Supervision Expectations: More than Meets the Eye?
This is the third blog post in a four-part series exploring topics related to graduate students’ practicum and internship experiences. The first post focused on how students can track clinical hours in a way that is meaningful, and the second post looked at the features of an effective practicum or internship plan. In the current post, several complexities of supervision during practicum/internship are identified, and ways to achieve clearer supervision expectations are discussed. The post is based on the big idea that supervision is a...
read moreObtaining a Mental Health Counseling Internship or Fieldwork Placement
The phone rings and it’s EXACTLY who you want it to be. The director of the local hospital has heard about your stellar first year as a counseling grad student and is offering you an internship! It’s a dream come true…then you wake up. It WAS a dream. The reality is obtaining a placement is something that all counseling students must go through. While it would be wonderful if your performance in school could speak for you, it turns out you will need to beat the pavement to get a placement. Below are six steps that you can take to make the process less painful.
read moreAPPIC Internship Application Cover Letters
Your cover letter is the first impression Internship Directors/Reviewers have of you, and also where they will be looking to determine how strong of a “match" and well suited you are for their site. Below are some tips that will help you craft your tailored (but templated) cover letter. YES, it can still be a template! It is not the best strategy, or use of time, for you to write an original cover letter for each site you are applying to. While each should appear to be, and read as though, it is in fact written specifically for each site, it is not necessary to write each cover letter “from scratch.” Here's how...
read morePreparing to be a Great Job Candidate
Constructing your curriculum vita (CV), asking for letters of recommendation and writing a cover letter may seem like the first steps involved in obtaining an internship or professional position after graduate school, but in reality, your preparation for going on the job market begins much earlier. The relationships you have built and experiences you have had during your graduate training are the actual preparation. The CV, cover letter, and recommendation letters are simply the mechanisms through which you inform your potential future employer about these relationships and experiences. The purpose of this blog post is to offer some tips for those of you who are in the early or middle parts of your graduate career to help you seek out the relationships and experiences that will make you a better candidate once you seek professional employment as well as to help those of you who are nearing the end of your graduate career identify what you have already done right and where you could focus your attention in the last year or two you have left.
read moreAPPIC Internship Applications: Making Your Autobiographical Essay Unforgettable
Fall is in the air...the leaves are changing. It's a time of transformation and reflection. This is also the perfect time to reflect on who you are and how to express that to internship directors. One of the most important and most scrutinized materials in your APPIC internship application is the autobiographical essay (Essay #1), yet most students agree it is the hardest to write. While there is no exact method that is “right,” there is some strategy to it, and below I’m sharing some tips for how to make the best impression and maximize on the impact of your essay.
read morePlease Come Back!
Building long-lasting relationships with clients is a skill to aim for if you ever plan to have a private practice. Treatment attrition is something I frequently experienced at the beginning of my career, and it took me several years to figure out how to provide better services. The number of assertive therapeutic interventions per session increases only with time and practice. There are, however, some pitfalls that a beginner therapist can avoid.
read moreAPPIC Internship Application Season has Begun!
Internship application season has just started, and making sure you do things the right way, from the start, will help you tremendously along the way. Here are some important things to keep in mind when first starting out on this "journey".
read moreDeveloping as a Therapist
Throughout your career as a therapist, you will continue to learn, gain in experience, and develop your own set of priorities and values within the work you do. A sense of progress and growth is essential in order to keep your interest and enthusiasm for your work alive. Studies into the reasons why therapists choose their work and stay in the profession have shown that there is a widespread desire amongst the therapist community to continue learning. Professional growth is one of the main areas that therapists attribute to preventing burn out and keeping their focus. There are always new ideas and developments emerging in our field, and as part of what we do, we are always encouraging people to learn more in order to grow and develop as a person. So inevitably that is something we also should be doing ourselves.
read moreFrom Hola to Hello: The Informed Use of Interpreters in Counseling
Can you imagine being in a therapy session where whatever you are saying is just incomprehensible buzz to your client? What a difficult situation to encounter after all your hard training! Now imagine a client struggling with an emotional crisis, and think of the extra effort required to explain the situation in an unfamiliar language. What a serious situation to be in! If you think this post does not apply to you, I have a few questions before you leave this webpage: Have you ever avoided a counseling situation because the client did not speak English? If needed, do you know how to choose an interpreter and the basics of working with him or her? Are you aware of the legal aspects of using an interpreter in a therapy session? With the rapidly growing population of Latino and Asian immigrants in this country, this soon may be a challenge difficult to avoid in your career.
read moreDel Hello al Hola: Uso Informado de Intérpretes en la Sala de Terapia
Imagina que estás en una sesión de terapia donde lo que dices es incomprensible para tu cliente. Que situación tan difícil después de tu duro entrenamiento! Ahora imagina a tu cliente quién en medio de una situación emocional se esfuerza para explicarse en un idioma que no le es familiar. Que situación tan seria! Si tu crees que esta entrada no es para ti, tengo unas cuantas preguntas antes de que abandones esta página: ¿Alguna vez evitaste alguna sesión porque tu cliente no habla español? ¿En caso necesario, sabes como escoger un intérprete y trabajar con él o ella? ¿Estás al tanto de los aspectos legales de usar un intérprete en terapia? Con el crecimiento rápido de inmigrantes a este país, ésta pronto puede ser una situación inevitable en tu carrera.
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