Internship narrative with activities and personal reflections

Internship Narrative

Review with the supervisor the required activities. My supervisor and I discussed how I completed all the relevant activities for the months of August and September and reviewed any issues.

Meet weekly with your supervisor for supervision. My supervisor and I set a weekly schedule for meetings with the understanding that if I need to, I can reach out and speak to her even outside of our appointment time, which I have done.

Prepare a PowerPoint presentation: at this time, I currently completing this activity.

Supervisor orients student to the agency: I attended a staff meeting where all relevant introductions were made and all backgrounds of team members were explained, with everyone making me feel like an important and relevant part of the team.

Observe agency counselors to identify the characteristics of effective counselors and The characteristics of less effective counselors: I was able to engage in many anger management groups along with counseling sessions, which was completely enlightening through the counseling sessions, offering me a valuable learning experience.

6. Participate in staffing: I discussed all of these experiences with my supervisor while engaging in monthly staff meetings while 34 team members talk about immediate and long-term needs.

7. Review agency data on services provided to clients of minority and low SES background: I was impressed to discover the way in which demographics data is traced for every client in a cohesive spreadsheet which allows clear comprehension regarding the population which has been served.

8. Learn the agency record keeping system: I learned the very specific system that Catholic charities have of record-keeping and the momentum to establish a paperless system. This seemed very impractical and counter-intuitive, but was what the organization had wanted to establish to begin with.

9. Read the agency mission statement and discuss it with the supervisor: their mission statement was very straightforward which discussed serving the community despite race, religion, gender and disability -- I found the entire statement to be very inspiring.

10. Review with the supervisor the required activities: My supervisor and I had documentation of the required activities in regards to my relation with them.

11. Meet weekly with supervisor: my supervisor and I met regularly in order to effectively track my progress and make sure that I was focused and on task.

12. Conduct a case study of one or more clients; particularly clients whose clinical progress is less than satisfactory: Engaging in this process meant that I had to take a long look at the socio-cultural, familial, and community climate along with other factors and to discuss them with my supervisor.

13. Observe the language and cultural diversity of the agency personnel: Once I made these observations, I compared their language and cultural diversity with those served by the agency, while discussing these findings with my supervisor.

14. Become knowledgeable about the cultural and ethnic groups served by the agency: once I understood what these cultural and ethnic groups were, I sought to discover what the cultural, ethnic and class barriers were.

15. Identify cultural, ethnic and class issues evident in the community: these cultural, ethnic and class issues appeared to multifaceted when I went out into the community to determine what they were -- something I accomplished through talking to people.

16. Design and implement or participate in a prevention effort to deal with a concern(s) you have identified: the prevention effort I designed revolved around education of community members and working hard to help them engage in ultimate self-empowerment.

17.Learn about legislation and budget constraints that impact the services provided by the agency: many of the legislation and budget constraints that I learned about were ones which I spoke to advocates in the community about and other counselors. For instance, I learned about bills which impact mental health care and provisions along with affordable counseling.

18. Implement a program for personal development and wellness: one program for personal development and wellness which I created was one which focused on honesty and the human spirit and which had a centralized focus to the importance of prayer and meditation. This program believes that if a strong spiritual basis could occur, then the rest of the development will follow along in an organic process through nudging and guidance with a counselor or other development leader.

Personal Reflection

Working hard and paying close attention through my counseling internship at Catholic Charities, an agency which specializes in mental health has been remarkable useful in my journey of becoming a counselor. One of the aspects of the process that I was most grateful for was how challenging it all was. I was constantly asked to engage in projects or to assess situations which were very difficult and which I wasn't used to. I felt that the team members around me were extremely committed to seeing that I developed in a marked and concerted manner.

As a result, the entire counseling internship at the mental health agency has been an avenue and opportunity for learning and growth in my journey to become a counselor.

Catholic Charities is one of the largest mental health agencies in the nation: its strong reputation allows it to serve all members of the community with a sense of reliability and the fact that it is private gives it the freedom to make its own rules and to create and develop its policies as much as it likes. The privatization of this organization was something which was truly beneficial for me to see, because I was able to witness how much the visionary individuals who cared about it were able to shape it. For instance, this meant that there was a more specialized focus on holistic growth and development, something I believe in fully and support wholeheartedly. I believe that holistic therapies can often be more effective than traditional techniques for wellness and can impact the overall good of the individual in a lasting and meaningful way.