Week 3: "Week Three"
Now that we are into our second week of client consultations, we are starting to appreciate the extent of the bridge between our academic learning and the practice of Clinical Psychology. In Clinical Psychology, we look for specific and detailed symptoms to make a diagnosis and progress to treatment, all of which we have learned at Uni. However, it’s becoming very clear that, in the real world, people don’t present like textbook examples.
When we go to the doctor, we might have a sore head or sore leg: symptoms which we complain about and which give the doctor a starting point and direction for figuring out what is wrong. However, our minds are complicated places and when we see psychology clients, their problems are revealed through their stories, not as symptoms. Like doctors, we need to do a lot of “poking and prodding”, but of stories, not bodies. It sounds easy, but I’ve found over the last two weeks that it’s quite a specific skill set, which needs deliberate development. We are constantly reflecting and researching, and close guidance from our supervisors continues to be invaluable.
Week 4: "Empty Seats"
Our Clinic time this week was interrupted by a three day intensive course for our university studies. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were consumed by a course to help us get through our Capstone Project, a research component which is a requirement of our degree. This Project is in the form of a Rapid Review, a style of research that many of us had not completed before. While the intensive course was essential to our ability to complete the Project, it proved quite disruptive, especially for those scheduled for Thursday/Friday Clinic days, which included me.
During Weeks 2 and 3 of Placement we had begun to see clients, carefully building rapport with them, gathering their stories and symptoms, and understanding the difficulties they were traversing. We developed our treatment plans and commenced our treatment sessions, carefully planned out in week-by-week instalments. Although it was unavoidable, our absence in Week 4 meant that we could not offer the continuity for our clients that we wanted to provide. For me, being so new to clinical practice, this was quite uncomfortable as I want to provide the best outcomes that I can for my clients. I guess that as well as learning how to provide therapy for our clients, we are also learning how to manage the practicalities of a psychology practice.
