Social Work Internship Placements - Learning From Experience

In the program I was in for my masters degree, theresingle mom and I admired her determination to provide
was a two day a week requirement as my sociala good life and example to her children.
work internship placement. One year I was at aIn terms of learning about clients, it was very useful to
university counseling center and this was very goodbe exposed to different counseling techniques, a wide
experience. I was able to do individual counseling, groupvariety of clients and the challenges that are part of
counseling, participate in staff meetings and getcounseling. For instance, often people come ten to
individual supervision. Some of my friends hadfifteen minutes late for their sessions. This cuts into the
placements in youth centers, community mental healthtime and presents a dilemma for running over into the
clinics and family agencies.next session. There was also a lot of family situations
Without the placement, a lot of the courses would'vethat I dealt with which were difficult due to the conflicts
remained cerebral. The field placmeent internshipin the family and financial strains they suffered. It is so
enables one to encounter the day to day experiencerewarding when clients can learn better communication
you'll have once you get a job. First of all, there wasskills as well as find ways to change their perspectives
the hour commute. I did this two days a week as partto not feel as burdened by circumstances.
of my program, but others in the carpool did this daily. IThe field placement social work internship was
was able to see what a long day this was when youessential in getting me from the books into the reality
work full-time. One of the people in the carpool was aof client life.