Internship Insights: Experiencing Mental Health Therapies

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Last week was a very good learning experience for me. I was able to interact more with patients and felt like I had a better understanding of what the expectations of an intern is at St. Bernards Behavioral Health (SBBH). Throughout the week I was able to work with another Therapist Danica, who brings a different approach to therapy. Danica is an extremely intelligent and assertive individual, whom I feel I can also learn from along with my field supervisor. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work under more than one mental health professional and observe how they differ in their approach to treatment.
Significant events. This week the opportunity to conduct a biopsychosocial assessment on a patient presented itself. Normally most interns in the first year practicum are not expected to conduct these, however, I felt confident enough to conduct one. My field supervisor asked, “If I preferred she sit in
I had the opportunity to work with a diagnosed Dissociative Identity Disorder patient, which is something, due to its rarity, a lot of practitioners will not get to do over their career. The learning experience gained from seeing how a person lives in multiple personalities has given me insight on predisposed beliefs about this mental illness. Prior to working with this patient, I found it very farfetched that a person could actually take on multiple personalities, until I was able to identify this mental illness as a possible coping mechanism for a traumatic event. This patient had experienced numerous traumatic events in his life, and in my opinion developed these personalities as a form of coping. The brain is such an interesting organ, and when I reflect on this diagnosis, I come to the personal conclusion that when this patient was not equipped with the proper coping mechanism to deal with his trauma and loss, his brain took over and developed the personalities to “close off” from the

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