Dunbar

On Friday, I went over to Dunbar with my supervisor to sit in on two therapy sessions with her. Unfortunately the first one canceled, but this meant that I had a little time to explore the town. Dunbar is even smaller than Haddington...the High Street took me only 5 minutes to walk to the end! It was a beautiful day, so stopped at a little coffee shop and decided to sit outside for a bit.

 I've been working on reading this book about positive thinking, but I have been having a particularly hard time than I thought getting through it. At least in the first 50 pages, it seems to be emphasizing more the power of prayer...so not really what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be about Positive Psychology, but from what I can tell so far it really bears no similarities. So I may just look for something else in the hospital library.

Once I was finished with my coffee, I decided to take a stroll down to the beach. I did not have enough time to go all the way on to the beach, but it was pretty enough standing at the edge and looking out over the water.

 That strip of red wall on the left of the picture below is actually all that remains of a castle. The rest has been reclaimed by the sea overtime. 

Like Haddington (and most small towns), the main church sits at one end of the High Street. 

 I was really thankful I am able to now sit in on appointments. I feel like I learn so much more when I have direct exposure and am able to be in the moment with the client, even if I am not involved in the process. It has helped me conceptualize the cases in my head and start making connections on my own. Then by discussing them afterwards with my supervisor, I have a better understanding of how and why she approaches things the way she does in the sessions. I am sitting into a few more appointments next week, so I am looking forward to that.

Looking at the calendar, I'm starting to get sad that my time here is more than halfway done. My supervisor has set aside time for the whole office on August 8th for a "going away" lunch for me, which is incredibly kind and thoughtful. Hints were also dropped this week of me trying to come back in subsequent summers. I have no idea how this would work without me actually getting paid somehow (and I know the NHS doesn't have that budget), but it would be amazing to. Once I have experience in one or more experiential placements at school, I would be able to come back to the NHS and do more direct clinical work that way. They accept Clinical Psychology trainees here but they only get placed in their final year of their program (their doctoral programs are 3 years). So I would need to have a little more experience before I take on a caseload here. We will see. If there is a next time, I think I'd like to live in centre city Edinburgh. But that's just dreaming, it's really expensive!

On another note, look how big the babies are getting! We went down to another pub in Haddington on Friday night to sit out and enjoy the weather. We saw these guys out wandering as well.