Practicum

Note: If you don't know, this is a very. big. deal.

I'll soon be in the process of applying for grad schools, and until that time comes, I'm doing everything I can to make myself the best candidate I can be. I'm maintaining good grades, I'm studying for the GRE, I'm making good relationships with my professors so that I can have great letters of recommendation, and I've done extensive research (NOT my cup of tea) that I'm going to write an undergraduate thesis on (breathe...)...

Now, the one thing missing here is work experience. So, I've been looking for a practicum (a volunteer work experience in Psychology that will earn me credit towards graduation) for a couple of months now. I wanted to work in a hospital (because I'm hoping that will give me an edge getting into the program of my choice, which is actually primarily a medical school).

And I got one! I'll be working at a hospital near here (it's about a 35 minute commute) on their inpatient unit. I am VERY excited.

Warning: Details to follow which may seem boring if you don't know what I'm talking about.

The unit has 20 beds, which apparently are nearly always all full. The (I'm not sure what to call them yet... patients? clients? I'm sure there's a "correct" term) have 4 group sessions a day, and there are three kinds of sessions: Process sessions (where they talk about some issue facing them... one ex. I saw on the board was self-mutilation), Expression sessions (typically a game or arts/crafts, etc.), and Education sessions (learning about processes and topics they should know).

I'm so excited to get started. I can't wait to converse with the patients, and see all the things I've been learning about in real life. The therapists said that most of the people they get are suffering from depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, some are detoxing from an addiction, and sometimes they get people with personality disorders. (You may not know this, but THIS is exciting).

Anyway. Hopefully, I'll have some good stories to tell. :)