#field placement

Sep. 5th, 2023; 04h14

forgot to make a beginning of the school year post. so. here it is.

GRAD SCHOOL HAS STARTED !!!! 🥳

i've had a week so far and i love it so much:)) some of the classes are eh but overall it's so good and people are so kind:) here are my fall semester classes:

Cross Cultural Psychology

Intro to Clinical Practice

Cognitive Assessment

Intro to Psychological Research

History and Systems

and in addition to that, i'm doing a field placement! i'm going to keep it vague/anonymous for privacy, but it's been really lovely to get back to interacting with clients again <3

unsure how i'll be using this tumblr in grad school/over the next few months. it obviously has moved away from being a studyblr as covid has lessened its impact on governmental guidelines/i've been able to go out and interact with people more. the blog might just reflect the start of grad school in that the number of psychology fact posts will probably increase, as i'm learning a ton of cool new things:)

Hi anon! 

Yay! I looooove asks from therapists or from those trainings to do so. I wrote about this here so this is a more expanded answer but will be similar.  @othersideofthecouch answered this here. My answer isn’t going to be perfect and it’s coming from my experience so it’s just as flawed as everyone else. Also I know a lot of folks in therapy who aren’t therapists read this so a heads up - this may be okay for you but it may not. If it feels like too much, bounce out! Take care of you! {This is also like the world’s longest post so just fyi}

Take some breaths - all the shit you are going to be passing along regarding anxiety management, you are passing it on cause it works. So use it. Use the mindfulness and DBT techniques you know. Laugh with your peers, use your supervision and if you have it, use your field placement class if you are still in graduate school. Remember that you are the therapist and they are the client - when you the person is showing up with the room, it needs to be for a reason. I’ve seen therapists who have used sessions to spend the whole thing talking about themselves and it sucks. Remember that your clients don’t owe you trust - you have to earn that. OH and please for love of everything read this post by @cps-oteric if you are going to do any work with social worker “in the system.” You also may want to take a look at your social media accounts prior to starting.

The best advice I got in grad school was a professor (who continues to be one of my mentors and leads my consult group). They laid it out: “You guys are going to fuck up. Every. Single. One. Of. You. Will. Mess. Up. It’s going to happen. Because you are human and your clients are human and there is room for mistakes. Now, I’m not talking about the mistakes you have a choice over - the stuff you guys covered in Law and Ethics. That you should always be aware of and strive to prevent. But the accidental mistakes? The mistakes of inexperience? Those can be incredibly valuable for your client too. Part of our job is give people a different experience - to own up when we fuck up and do the repair work with the client.” 

Why was this the most helpful for me? Because it gave me the space to feel like it’s okay to make mistakes. It wasn’t okay to ignore those things or be intentionally fucked up but that I didn’t have to be perfect. I “fucked up” early in my first field placement - I had to call out unexpectedly. I did the right thing and called my supervisor, let them know and called the location I was supposed to be at that day. The site was supposed to let my client know and they didn’t. For the client, this is was major thing and we ended up doing a lot of repair work around but in owning up to the experiencing be shit for the client, even though that wasn’t my intention, was a huge deposit in the proverbial trust bank and was new experience for the client. I didn’t apologize for taking the time - I needed it full stop - but I did apologize that it wasn’t communicated effectively to this client and validated/normalized the feelings that came up. It’s also important not to let your anxiety/discomfort/fear etc. around messing up, compound the mistake - which is why I am pretty into therapist’s knowing their own shit. tldr; You are going to mess up but explore it with your supervisor, your mentors, your cohort. You won’t be a perfect therapy robot. 

As to the second fear - look at what you mean by attached. What’s the fear there for you? Often, it’s around not being able to keep your clinical hat on because you will be too close and/or that it will hurt when you leave. There will be probably clients it hurts to leave. Leaving my last job, I had a couple of clients - man. I still think about them and hope they are doing well. There are a couple of clients right now, who if I left my agency, it would hurt to leave. And I’m not talking about being devastated or anything would indicate an over attachment where you don’t keep that clinical hat on but when relationships end - it can be sad. Relationships have two sides, that connection develops no matter your modality - I can’t speak of all therapists here for sure. But all of the therapists I know personally and many of the therapists I’ve take courses from have experienced attachment in some way. Often, your clients will leave their fingerprints on you. Some in dust and some tattooed. Process your countertransference around this. Sometimes, in grad school, you get the idea that countertransference is all about the start of an ethical breach (or my Law and Ethics professor was just a royal asshole which is a distinct possibility). You will have feelings about your clients - positive, negative and in between - and sometimes - right at the beginning especially for me - I thought grownup therapists had all their shit together and they didn’t have feelings about this shit which like WHAT?! No. You get better at riding those waves that’s all. It’s more like “oh yup, this client’s mom is making me feel X” or “this client is bringing up frustration because of x and I know that and that’s just me. Gotta bring that to supervision/consult group/therapy”

It will depend on your placement and other factors. If you are working on a MRT or in a hospital, then you are will be affected by your clients, for sure, but your attachment may be different than it is for others with more long term placements. One of my really good friends from graduate school loves working on mobile response because she likes engaging with folks for a short period of time and has never had a desire to do the more long term work. I ended up being hired by my first placement so I had the opportunity to work with some clients for multiple years. And sometimes the length of time doesn’t matter. I saw a client for I think 2-3 times? Somewhere in there but no more than 4. But there was something about that client and those sessions that will stay with me forever. (I talked about this case in therapy when it was happening and I have a decent idea why). So your mileage will vary. 

Do your best to take care of yourself. Put your cases and clients, lovingly away at the end of the day. Set good boundaries with your agency and placement. Yes, you signed up to do a job but they don’t own you 24/7. Hang out with your friends, your family, your partner, your cat - whatever you love. Grab a coffee or a dinner with a friend or a cohort member. Have good boundaries with your friends. If you aren’t sober/working on sobriety, go to team happy hour and if you are, advocate to have a team activity that’s not a bar. Use your supervision. Reach out to mentors if you don’t think the placement is a good fit. Don’t forget to eat. Move your body. Watch TV or read a good book or garden or run or goof off on the internet but do something for you. SLEEP. If you are on meds, take them. If you can make it work (I couldn’t most of my traineeship and regret it), find a therapist. Tell ‘em you are starting your placement and some will dip low on the sliding scale cause we’ve been there. 

I'm a BSW student nearing the end of my degree, with my field internship in a year. I am more and more anxious about field, and I'm worry I'll screw someone up and fail as a social worker. Is that feeling normal? Or have I misread my calling?

Yes. Absolutely 100% normal, and no, it doesn’t mean you’ve misread your calling. In fact, your worry probably implies even more strongly that this is your calling, as it is an indicator of valuing the lives and needs of your clients.

To be frank, I tell my new interns each year that they *will* screw it up, plenty of times, and that that is normal too. Your internship is an opportunity for you to make mistakes in a controlled setting with plenty of folks there to help clean up your messes. Mind you, this does not give you carte blanche permission to act a fool with no regards to the consequences. But it does mean you can use this time to stretch your edges, try new things, and get really really good at asking for help when you need it. As a supervisor, I don’t mind when my interns mess something up. But I do very much mind when they mess it up and don’t tell me about it. That drives me bananas.

Day 1: Training Day

 For 4 months in my last semester, my mission is to achieve 150 hours with West Jet as I gain some new skills and  apply what I have learned from my courses at Seneca. 

January 12, 2017 marks my first day of Field Placement at West Jet. My group was the first batch to be on the floor while the remaining students training are assigned the following day. Both training starts at 0900 to 1800, which adds up to a total of 9 hour shift. If you are wondering if that 9 hour shift is included with the 150 hours the answer is YES, that 9 hour shift is included. Also it is very important to keep in my mind that ON TIME PERFORMANCE is essential if you want to be a part of this industry. For example, if a flight attendant is late, not only will people such as crew scheduler find a reserve to replace them, the company itself will lose thousands of money as they are only renting the  gate for a certain of time, and cause other flights to have delays as well. Moving on, the training consisted 2 parts: In class instructions and Airport tour. The In class instructions was very clear, David, our supervisor highlighted the importance of the job and what to expect. Around this time is where we got our goodies bags which included the scarf, memo pad, pen, lip balm, and pass. Now I did not expect the scarf to be brand new as I know that some airlines like to reuse the uniforms of previous employees especially since we are not a full time employee. It really showcase the culture of West Jet and how they go out of their way for people. On the other hand, the tour in the Airport was the main event in my opinion. It felt very surreal because this is where we finally get to experience what it is like be a West Jet’s Guest Service Ambassador. We were also given the opportunity to meet the staff working at different departments and learn how to work the Kiosk and Baggage Drop off. It was very intimidating at first because there were a lot questions from guests which I was not aware of, so that was a  little bit frustrating. It was just awful feeling useless, however they are other who are very understanding which I appreciated.

Blog 10: Final Blog

I would like to express my appreciation to Eagle Chow for the opportunity to complete my field placement with Cathay Pacific this semester. I am truly grateful for his guidance, support, and the valuable learning experiences he provided throughout my time with the team. Eagle's leadership helped strengthen my skills and deepen my interest for the travel and tourism industry. I sincerely appreciate everything my supervisor has done to support my professional growth.