Having the opportunity to act as a counselling support while still completing my undergraduate education has been such a valuable experience. Becoming a clinical counselling psychologist has been a long-term goal for me for many years now and being given the trust, responsibility, and space to practice the counselling skills and knowledge that I have been learning throughout my degree has been so exciting.

 

Aside from learning practical skills such as how to lead a group therapy program and adapt to different scheduling programs, I have noticed an increase in my communication abilities, as well as growth in my capacity to come up with creative ideas that are realistically implementable. An example of this was my ability to create a group art therapy program for the youth in the community. The main issue that has prevented the implementation of this program is due to funding difficulties that the CYHC is currently facing, but I still hope to enact it in the future. 

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The most surprising aspect of this practicum for me was how much this experience contributed to my personal growth and self-awareness over the course of the semester. Engaging others in self-reflection through one-on-one counselling and group therapy pushed me not only to facilitate the experience of mindfulness and reflection for others, but to also critically engage with the content myself.

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Skills that I will value most after my university experience are time management and communication. Though I have only one semester left until I graduate, this was my first time taking five courses concurrently which really pushed me to organize myself well enough to follow through on my commitments at the CYHC as well as in group projects for other courses and personal responsibilities outside my professional and academic life. I think this practicum really highlighted the 'work-life balance' that gets talked about and the importance of purposefully pursuing it.

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If I were to do this practicum again, I would love to run the art therapy group that I had proposed instead of the CBT group in order to compare the experiences and perceived effectiveness of content delivery. In addition, I would like to confidently take on more clients for one-on-one counselling to better practice the skills I have learned in my counselling and interviewing course.