Grad school, squee!!
Ok, so my Monday classes are totally awesome. First, theory & practice of counseling with Dr. Charnofsky. Dr. Charnofsky is a great lecturer, very funny, straightforward, interesting... I think I'll have no problem paying attention to him for three hours every Monday (which is impressive, considering my ADD). Also, it seems I chose the right class section, considering our syllabus is one page long - that's it - and our assignments consist of one class presentation, a book report, a not-graded self-analysis, and an oral group final exam... and one of the other sections has a 20 page syllabus with weekly assignments and stuff. Yay.
The second class is my practicum... part of it is based on a text book, learning about counseling, developing skills, etc, but a lot of it is self-analysis. The theory behind that is that you can't be an effective therapist if you're carrying tons of your own baggage, so we have a "process group", which is a step down, intensity-wise, from group therapy. Our only real assignment, besides show up, is to conduct and videotape 4 20-minute therapy sessions with a classmate as the therapist, and 4 as the client. These then get analyzed so we can track our progress from tragically incompetent to maybe ready to go out and help real people.
Everyone in my program is amazing... never have I been surrounded by so many people who want to save the world's mental health, one person at a time. One girl in my first class worked in New Orleans for six months, helping to clean up after Hurricane Katrina. Lots of people have worked with disabled populations... people who have worked with help lines... all with the common goal of learning to be effective helpers.
I'm not deluding myself. I know it won't be easy.
But damn, I'm excited...
The second class is my practicum... part of it is based on a text book, learning about counseling, developing skills, etc, but a lot of it is self-analysis. The theory behind that is that you can't be an effective therapist if you're carrying tons of your own baggage, so we have a "process group", which is a step down, intensity-wise, from group therapy. Our only real assignment, besides show up, is to conduct and videotape 4 20-minute therapy sessions with a classmate as the therapist, and 4 as the client. These then get analyzed so we can track our progress from tragically incompetent to maybe ready to go out and help real people.
Everyone in my program is amazing... never have I been surrounded by so many people who want to save the world's mental health, one person at a time. One girl in my first class worked in New Orleans for six months, helping to clean up after Hurricane Katrina. Lots of people have worked with disabled populations... people who have worked with help lines... all with the common goal of learning to be effective helpers.
I'm not deluding myself. I know it won't be easy.
But damn, I'm excited...