(no subject)
Full circle, I'm in Columbus today. A good place to assess my first two months in Muncie. Think the assessment would go as follows:
+ I'd forgotten that, unlike in the professional world, professors feel no obligation whatsoever to pay you any kind of respect. It's genuinely kind of hard to switch gears.
+ My classes continue to do a fair job of holding my interest. I have four of them:
605 Intro to Counseling - Teacher is doing an ok job of making an intrinsically dull class less dull.
606 Pre-Practicum - Decent reading followed by exceptionally dull lectures followed by practice counseling one another. Counseling practice surprisingly useful - it brings out emotions you wouldn't expect. I've seen improvement in my own skills already - which surprises me.
621 Theories of Counseling - Based on a textbook, which sucks. Teacher is good though. Just laying a foundation for future reading. Also occasionally annoying are the Aaron T. Beck disciple Cognitive Behavorial Therapy exclusivists (one kid has a photo of him and Beck as his computer background) - undergraduate psych students who seem to have been shoved into a bit of rut (I was reading Homer when I was an undergraduate) - who trumpet the never ending "CBT is the best", "is your theory empirically proven" (even though I'm not sure they know what they mean when they say this), make neurology references that make no sense, etc.. Note that this does not mean I don't like CBT - I do - just that I don't enjoy hearing it's the only counseling modality worth reading about.
636 Psychopathology - Taught by an old hand, very polished, very useful. He likes visual models, which is helpful. Only (!) class so far for which I'm regularly required to read academic articles - a healthy mix of assessment practice and theory.
I'm looking forward to being able to jump into my social psychology courses next semester. Really wanted to take one this semester, but wasn't allowed :(.
+ My assistantship is near perfect for me. I hope they don't hate me or something and I don't know it.
+ My own counselor is very talented - meaning the experience has been very helpful. I've written enough about my problems that most everyone that reads my journal is probably familiar...counseling is more about listening and timing gentle confrontations than it is about coming up with some spectacular new insight. She has both.
+ I continue to be sick of being single. I though there might be some single budding psychologists running around my classes - suitable in temperament to me - but alas, single women in their mid 20's who don't have something bizarre going on (not trying to be Mr. Picky either - went on a date with here 26 year old woman who is genuinely afraid her mother might find out she has lost her virginity (!) - are apparently like leprechauns or unicorns or something.
+ Neflix was a good choice for me. I'm like a kid in a candy store. I can't believe I waited this long to get it.
+ Oooh. I also found my first galvanizing intellectual issue. Students in one class class were all wound up about avoiding former clients like the plague in public. Statements like "I don't want them to know I have a family" and "I would run if I saw them in public" set off my intuitive feelers big time. It's considered a significant ethics issue - ethics codes for any of the professional organizations having to do with therapy want you to avoid former clients in any social setting, because you might "harm" them - and I think it's partly a giant fucking self-generated myth that has little to do with protecting mental health clients. In my professional experience - in a setting where I wasn't a psychologist or a counselor, but worked with them all the time - maintaining 'boundaries' was code and a shield for lazy or arrogant mental health professionals to keep social distance, pretend they were awesomer than others, and avoid the draining struggle of being genuine. In some instances it's relevant (eq. maybe certain personality disorders), but often as not it isn't. I guessed I might not be the only one to hold this opinion, and low and behold, a quick search through article databases suggest I'm not.
I'm looking forward to seeing if I can explore this - I think it might even be possible to say some things about maintaining class divisions - though I doubt I would persuade anyone. But fun still...
+ Finally, I'm looking forward to getting drunk tonight with some of my Columbus crew! It was a long two months being ensconced in rural Indiana, though I have hope for future months.
+ I'd forgotten that, unlike in the professional world, professors feel no obligation whatsoever to pay you any kind of respect. It's genuinely kind of hard to switch gears.
+ My classes continue to do a fair job of holding my interest. I have four of them:
605 Intro to Counseling - Teacher is doing an ok job of making an intrinsically dull class less dull.
606 Pre-Practicum - Decent reading followed by exceptionally dull lectures followed by practice counseling one another. Counseling practice surprisingly useful - it brings out emotions you wouldn't expect. I've seen improvement in my own skills already - which surprises me.
621 Theories of Counseling - Based on a textbook, which sucks. Teacher is good though. Just laying a foundation for future reading. Also occasionally annoying are the Aaron T. Beck disciple Cognitive Behavorial Therapy exclusivists (one kid has a photo of him and Beck as his computer background) - undergraduate psych students who seem to have been shoved into a bit of rut (I was reading Homer when I was an undergraduate) - who trumpet the never ending "CBT is the best", "is your theory empirically proven" (even though I'm not sure they know what they mean when they say this), make neurology references that make no sense, etc.. Note that this does not mean I don't like CBT - I do - just that I don't enjoy hearing it's the only counseling modality worth reading about.
636 Psychopathology - Taught by an old hand, very polished, very useful. He likes visual models, which is helpful. Only (!) class so far for which I'm regularly required to read academic articles - a healthy mix of assessment practice and theory.
I'm looking forward to being able to jump into my social psychology courses next semester. Really wanted to take one this semester, but wasn't allowed :(.
+ My assistantship is near perfect for me. I hope they don't hate me or something and I don't know it.
+ My own counselor is very talented - meaning the experience has been very helpful. I've written enough about my problems that most everyone that reads my journal is probably familiar...counseling is more about listening and timing gentle confrontations than it is about coming up with some spectacular new insight. She has both.
+ I continue to be sick of being single. I though there might be some single budding psychologists running around my classes - suitable in temperament to me - but alas, single women in their mid 20's who don't have something bizarre going on (not trying to be Mr. Picky either - went on a date with here 26 year old woman who is genuinely afraid her mother might find out she has lost her virginity (!) - are apparently like leprechauns or unicorns or something.
+ Neflix was a good choice for me. I'm like a kid in a candy store. I can't believe I waited this long to get it.
+ Oooh. I also found my first galvanizing intellectual issue. Students in one class class were all wound up about avoiding former clients like the plague in public. Statements like "I don't want them to know I have a family" and "I would run if I saw them in public" set off my intuitive feelers big time. It's considered a significant ethics issue - ethics codes for any of the professional organizations having to do with therapy want you to avoid former clients in any social setting, because you might "harm" them - and I think it's partly a giant fucking self-generated myth that has little to do with protecting mental health clients. In my professional experience - in a setting where I wasn't a psychologist or a counselor, but worked with them all the time - maintaining 'boundaries' was code and a shield for lazy or arrogant mental health professionals to keep social distance, pretend they were awesomer than others, and avoid the draining struggle of being genuine. In some instances it's relevant (eq. maybe certain personality disorders), but often as not it isn't. I guessed I might not be the only one to hold this opinion, and low and behold, a quick search through article databases suggest I'm not.
I'm looking forward to seeing if I can explore this - I think it might even be possible to say some things about maintaining class divisions - though I doubt I would persuade anyone. But fun still...
+ Finally, I'm looking forward to getting drunk tonight with some of my Columbus crew! It was a long two months being ensconced in rural Indiana, though I have hope for future months.