Practicum has been an interesting yet challenging experience.

I have learned a lot over

the past few months. My supervisors have been supportive of my journey of learning and

growing as a counselor. My university supervisor has helped me learn to consider my priorities,

focus on self-care, advocate for myself, as well as affirm my abilities to use my skills. I was

dealing with multiple priorities and my university supervisor helped me figure out how to better

manage my time by creating a schedule with dates and times to do things. I learned that I should

get up earlier based on my schedule in order to be productive. I also learned which priorities I

needed to focus on. I decided to quit my part time job so that I could focus on school and

business. Originally, I had trouble advocating for myself and was too scared to quit my job out of

fear of being an inconvenience to the company, but my university supervisor helped me realize

my time and wellbeing is important, and I should do what is best for me rather than what is best

for the company. I was also having trouble getting hours, and based on my conversations with

my university supervisor, I knew I needed to continue to advocate for myself when I needed to. I

needed to inform my site supervisor when I needed help and see what they could do to help.

Because of these situations, I have gained confidence and have learned to prioritize my needs in

order to do well in the programs. I feel confident enough to do everything I can to become a

great counselor. Quitting my job was a part of my self-care, but in supervision, I learned about

meditation as a form of self-care, and I learned to incorporate my own preferences of self-care.

In supervision with my university supervisor, I was able to practice my skills in a role play a few

times. I was nervous, but it helped me build my confidence since she affirmed what I did well on

as well as gave good feedback on what I could work on. I also appreciated the feedback I got on

my recordings. It helped me figure out what to focus on improving in my next sessions.

 My site supervisor helped me come up with ideas to get hours such as starting a group,

doing free consultations with clients, and asking others for referrals. She helped me learn how to

book clients as well. I continued to edit what I say to book clients and eventually, I became more

successful. My site supervisor shared with me resources I could utilize to help me learn and grow

as a counselor such as courses, webinars, and books I could read. She gave me advice each

supervision session about what I could do to help each of my clients. It helped me come up with

new ideas to become an effective counselor. I was happy to receive multiple resources to use

from her since I feel comfortable using the sites and books she recommended. She taught me a

lot about Gottman and sent me resources about Gottman’s approaches. I found it helpful have

group supervision at my site because there are a larger group of interns and LPCs. We are

allowed to ask questions about our cases and get advice from everyone. I even find it useful to

hear the cases that my peers discuss. Some off the interns give really good advice. It helps me to

compare the cases to my own situations with clients. In general, the site is helpful because it

helps me prepare for possibly running my own private practice. I enjoy the challenge even

though sometimes I dislike how hard it is. It really pushes me to overcome my fears such as

talking on the phone with strangers.

My university peers were also helpful because they gave me good feedback on my case

presentation which helped me help my client. They were all very nice and supportive which

helped me feel better about the practicum journey. It was great to know we were all going

through practicum together, so the process did not feel isolated. My peers gave me good advice

on how to help a couple of my clients. We also had a group chat where they gave advice outside

of supervision. They were helpful throughout the whole process. My peers at my site were

helpful because they focused on giving feedback and ideas for helping the client. I have gotten
some good advice and resources just from the peers at my site. They helped me think outside the

box when it comes to counseling since they all use different approaches. I was able to learn about

how to help different types of clients by listening to my peer’s cases in individual and group

supervision at my site.

Looking at the course objectives, I believe that I have been able to apply the knowledge I

have learned in this course. It has been fun being able to see how what I have learned can be

useful to my clients. Using my basic and advanced counseling skills I have learned in class have

been great. I have also applied theories that I have learned such as person centered, cognitive

behavioral therapy and rational emotive behavioral therapy. I have gathered professional

resources and activities to help me be helpful to my clients and I have enjoyed using those

resources and activities. I have been able to achieve the minimum 100 hours required for

practicum.

My learning goals were to become a natural at reflection of meaning, learn more about

CBT case conceptualizations, learn how not to let my feelings interfere with sessions, and learn

to be more organized. This course, I have gotten a lot better at reflection of meaning and I really

enjoy using that skill. I have learned some more about CBT case conceptualizations, but I have

learned a lot about CBT in general. I have not let my feelings impact the session. I usually get

really into the session and other situations going on in my life do not bother me during a session

I realize. There was one time I was writing notes using my phone during a session and an

upsetting message popped up on my phone. I was distracted by it for 3 seconds because of how

upsetting it was, but I brought my mind back into the session. I have worked on becoming more

organized with the help of my university supervisor. I have learned a few new methods of

becoming more organized such as having a google calendar, having a schedule for everything,
setting alarms, and figuring out the best times for everything. I think my strengths are applying

my knowledge of skills, theories, and other courses. I think when it comes to my skills, I am

good at being an attentive listener and showing empathy.

My new learning goals would be to make sure I am using all the skills I have learned in

the right situations. When watching my recordings, I always find something I could have said or

changed. I hope to do more recordings I am more satisfied with in the future. I hope to learn and

become more professional and confident in my abilities. I have come a long way when it comes

to confidence, but I just hope to grow even more in confidence so that I am comfortable helping

clients in my sessions. It is because I believe I will do better if I am comfortable in the sessions. I

hope to specialize in using multiple theories so that I can use them in the best situations that

apply. I have been focused on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Person-Centered therapy. I am

also interested in Rational Emotive behavioral therapy and Motivational interviewing. So, I

would like to find videos or courses on how to properly use those theoretical approaches

efficiently in a session. I like to watch sessions in order to learn what counselors do in different

situations. Another goal would be to become better and more confident in couples counseling. I

have a couple that I am counseling, and I find it to be fun yet more difficult. It is difficult

because even though I set rules such as “only one person can speak at a time. Since I find

working with couples to be a little more difficult, I would like to learn more about the different

strategies for couples. Another learning goal I have is that I want to become a natural at writing

good SOAP notes, so I do not have to edit them and organize them later. I know it is important to

write good notes in general.