Internship Reflection

With the end of my clinical internship only a month away, I find myself reflecting on my experience at Somerset Mental Health with many emotions. Amidst the excitement, sadness, and curiosity about the future, stands amazement and hope – representing what this experience has meant to me.

I am truly amazed that an entire Semester has already passed; 5 months of clients, diagnoses, case presentations, supervision, classes, billing codes, and crises. It seems like only yesterday that I was fretting about the start of this experience. I can still recall the apprehension I felt about meeting my very first client. Now, a few months later, I still experience a few apprehensive tinges when meeting new clients, but I recognize that they are borne out of a more comfortable framework – one that has been built upon the foundation of experience and growing confidence.  Over this past year, I have acquired a knowledge-base that supports this assurance in my abilities and competency as a clinical therapist. I have seen clients who presented a myriad of mental-health issues including depression, anxiety, adjustment disorders, substance abuse, and psychotic delusions. I am so thankful for each and every client that I had the pleasure of knowing. Though they might have learned a few skills from me, I marvel at how much I have learned from them.

Knowing that I have much more to experience in the mental-health field, the academic and clinical training I have received have thus far grounded me. Professors have encouraged, fellow students have supported, clinicians have enlightened, and supervision has challenged me. All of these aspects over the past few years have given me the opportunity to grow, as a person and as a professional. I have been able to weave each golden thread of wisdom and each fabric of opportunity into a rich tapestry of personal accomplishment and knowledge that will continue to flourish as I progress.

Week after week, I was fortunate enough to witness...