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ReflectionPaper
- 2. Running head: KEY PROGRAM 2
I am an undergraduate psychology major at Bay Path University. The success I have had
in searching, beginning and finishing my internship for this program has brought me much
needed experience in the field. Not only has this brought me experience, it has provided me a
great deal of confidence to use my knowledge and education I have gained, once I have a career
in place. The search for an internship itself was a big worry and struggle.
At the time I began searching for an internship I was going to school fulltime and had a
fulltime job at night. With that alone, I was already in a mental struggle. I decided to take
things one step at a time. My first step was to take advantage of the help that is provided in the
career center. Once I found the help and the right person to talk to, which was Sally
SchirmerSmith, I felt a little relieved. I was given assistance on where to look for an internship,
how the process works and what needs to be done prior to the internship. I was also provided
with guidelines on what my resume, cover letters and reference pages should look like when
applying for internship. After I got the assistance and guidelines I needed, I began my search.
I felt like it would be a good opportunity to start looking for an internship somewhere
where I can soon make a career out of, if I got the job after the internship. I searched at Baystate
Medical Center, Mercy Medical Center and Wing Memorial Hospital. Unfortunately, I was
unable to find anything close to what I was looking for. So I began looking at smaller
organizations. I looked in the Mental Health Association (MHA), Child and Human
Development (CHD) and the Jewish Community Center (JCC). I had not luck at MHA or CHD
but did get called in for an interview at JCC.
I was so excited after receiving that phone call for an Interview at JCC. I began to fix my
resume and cover letter according to the organization and the guidelines that were provided to
- 3. Running head: KEY PROGRAM 3
me by the career center. I searched my closet for one of my best interviewing outfits and
planned my day accordingly. When I arrived at the interview and was told all about the
organization, I found it to be something I was not quite interested in. I still decided to just go for
because I wasn’t sure what I would get out if it. After the interview, I never got a call back. I
think the reasoning for this is because of my facial expressions on the disinterest in the program.
That probably through the interviewer off and made him decided not to hire me as an intern. I
moved on and decided to apply for one more organization before I gave up on myself.
I applied for an internship at Key Program Inc. It was recommended to me by Sally
during our first meeting but I never really thought much about it. After a few weeks, I got an
email saying they would like me to come in for an interview. Using the guidelines for
interviewing, my Interview was successful. I got the internship at Key Program Inc. and had to
attend an orientation session.
I was there with another intern who is now one of my connects on LinkedIn. During the
orientation, I learned about all the paperwork I needed to fill out, from there end, and what I was
able to do and not able to do as an intern. I learned that it was important that I not put my hands
on any clients, for any reasons, including if the staff is in need of assistance in restraining a
client. It was also important to be very careful on how you talk to the clients because anything
can be used as accusation against you, from the client. Transporting clients is also something we
are not aloud to do because we cannot be alone with the clients and it would be an opportunity
for a client to go AWOL. Other than the things we were not aloud to do, there were a wide
variety of interesting things we could do while we were interning.
- 4. Running head: KEY PROGRAM 4
The house I was assigned to was the Chestnut residential home for adolescent girls
between the ages of 1218. Some of these girls had anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder or even
PTSD. Sometimes I found it hard working with these girls when they are at their lowest, but
when they are at the peak of their day, working with them because a lot easier. This is when we
would take advantage of life lessons or getting them to open up.
As an intern, I had the opportunity to get into the personal lives of the clients. Each client
has two binders filled with their personal information. Their past, present and future plans are in
the binders along with the reasons why they are in the program. I was able to read many
psychological evaluations which were quite interesting to me because I was able to see the
different assessments that were used to evaluate the clients. Within these evaluations I was able
to understand many terms and diagnosis that are straight from the DSM. Axis were used in these
evaluations as well, which was great to see because this was all stuff I have learned from taking
Abnormal Psychology with Professor Anthony Smith. Aside from these, there were school
records, medical records and their Daily Treatment Notes (DTN). DTN's were documents that
were very interesting. They consisted information on what each individual client did throughout
their day. Like what times they took their medication, when they are and whether they at a
healthy meal or what appointments they had and whether it went well or not. The more
interesting ones are the ones that talk about a negative situation that went on in the house, like
whether they were restraint for a particular reason, were in the time out room because they were
hearing voices or were just upset about something g that did not go their way and caused them to
start a riot in the house. Along with reading all this information of the clients in the home, I had
the opportunity to see how the administrative aspect of the Key Program worked.
- 5. Running head: KEY PROGRAM 5
Of course, there is filing for every client. Putting all of their paperwork in their totes and
transferring everything into their binders, in it’s place, that way everything was easy to find.
While the clients are in school, staff are required to track the clients to see how their day in
school is going. For some clients, all we really had to do was call the school counselor and find
out how the day is going. For other clients, we are required to go to the school personally and
speak with the counselor to see how the client is behaving and how the day is going. I had the
opportunity to make some calls myself to get an update and record what was said by the
counselors. I also had opportunities to tag along with staff to see what the procedure was when
tracking a client personally at the school and speaking with the counselor. The more interesting
parts of the internship was actively working the clients.
One of the main things that was talked about during orientation was, if you find
something that interest you and you want to participate, then do so. If a client had a meeting
with a clinician, and occupational therapist or just a group meeting, we were encouraged to ask
to participate and shadow. My main interest was with meetings between the client and the
clinician because that is more or less what I would like to do in the future.
Listening to how the clinician spoke with clients really helped me to realize that I don't
have to be so uptight and professional using the correct terminology. These are children and you
need to speak to them in a way that makes them comfortable and want to talk with you so you
can get the information you need to evaluate them and find out what would be best for their
specific situation. Sometimes you can play a game with them or participate to do something
with them, like take a walk. Whatever you have to do to make them comfortable, you can do, as
