Schareen- My experience as an Aspire intern

This has been a wonderfully enlightening journey throughout my time at Aspire. I have had an opportunity to learn so much about myself on both a personal and professional level, and I attribute this learning in large part to the opportunities presented by this internship experience.

The individual sessions allowed me to deepen my practice and gain a richer understanding of providing counselling within a limited time frame. This experience allowed me to sharpen my skills of treatment planning in particular as well as honing my ability to discern realistic therapeutic goals given the time frame the client and I were working with.

The Zen Den program experience allowed me to work with children, a population I had previously never worked with in this therapeutic capacity. This allowed me an opportunity for growth and learning that I otherwise may never have sought out. From this experience I have a better understanding of how issues such as anxiety may manifest in the behaviours of children and teens, and how to work with it from a more age accessible and appropriate lens.

The supervision experience was wonderful and allowed me to explore and make sense of what I was learning during this time. Dawn was always readily available and made every effort to ensure that I got everything I needed throughout the process. She often encouraged me to dig deeper into areas I was unfamiliar with so as to enhance my knowledge and capacity within the field.

Overall, I cannot recommend enough the Aspire internship program. Not only did it ensure that all my required hours were met, but it was also more then just administrative requirements. It was an opportunity to grow into my new professional title.

Take care!

Schareen

Psychology Intern, 2019-2020