Internship Reflection

I had an incredibly busy day at the internship yesterday. I really love Mondays because that is when the rest of the trainees seem to be in. So instead of just two of us, there were about 6! I like when it's bustling, because we have so many good conversations. The girls are from all over Europe (yes, only girls), and everyone seems to be heading in a different direction. One of the girls really wants to come to the states, and is interested in seeing if she can come to Monmouth for a bit and try to volunteer or something. Not sure exactly what she has in mind, or what her options are, but I think like me, she has a bit of wonder lust. She is in a PhD. program and is developing a new therapy model to use for trauma victims in Uganda. She's spent a few months out there already, and now is deciding whether she wants to move out there for a year now to finish her research or travel a bit more first. It's fascinating!

In the morning I had a departmental meeting, where my supervisor presented a paper on CAT, or Cognitive Analytic Therapy. I really did not know a lot about this theory, and I still know very little comparatively, but I am getting to understand it a bit better. One of the main themes in CAT is the exploration of reciprocal roles, such as "Bully/Victim," "Cared for/Caring" and "Controlling/Rebellious." I like that bit of the model because it accounts for how important childhood experiences are in development. Other than that, I still have a lot to learn about it. It involves a lot of diagrams and visual representations of cognitive processes. From what I've viewed in the therapy sessions I have observed, clients seem to really like diagrams, especially when they create new ones and compare them to ones created at a previous stage in therapy. I think it sort of validates where they have moved throughout the therapeutic process and identifies the "sticky wickets" where they still want to focus on. I definitely don't think it's appropriate for all clients, and as with everything, resources employed should be client focus. But I think for some people that "click" may come once they see everything out in front of them.

After the meeting, I was going to sit in on a neuropsychology assessment that one of the trainees was scheduled to perform. It was supposed to be the WMS, a measure of memory skills. However, the person did not show up, so that did not happen. But a medical student was visiting the hospital to gain a view of the mental health portions of the NHS. Traditionally when the Med students come, the trainees practice the neurospych assessments on them in order to give them an idea of what the person will go through if as a GP, they recommend neuropsych tests for their patient. It's apparently usually a funny experience because they try to administer an IQ test, and the students take forever because they want to get perfect scores. Then they act funny about scoring it - they are given the option to score it themselves if they want - some are very eager to know, but a lot of them absolutely do not! However, this time we only had one student, and the WAIS was being used for a real assessment, so we administered a different test instead called the B.A.D.S., or the Behavioral Assessment of Dysexecutive Syndromes. He did not want to now how he did, but it seemed like his frontal lobe was fine anyway! =p

Then later in the afternoon, I sat in with my supervisor on an initial assessment. It was intense in some ways, just because of everything that the person presented with. I mean you name it: early loss, phobia, OCD, self-harm, a few years sober now from alcohol just to name a few...and not too much older than me. But the presentation was so affectless - no eye contact, monotone voice. It was a different experience than those I had in the past sitting in on the "working stages" of therapy, so I felt like I gained a lot from it. I was really glad to share my thoughts out loud with my supervisor afterwards, because we had similar formulations and responses to the session, but were able to bounce other ideas off each other as well. I'll be sitting in on another session on Friday which I am looking forward to!

I have another busy day tomorrow because it's exercise group day! I think we have some new people joining us, so it will be fun. Hopefully I can update soon.