2nd year internship

So I have finished my first week of internship and there isn't that much to report. Obviously because of insurance and privacy regulations/laws I can't share specific details with any of you. I am working at a agency that is a few minutes away from my apartment(which is great because I walk home and eat lunch at home everyday). I am working at a agency with a severely persistent mentally ill population. I will be working with everyone with major depression to schizophrenia or personality disorders. Many of the clients will have multiple diagnoses and many also have a history of substance abuse too. All I did this week is a lot of observing. I met all the staff members and many of the clients. There are many different interns from lots of different schools here in the city, their are psychology inters, drama/art therapists, music therapists, peer mentor interns and of course me the social work intern. I was able to sit in on many groups this week and see how different each person runs the groups. Next Monday I go to orientation, where I will learn all the details about their internal computer system and anything else I wasn't taught this week. Everyone is SO nice, and I partially worried that they are just being super nice since it's my first week. My supervisor seems very nice and eager to help me throughout the year. Everyone is willing to help me or answer any questions I have even if they aren't my supervisor, the good thing is many of the current staff members used to be interns at my agency and where hired on so they at one point were in the same situation as I am now. I was told starting next week I will start running my own groups. I'm a bit nervous to run my own group, but I know once I get through my first one it will be fine. I will be running 1-3 groups a day and then eventually will also get my own clients that I will see individually and have to check up on with other group leaders to see if they are participating in groups. I will be helping them find housing, get a job, get into a school program, whatever their goals are I will help them try and achieve. I will be getting 2 to start and eventually end with 4 or 5 clients at the end of the year.

I think that's enough information for now, I'm really excited to continue on this year and see what happens. I will update later this month/early next when I have actually had my first group and possibly even seen my first client. School is school, I'm looking forward to 2 of my 4 classes, and think I will learn a lot in those two, but I really could do without the other two. I've already started the countdown to Christmas break ;)

Bye for now <3

Last Year

The end of summer has come and now I am faced with another year of school. I am however very excited that I entered my last year of school. This is my second and last year of my grad program, and I can't wait to be done with it. I have been going to school for WAY too many years, and am ready for a break. This year I will be at a different internship than last year, but I do not start that until next week so I will update after my first week at my internship. So far I went to 3 of my 4 classes, I was going to have one Friday morning, but I found a open Tuesday night class. Now I will go to my internship Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and school Tuesday and Wednesday. I am taking Clinical Practice w/ Individuals and Families, Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Research 2, and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention. My first teacher didn't show up so I have no idea how my cognitive class will be, but my research class seems to be a little challenging and my Humab Behavior(HB) teacher overwhelmed me with just the first class. I'm very excited about HB however, because we start to learn how to diagnose and learn all the signs/symptoms to help you diagnose....I feel like I'm starting to finally get into the stuff that is new to me and that I need to learn to help me once I get out.

I am happy to be done w/ summer and back into a routine, but I'm sure soon as the stacks of reading pile up I will wish for it to be summer again. I'm loving the new apartment and the location is fantastic. The best part is my internship and school are both a 5 minute or less walk each from my place! Not much more to talk about, just the fact that I have officially started my last year of school, and am anxiously awaiting my internship to start and am crossing my fingers that I enjoy it and have as good of an experience this year as I did last.

Bye for now <3