Counseling Service of Addison County
Louisa Michl, 2009
This January I served as an intern at the Counseling Services of Addison County here in Middlebury, Vermont. In my time spent at CSAC I participated in various activities in which I interacted with children and adolescents with a number of different neurodevelopmental disorders. These activities were offered to me by several organizations throughout the community, so while I officially worked as an intern for CSAC, I also had the opportunity to work alongside staff from the Middlebury Union High School’s Alternative Education Center, the Hannaford Career Center/D.O. program, as well as Champlain Valley Academy.
Personally, I feel I performed quite well as an intern over the Winter Term. Over the past month I was able to create a great dynamic with the other Middlebury student intern in the work we did together. While I learned a great deal through observing the professionals I was with, I feel I achieved a great deal and became somewhat of an asset through all the work I performed during such a short period of time. As the month went on, I was given progressively more responsibility, culminating in the opportunity for me to work one on one with a select few clients. The fact that my supervisor allowed me this opportunity leads me to believe that I certainly gained his trust and approval. He believed I was capable of taking on the work, and I believe I lived up to his and my own personal expectations.
Additionally, I think I did an excellent job with the children I worked with through this internship. Although I have had experience working with children in the past, it was quite a different experience working with children living with varying neurodevelopmental issues. The way my supervisor arranged my schedule provided me the opportunity to work with different groups of children and adolescents with carrying disorders within a number of programs in the community. One day I would work with adolescents with behavioral or emotional disorders and the next I might work with learning impaired high school students. While I appreciated the chance to observe the range of programs offered in the community and to get to know a number of different children, I also found it frustrating that, given so little time, I was not able to become involved in depth with any particular program or group of students. I can imagine that this is a common complaint with Winter Term internships due to the time constraint. Moreover, I often felt frustrated by the limitations of being an intern. Due to numerous privacy reasons along with state mandated restraints, I was just barely able to scratch the surface of all that constitutes this type of career in the field of psychology. Again, I am sure I share this feeling with a number of interns.
One of the most significant things that I learned over the course of my internship with CSAC was the therapeutic value of silence. I myself have never been comfortable with silence in most situations. In class, for instance, I used to feel awkward and uneasy when there was utter silence after a professor’s question or a fellow student’s remark. I often would try and break that silence by offering anything, whether or not I found that it added much to the discussion. Likewise, in simple, day to day conversations with friends I often found myself becoming so involved in the conversation that I would finish others’ sentences or put words into their mouths. Some might say that this is simply a quality of being an active listener. Yet, I have come to be more comfortable allowing that silence to remain once I realized, through my experience at CSAC, the benefits of that silence.
One example from my internship this month which may better clarify this idea of silence was my work with a group of high school girls at the Middlebury Union High School’s Alternative Education Center. Once a week I would lead a small group of girls from the program in an open discussion about topics ranging from friendships and conformity to anger management and panic attacks. Initially I was quite nervous and did all that I could to keep the conversation going. If there was a brief pause or silence in the conversation I would jump in with a new suggestion or an entirely new topic of conversation. As a result, the discussion was choppy and in no way cohesive. However, once I allowed myself to allow the conversation to pause or rest in silence I found that the girls kept the discussion going without my forced guidance. The silence allowed them time to absorb and contemplate things already said and to take the conversation in a more natural progression to the issues that affected them and those which they wished to share with the group. Furthermore, if an individual is given time to think of what he or she wants to say without being interrupted by my effort to finish their sentence it helps them to express what they truly feel. It is to some degree therapeutic allowing an individual to express himself in his own words. My newfound comfort with silence will certainly help me with any future work in the world of therapy, not to mention my own personal, social and classroom experiences.
Overall, my internship at CSAC was a great experience. Despite my occasional frustrations, I was able to get a small look inside the world of Child and Family Therapy in a small community clinic setting as well as in the educational setting. Although I did enjoy working with children of varying ages, I most enjoyed working with adolescents in high school as opposed to children of elementary school age. I’ve realized that, while I do work well with younger children, I am much more passionate about working with older individuals. As I begin to take my first big step into the career field, I understand the importance of following a passion instead of a particular skill. Recognizing this preference of age group will help me to narrow my focus in my current job search and later job selection.
Courtney Tabor, 2009
I spent this past J-term as an intern at the Counseling Service of Addison County (CSAC) in Middlebury, VT. I was one of two Middlebury students participating in this internship at the time. The internship lived up to and far surpassed my expectations of it, and I had an incredible experience.
As an intern at CSAC, I participated in several activities: I observed classes at the Alternative Education center and collaborated with the other Middlebury student intern to lead a girls’ therapy group there; I worked in a small therapy group with a counselor and two middle school aged boys in attempts to use music for therapeutic purposes; I worked with a family to help the two sons establish healthy physical boundaries with one another; I observed and helped in teaching and guiding students in a Diversified Occupations program; I accompanied 3 elementary and middle school aged boys along with two counselors on snowshoeing trips as part of an adventure therapy program; I counseled a visually impaired elementary school aged child and her family; I worked with and assisted students at the Champlain Valley Academy during both recreational and learning activities.
I believe that I performed well during this internship. I felt very comfortable in most of the situations in which I found myself throughout the month. Watching, experiencing, and participating in some of the work that counseling involves felt both natural and exciting to me. When I wasn’t physically at work, I spent a lot of time thinking about the individuals I had been working with-brainstorming about ideas of how to help them, trying to figure out why they did what they did and felt what they felt. I believe that I was able to be both enthusiastic and insightful, and to adapt well to the dynamic nature of the activities in which I participated. This is not to say that this month was not a challenge for me. I struggled at times to know what the right thing was to talk about with young adolescent boys whose main interests were video games, and just how to connect and communicate with girls who had gone through so much difficulty in their lives that I truly knew nothing about and had never experienced. I sometimes felt very insecure, worrying that the children would have no desire to let me in because in many situations I had no idea what it was really like to be them. However, although this was a struggle for me, I truly appreciated the perspective it gave me.
I am extremely grateful to have had this opportunity to intern at the Counseling Service over J-term. I learned a great deal about the field of counseling that no classroom experience would be able to teach me. Although it was difficult to dig deeply into one particular area, I got a small taste of many different types of counseling. This taught me how far the counseling field goes beyond simply sitting in an office. It can take so many different forms, and often it is more helpful to be active than to force antsy children and adolescents to sit in one place for an hour. Furthermore, I learned that in counseling, work goes far beyond the time actually spent “working.” You are constantly preparing and thinking about what to try next, why something you tried worked and something else didn’t. It is actually quite mentally exhausting. When I got home at the end of the day I felt completely drained, even after only five hours of work. But at the same time, it was always an exciting challenge, and though I was tired, I was always enthusiastic for what was to come the next day.
I also learned a great deal about myself during this internship. I was faced with a few different situations that forced me to step outside of my comfort zone for a while. For example, before the internship started I had never gone snowshoeing before, but found out that I would be going snowshoeing once a week with some children in an adventure therapy group. Although snowshoeing is not very difficult to learn, I was nervous since I can’t see and had no idea what the process would involve. However, I felt that in order to fully jump into the internship and its opportunities, I needed to try it out. I ended up loving it. As we snowshoed along the trails, each of the boys I was working with took turns guiding me along. It was a little difficult at times to put my trust in the boys, who sometimes forgot to tell me if there was a snow bank coming up or if there was a tree in our way, but it was fun too. It helped the boys to be patient and learn how to guide and help someone else, and it helped me to be trusting, flexible, and to have fun despite little fears that I might run into a tree along the way. Although this is just one experience, it is an example of how I learned the importance of stepping outside of my comfort zone once in a while. I think counseling is a lot about this. Kids being counseled are constantly stepping out of their comfort zone to open up and talk about what may be bothering them. Counselors also must be doing this all the time. As I learned this month, it is extremely uncomfortable to try and help a child who sits in complete silence for the entire session, or who is completely opposed to being there. But stepping out of your comfort zone is often a good thing, despite how difficult it may be. It is often very worthwhile.
Overall, I think that this was an amazing experience. I felt quite at home in this field, and it reinforced my desire to work as a counselor of some sort in the future. I’m still not sure exactly what direction I want to take-this internship gave me a taste of many different aspects I can look into-but the many options I was exposed to expanded my range of interests. I am starting graduate school in the fall at the University Of New England School Of Social Work, and this internship at CSAC was a great way for me to try out the counseling field before I start school in a few months. My only regret is that it did not last longer. It is difficult to get a taste of something you love and then have to stop. But I am extremely glad that I had the opportunity to participate in this internship. It has made me confident that I am moving along the right career path, introduced me to wonderful children and staff members, and taught me about the kind of counselor I want to someday become.
Contact the Career Services Office for more information on this internship.