Early on into your work placement, what did you learn?
Early on into my short work placement…
From early on in my work placement, I know things were going to different… because of Covid-19 *surprise surprise* (sorry to bring it up AGAIN). As with everyone everywhere, and everything, my placement was now run online. For anyone who hasn’t read my other blogs… my technological skills were not (and probably still aren’t) incredible, far from it — challenge number 1 (technology). On top of this, I had a rather illogical fear about emailing anyone more academically qualified than myself (so, most people) because I was worried about annoying them (this was clearly a sticking point in the middle of lockdown, in a pandemic … and in life more generally).
So, what did I learn about myself?
Well, firstly, I learned that emailing my supervisors for my placement isn’t actually the dreadful experience I had created in my head. Not only that but that they are human beings, with human lives (shocker, I know)! I found that I could create a good rapport (or, as good as you can through email) with my colleagues and team. In fact, I learned that they are happy AND WILLING to help with any problems. I must admit, learning quite early on that my emails weren’t ‘annoying’ but helpful in indicating my understanding to those I was working with was a BIG bonus.
Part of my placement involved going to training for Method of Levels therapy (MOL), these (of course) were moved online. Sounds easy, right? No more commuting to Manchester for early morning meetings… NO! Far from it, this type of therapy (as with many) focuses on a person’s body language, eye contact, hand fidgeting (etc) as much as what they’re saying, and suddenly I (still a complete novice btw) was left to interpret this over zoom… zoom (I had barely got to grips with using zoom and was still worried about muting myself at the wrong times). I could no longer marry up my theoretical knowledge with in-person practice…
But, I learned a lot more about myself this way. This made me challenge little things I had begun to rely on, perhaps get complacent about (such as body language) and pushed me further. I began focusing on people’s tone of voice and pauses during sentences. This hypervigilance, I hope, will help me better my understanding and interpretation of what my patients say when I start practising professionally (I am an aspiring clinical psychologist). Early on, I realised that perhaps this online approach wasn’t the end of the world, instead it was (and is) opening me up to new opportunities. As technology becomes an almost essential and integrated part of our lives now, online platforms (such as zoom) may bring an alternative therapeutic approach for people who would be, otherwise, unable to access in-person support. To me, this can only be a positive — if our profession is able to help more people, support more people and inspire more people — something must be going right.
