Leah I. Johnson, M.

A
CNS 744b: Clinical Mental Health Internship I
Self-Evaluation Paper
12.05.18

Clinical Internship I has been an amazing learning experience. I changed sites from my

Practicum and it was the best decision I could have made. It offered me the opportunity to work

with adults again which I have not done in many years, but uniquely in an outpatient setting

which I have never experienced before. I learned that the information gathered from the

textbooks pales in comparison to actually sitting in front of a living, breathing, ball of emotions

riddled with uncertainty looking at me for answers. Client’s present in some of their most

vulnerable and fragile moments. I was truly humbled that they returned week after week finding

value in what I had to offer them.

I learned many treasured lessons from my peers during group supervision as well. It was

helpful to hear others share their insecurities and areas of weakness. I found comfort in knowing

it was a shared experience. Through these groups I was encouraged to try alternate therapies,

such as Narrative, which I found to be very beneficial with my trauma clients. My biggest take-

away was the gentle reminder from my colleagues not to allow my personal fears/beliefs to

interfere with potentially meaningful work for a client in need.

My time with my school and site supervisors was insurmountable in the outpatient setting

where I was predominantly on my own with clients. Knowing they were available day or night

for support was incredible. They were both very caring and excellent resources to gather insight,

information, and interventions from. I was pleasantly surprised with the commitment they

demonstrated to ensure I was getting the most out of my internship experience while maintaining

my academic requirements as well. I am certain they will both be reference points for many

years to come.
 I feel my field experience this semester has increased my competency in the area of

private practice policies, procedures and documentation. It is quite different from what I am used

to working for a government funded agency within public schools. For next semester I would

like to learn more about billing and marketing. Additionally, I am interested in learning how to

pursue multiple specialties within the field of counseling, then targeting that specific audience

for marketing.

I have also truly learned the value of consultation during this semester. The input of my

colleagues and supervisors with clients or ethical situations that I was at a crossroads with was so

helpful. At my current full-time job, I am a lead counselor and am often expected to have

answers for others based off my years of experience with adolescents. So working predominantly

with adults was a welcomed challenge, but a challenge still in how they process information.

Being able to present questions to others that were more familiar with these interactions was

much appreciated. One of my learning goals for next semester is to really focus on implementing

interventions from different theoretical frameworks than my own discussed during weekly group

supervision with my colleagues.

A final takeaway from this first semester’s experience was increasing my understanding

of the importance of multicultural competencies. Where I am completing my internship, there is

a large African population, which I learned early on was quite different from African-American

clients. I found myself asking more questions related to their cultural preferences than I

expected to initially. However, I am glad I did this, because it prevented numerous possible

blunders made under the assumption their views on particular topics would be similar. While my

site supervisor’s private practice markets to a very specific population, within that grouping,

there is still a considerably significant sunder.

 I feel that I made significant progress toward my learning goals during clinical internship

this semester. I do feel that I need to hone in on my theory application for next semester in terms

of counseling skills. I also need to focus a bit more on reflection of meaning and feelings.

Otherwise, I feel that my clinical strengths are I am very empathetic, an active listener, and

compassionate. I also feel that have been successful with accepting feedback from supervision

and incorporating more confrontation/challenging self-defeating thoughts into my sessions with

clients presenting with low self-esteem.

I think my key strengths as a counselor are building genuine rapport and maintaining an

empathetic spirit despite lack of personal experience with many of the presenting concerns of my

caseload. I am more comfortable now in setting the structure of my sessions, the use of silence,

and developing treatment plans. However, I have noticed that with certain patients I need to set

firmer boundaries in terms of ending sessions on time. I feel I need to develop a better way to

summarize and indicate when a session is coming to a close to prevent abruptly stopping them or

allowing their time to run over.

Working in an outpatient setting this semester has allowed me to counsel a diverse

population of young adults. I realized that I used my case conceptualization skills frequently

during group supervision and when consulting with my site supervisor. I am far more

comfortable listening to a client talk and idnetifying the important pieces of information that

make up who they are objectively as well as subjectively. I am more aware of and in tune to a

client’s physical presentation as it pertains to their hygiene and non-verbal statements that are

made during those initial sessions.

Self-awareness is the area I think I have grown the most this semester. I feel that I have

learned more about myself during the intership than the actual counseling process. My religious
beliefs have been tested, my value system has been re-evaluated, my self-esteem has fluctuated

more than it ever has in my entire career as a counselor. Although these facets of my life have

been unsteady in some way or another this semester, the discomfort has yielded growth. The

realization that I will have moments throughout my career where I will have to slow down,

evaluate my situations, my competency, my strengths/weaknesses, and continue to perform my

best was enlightening. These past few months just solidified that this was my calling and even

with the challenges that present, the reward of helping people is still much greater for me.

When thinking of my professional growth and development, the one thing that has been the

most beneficial for me was understanding that I do not have to stick to one particular theoretical

framework. The idea that as long as I do the necessary research when preparing treatment plans

or prior to conducting sessions, I can implement Narrative Theory, ACT, or DBT with more

comfort and ease. Prior to this semester, I would not experiment with other theories because I

was not as familiar with them, but I learned quickly CBT is not going to be the preferred method

for every client. Having my supervisors and peers assure me that it was alright to deviate from

CBT and explore other theories within the realm of my competency when it came to therapeutic

interventions was liberating and I feel more prepared to be successful in developing in depth,

meaningful interactions with my clients overall.