or saying good bye? Here are some things to consider as you begin the process of winding down your field experience.
“Should I stay or should I go…” ~ The Clash
Termination
Go: While it may seem counterintuitive to begin with the end in mind, this is precisely what fieldwork students should be thinking. A large part of the learning process during the internship experience is learning how to terminate with your clients. Clients will (and should) move on. Knowing how to say goodbye and prepare them for either your departure is just as important as the very first session.
Stay: Even if you decide to stay, termination is one of those phases of treatment that is inevitable and unavoidable. Stay tuned for tips on how to terminate with clients.
New Faces, New Spaces
Go: Experience a different environment, coworkers, supervisors, client population. Building and growing your skill set is an important part of your career. You can use the end of your internship to explore a different side of yourself while practicing and enhancing your skills as a counselor.
Stay: If you decide to stay, be sure to make clear your new role as a professional. Perhaps there are new responsibilities you can add or change so that you are not continuing in the same role that you were in as an intern.
Taking Time Off
Go: If you’re graduating and completing internship concurrently, it might be a good time to take a much needed break. Processing doesn’t stop just because there’s no professor after you for that reflection journal. Taking a break allows you to process your whole experience and the experience of being a graduate. Journal, dream, meet and greet other professionals. You can still be productive in your career outside of the office.
Stay: If you decide to stay, be sure that you’re building in self-care and discuss new work schedule options with your agency.
“If I go there will be trouble…”
Staying On
They love you and they want you to stay. Congratulations! Use the “Stay” strategies above to really define yourself as a professional counselor in your new role. Seek opportunities to grow within your position. You’re in a prime position to help new interns acclimate to the fieldwork experience. Utilize your skills, share what you know, and please do not forget to schedule your first vacation!
“If I stay there will be double…”
Saying Goodbye
Remember to always give a clear ending date and remind your supervisors and colleagues at least two weeks before you end. Treat it like a job, put in your notice and make time to wrap up loose ends before you depart. Maintain the partnership once the internship comes to an end. Connect on your social media and professional networks. YOu can stay up to date with them and they with you. As you job hunt, they may even endorse some of your skills. It never hurts.
I am thrilled to hear that the American Counseling Association has just created the Sexual Wellness Interest Group.
As described by the facilitator of this group in a recent interview: “
The intention of this interest network is to focus on sexual wellness for all clients, rather than focusing on the needs of sexual minorities or the overall wellness of clients. While both of these areas are extremely important with regards to advocacy, it is important that a greater emphasis on healthy sexual development and expression takes place for all people.
This interest network will provide an opportunity to explore diversity within sexual expression, provide resources for counseling professionals to use in various settings with a variety of clients and share experiences that will benefit each other as we work to incorporate sexuality into the counseling process as a part of clients’ overall human experience.”
As a counselor working within a private practice that has a vested interest in just this type of work, it’s exciting to know that now there will be many more points of connection around sexuality and our practice. Kudos!
I will be the first to say that I do not quite get social media. I typically un-tag myself in Facebook photos. I’ve been known to make mistakes when using the past tense of tweet that would make one blush. For a long time, I thought LinkedIn referred to a concept as opposed to an actual website and online community. Over time and with a lot of help from some amazing and patient people, I’ve been able to get a handle on how to use use social media to both delight and connect with others. But, nothing that I had engaged in thus far prepared me for what I was going to encounter at SMARMIE.
Funny acronym right? When I first heard of it, my imagination ran wild with all the things each letter could stand for. What I did not expect was that this conference of a peculiar name would be so singularly powerful and educational that it could very well change the way that I view social media and its powers forever. Now, I realize this this sounds very dramatic but it wasn’t until the presentation by the keynote speaker (blew my mind) that it really hit me.
Social media is crucial in the development of a global community of volunteers and it directly contributes to and enhances our ability to respond to those in crisis.
For counselors and counseling students, it is so important for us to be aware of the ways in which we can be involved in the creation and maintenance of this burgeoning movement. Humanitarianism is going digital and if you are a counselor YOU are engaged in humanitarian work.
Below are a few things I took away from the conference. I invite and urge you to check these sites out. Sign up for updates. Be involved. Get connected.
iRevolution – This blog features short thought pieces on how innovation and technology are revolutionizing the power of the individual through radical self-sufficiency, self-determination, independence, survival and resilience. While you’re at it, follow the incredible Patrick Meier.
Standby Task Force – Tired of feeling like you could be doing more when crisis hits? STF organizes digital volunteers into a flexible, trained and prepared network ready to deploy in crises.
Crisis Mappers – The largest and most active international community of experts, practitioners, policymakers, technologists, researchers, journalists, scholars, hackers and skilled volunteers engaged at the intersection between humanitarian crises, technology, crowd-sourcing, and crisis mapping.
iDisaster – The amazing Kim Stephens heads up this blog that seeks to provide exemplary practices, news and information about applications of new media, with the longer-term objective of improving practice and outcomes in emergency management.
Geofeedia – Identify “hot spots” by quickly performing situational awareness on impacted communities, prioritize resource allocation and logistical efforts using real-time intelligence from Geofeedia, and communicate with impacted populations using social media.
I’d also highly recommend keeping your eye on what’s coming out of Dr. Mark Dredze’s team at JSU. Social media for public health: very much here and now.
I’ve been privileged enough to have had several interesting conversations in the past few days. Strangely, they all seemed to have common threads dealing with acceptance and happiness. I ended up with a couple of questions that feel very relevant.
1) Am I accepting of my place in the present moment? and 2) Am I happy or not?
The nuances in the answers to those questions CAN be vast…but for a second I put all of that aside and gave myself the old elementary-style quiz.
Life is undeniably more complicated than this. I’m as guilty as anyone of getting wrapped up in the nuances, the expectations, and the anxieties. I know too well the feelings of confusion, frustration, and muddled sense of self that sneaks in even while sprinting down the “path to success”. The simplicity of those questions and boiling it down to the basics helped push aside all of the “should, could, musts” that come along with this existence and helped me tap into the most primary feelings and motivations. In asking myself these questions and allowing myself to sit with the answer without analysis or expectation, things became just a little bit clearer in the moment.
Isn’t that what most of us strive for anyway? A little slice of clarity and simplicity one moment at a time?
We’ve all experienced it. It’s that moment after the adrenaline of beginning your internship has worn off, the novelty of your coworkers and fellow interns is becoming rote, and your readings and papers for school are creeping up fast and furiously. Some of you may also hold a part-time or full-time job while juggling school and the internship. Your rose-colored glasses get darker and suddenly, you can’t remember the last time you smiled, laughed or ate something. Welcome to the Dark Days.
I only mildly exaggerate but there will come a point in time when things feel completely overwhelming. I wish there were a salve to rid us all of these days but this post exists to remind you that a) it’s normal and b) make time for self-care.
If you’re in the middle of it now, you may be rolling your eyes and thinking, what does she know? Trust me, I know! I was a full-time professional and student with a caseload of clients that demanded an immense amount of time and energy…I know what it feels like to not have the time to breathe. I also know that when you are experiencing exhaustion and the first signs of burnout, not only are you not doing any good for yourself but your work in the field may also suffer. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of self-care. It’s not just a concept in your textbook; it’s an important aspect of your development as a professional.
Self-care doesn’t always mean a two week stay at a beach resort with a Bahama-Mama at your side (though it sounds great!). It could mean taking 30 minutes in your day to do something for you. Stretch, journal, watch an episode of a funny show. Engage in anything that helps you reconnect to you and your interests outside of the counseling realm. (For more ideas, see this post featuring Shawn Achor)
Lastly, for those of us based in NY and surrounding states, Sandy has disrupted many of our lives. There are a number of resources available to help you and your clients address stress and trauma related to the storm.
I’m trying to write a post about my multicultural experience during my internship and I’m finding that I don’t know where to begin. This is not surprising. I think it’s fairly common “not to know where to begin” when dealing with these issues of culture, the -isms, and clients.
I walked into the agency armed with my Multiculturalism in Counseling Resources and an abstract understanding of what might take place in the room. I also walked in feeling worried that I might say something silly, or worse yet, insulting. I’d had many classes that provoked thought, required self-reflective journaling and processing, demanded experiential activities, and imbued the theories of identify formation and multicultural counseling competencies – but putting it all together in a new environment with real clients was something entirely more challenging.
The key thing I made myself remember during my internship was that it’s a learning experience. As a mental health counseling intern, I was there to grow, to contribute, to practice the skills and begin to make the transition from theory to practice. Becoming a culturally competent counselor follows a similar path.
A few weeks into the internship, I returned to the Cube (see below). I’d had an array of clients at that point – many with cultural norms, religious beliefs, and race, class, and educational experiences that differed from my own. The Cube served the same purposes then as it does for me now.
The Cube reminds me of the interlocking components that lead to the development of cultural competence. Using the Cube, I can determine which component (skills, awareness, knowledge) I need to focus on, for which group, and at what level. Working the Cube reminds me that acquiring cultural competency is an ongoing and proactive process.
So, while honing your interviewing skills, learning the fine art of identifying discrepancies and mastering interventions, take some time to Work the Cube and flex that cultural competency muscle. As counseling goes global and our society continues to evolve (Counseling Today, Aug 2012) we need to be equipped to deal with with clients and colleagues from all walks of life.
A multidimensional model of developing cultural competence (Sue, 2001)
I’ve been excited to publish this Internship Series featuring resources to help you find, track time, and make the most of your experiences. There’s more to come!
If you missed resources mentioned in the last few posts, check out the newresources page. Not only will you find internship resources there but you will also have access to resources on other topics and links to noteworthy sites. Check back often for new content.
If you have ideas or links that you think might be helpful, please contact me! I look forward to hearing from you!
Internship hours account for the bulk of the final year in a Counseling or Social Work program. Most of us need to complete anywhere from 600 – 1500 hours of counseling hours, supervision, and indirect service (reports, paperwork, etc). As if seeing clients, writing reports, finding your place at your agency, and finding an orientation that “fits” isn’t enough, your school will most likely ask you to turn in a break down of your time. This type of paperwork can be time consuming and frustrating if you wait until the last minute to get it done.
I’m loving the TimetoTrack website which helps clinicians easily track hours and provides a handy printout sheet. They also post a blog series that’s extremely useful to newbies in the field. Check out their latest here: Internship Application Season has Begun!
If you decide not use their service (1 year costs $36.95 but they offer a free trial), you can choose the DIY approach. Excel is extremely handy and you can personalize the columns and let the sheet do the tally. Here’s a sample of what you can do: Hours_Blank (If you like the template, feel free to email me and I’ll help you customize it).
Developing a quick and efficient system of tracking your internship hours will help
you when you are working towards your hours for your license. Remember, you’re responsible for tracking those – not your job, supervisor, and certainly not the state!
thepathNY 