Clinical Psychologist

Career Goals

I plan to become a clinical psychologist and hope to specialize in children. I've always wanted to help children who struggle with mental health issues and guide parents on how to help their child. I'm sure I want to work in this field, and this year I'm working at an internship within that line of work. I'll continue working with parents and children to develop my skills and decide whether or not this is the career option I want to pursue.

My internship experience has been a major affirmation of my chosen career path. I knew in broad what I wanted to do before the internship began, but I wasn't sure how to turn that into real-world experience and actual skills. I acquired priceless insights as I pushed myself into the duties and obligations of my internship, which have strengthened my enthusiasm and helped me define my objectives. My practical experience was one of the most fulfilling parts of the internship. My grasp of the field was strengthened when I was able to put the theoretical knowledge I had learned in school to use in real-world scenarios. Due to this, I feel pretty confident in using my knowledge and preferences to make career-related decisions.

Goal #1

Learn about psychobiology

I recently switched majors so that I can pursue something that interests me, but I’m not 100% sure if this
is something I want to do. This goal allows me to decide whether or not this is something I want to
pursue in the future. I plan to continue working with participants and collecting data so that I can come to a decision of whether this is the field I want to work in.

Progress: My internship allowed me to get hands on experience and the affirmation I needed to continue pursuing my career. I worked with over 10 participants throughout our study visits and collected data through the surveys I administered. I am currently working with my supervisor on how to translate the data we collect. I run into difficulties with all the different aspect of our data, but I believe with more time and practice, I'll be able to understand the data we collect.

Goal #2

Understand the relationship between families and stress/trauma

I plan to pursue a career in clinical psychology and focus on children and family relationships. This
internship allows me to get experience on the topic firsthand. I plan to shadow my supervisor and learn methods on how to communicate with families. I will attend meetings that involve participants and their families, and analyze the data from those participants.

plan to pursue a career in clinical psychology plan to pursue a career in clinical psychology

and focus on children and family relationships. This
internship allows me to get experience on the topic firsthand. and focus on children and family relationships. This
internship allows me to get experience on the topic firsthand.

Progress: I have met with multiple families, and observed the relationship between our participants and parental figures. I have listened to the stories families were willing to share and monitored their responses to our questions. I would have some difficiculties with certain questions they'd ask me. I would find it hard to further interpret the questions on our surveys, but I would always get assisstance from my supervisor. I will continue working with families and collect the data they are willing to give.

Goal #3

Work with people (participants) and brain-scanning technology

It’s difficult to find opportunities to work with people in the psychology field because of privacy issues
and confidential information. This internship allows me to work with people and gain experience. I plan to work with participants and the supervisor at the MRI (scanning machine). I hope to gain experience by shadowing the supervisor.

Progress: I believe that I am the most proud about the progress I made on this goal. I've been able to gain experience by conducting MRI scans for children. I was nervous about making mistakes, but my supervisor was by my side the enitre time. I still make some mistakes conducting these scans. I'll accidentally leave the speaker on, which forces the MRI team to hear an excruciatingly loud alarm. To achiece my goal, I'll conduct more scans and learn how to do them independently.

Learning

Skills I am Using

I'm confident in my skills of teamwork. My team can rely on me and look to me when assigning tasks. When my team and I do participant visits, we work together by splitting the tasks. Before every visit, my team and I have a meeting to discuss how to proceed with each visit. During our last visit, I conducted the drug test for the participant and administered the surveys, while my supervisor did the MRI portion of the visit. Although we were doing different tasks, we updated each other throughout the visit.

I am growing my skills in independent abilities. A lot of the work I do is remote, so I am not under constant supervision. I complete a lot of tasks on my own and report back to my supervisor. As of right now, I am in charge of creating posts for our lab's social media. I design Instagram posts and only seek out additional help when I need the post to get reviewed.

I do well in receiving constructive criticism and feedback. I have weekly meetings with my supervisor, and she lets me know what I'm doing well and, most importantly, what I can work on. Last meeting I presented my poster for our social media post, and my supervisor let me know what changes I could make to improve. the post. I took feedback and applied it to the new poster I made.

Edit: I believe I’ve made significant progress in accepting constructive criticism and feedback since October. In the past, I would often feel discouraged if I didn’t complete a task perfectly. However, as I became more accustomed to receiving feedback, I learned to use it as a tool for improvement. It wasn’t until my supervisor recently complimented me on how positive and open I’ve become to feedback that I truly realized how much I’ve grown.

I believe I still need to work on my communication skills. I'm able to talk to my team but I have a hard time telling them when I can not do something. They are very understanding but I can't help but feel incompetent. To grow this skill, I could email my supervisor whenever I feel that I cannot complete a task. I should communicate with my team when I am busy with schoolwork and ask for another task or an extension.

I am still developing my confront challenges and failure skills. I tend to get disappointed in myself when I do not succeed the first time. To grow this skill, I'll have to come to terms and accept my failures. I'll have to continue doing my tasks and asking for feedback on how to get better.

Edit: I have improved in my communication skills. I am able to tell my internship when I cannot do a task because of the other responsibilities I have. I would still like to work on developing my confront challenges and failure skills. I believe it'll take some time to develop these skills, but I'll only improve by encouraging feedback. I'll continue to ask my supervisor for ways in which I can grow and develop.

Through my internship, I learned more about the relationship between mental health in children and their relationship with their parents. This proves to be beneficial in the long run because I plan to become a clinical psychologist who specializes in children. I look forward to learning how to analyze data results from MRI screenings and conducting the child portion of our study. As a psychology student, I've been able to apply the lessons I've learned through my courses to what I'm learning in the lab. Speaking to participants allows me to learn and approach tasks from a different perspective.