Projects
Over the course of this practicum I have participated in several initiatives, below I have provided a few different projects that I put together throughout my time at the CYHC.
To see each piece in more detail, please click on the individual graphics.
CBT Group Therapy
Throughout my time at the CYHC, my main focus was in delivering a cognitive-behavioral group therapy program at the Chilliwack Middle School with a partner. Here is an example of the content that I prepared for our 7th meeting which was focussed on empathy and positive thinking.
Social Media Posting
In addition to the more clinical and therapy-focused work I have done at the CYHC, I also took over in running the social media pages over the course of my internship; specifically Instagram and TikTok. With Valentine's Day in mind, here is a post that I created and designed to promote awareness of self-care during this typically romance-centered holiday.
Proposed Art Therapy Program
As I had mentioned in my reflective learning, with advice and resources from my peers and practicum supervisors, I had designed an art therapy group based on Adlerian art therapy principles but did not implement it during my time at the center unfortunately as we did not have the funds available. None the less, as part of practicing professional workplace skills, here was the proposal outline that I sent to my lead field supervisor Dr. Robert Lees for evaluation.
One-on-One Counselling
Unintentionally, my first project at the CYHC happened to be counselling a youth and receiving supervision. This experience was both exciting and intimidating as I have had some relevant experience in the past but more as a facilitator or leader. Due to the constraints of confidentiality I cannot specify what we discussed, but I had several sessions with a returning youth to help navigate some of the struggles they were experiencing in several social environments. At the CYHC, we focus on solution-based therapy and youth are free to come for one session and not return, so it built my confidence as a counsellor that this youth came back to see me multiple times to continue our work together. Towards the end of each session I would go receive supervision and debrief with my supervisor the content of the session and receive their assessment of my skills and any ideas they had for closing the session. I found this part incredibly valuable as it has helped open up my creative thinking about how to interact with those I counsel.
Youth Support + Transportation
An on-going role I took on was as a youth support and transportation before, during, and after the weekly DBT group sessions for one particular youth. During this time I would engage with the youth by playing chess with them and building rapport through conversation. As their time outside the home was quite limited, this was an opportunity for them to interact with others around their age and increase their social skills. By the end of our 8 weeks together, I had learned much about their interests, future plans, and generally who they are, which was a valuable experience for me. Getting to connect with youth on this level opened me up to considering becoming a high school counsellor and I am planning to job shadow this position in September.
