Chenoa Palmer
Internship
For my STEP project I chose to do an internship. I completed my internship in Waverly, Ohio at The Pike County Recovery Council. The Recovery Council is a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center compromised of outpatient and inpatient facilities.
This internship had its ups and downs, but overall was a positive and eye opening experience. Throughout this experience I grew not only as a student, but also as a person. Growing up in a town that is central to the opioid crisis, it is not uncommon to have strong opinions about illegal substances and the people who use them. Completing this internship challenged and eventually changed the opinions I grew up having. I began to see our clients as individuals with a story rather than another statistic or mugshot on the news station. While completing this internship, just like the grinch, my heart grew a few sizes.
However, this change was not sudden and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t try to resist the transformation at first. My transformation of how I view addiction was subtle and crept up on me throughout the 13 weeks I spent at The Recovery Council. I can attribute this transformation to my unique summer experience. I was able to work at almost all of our locations, shadowing many different positions. This gave me insight to every step of the process for not only the employees, but also the clients.
At first, the idea of traveling to the different locations intimidated me. This was because I wasn’t sure what to expect from the clients. After traveling to my first location, my fears were confirmed. I started my first day at a Men’s transitional center. The clients were not welcoming to me and at some times were crossing the line to harassment. My confidence was shaken and I couldn’t wait to get home. The experience had reinforced all of my opinions on drug addicts. After that, I didn’t travel for several weeks. Instead, I spent time at what could be called my “home base”, a women’s transitional center.
This is where the real transformation started. I had the opportunity to sit in on various sessions my favorite and simultaneously least favorite were called timelines. Each week a different client presents their timelines to the staff and other clients. This includes a detailed story about their life starting at birth. They typically include drug use and any other traumatic events. They were my favorite because it really allowed me to understand them on a deeper level. They gave me answers to all my unspoken questions like, “Why is she so closed off?”or ” Why is she so aggressive?”. They were my least favorite because it was very difficult to listen to some of the traumatic events these woman had gone through. It was even more difficult when I realized some of them were my age.
I began to see my perspective on addiction change. The black and white strategy that I had once used had opened up to many shades of grey and I found myself sympathizing for many of the clients. I began to wonder how different their lives could be if they had been born into different circumstances and not been subjected to the experiences they had. I got to know them on a personal level, they shared their hopes and dreams with me and I watched them fight everyday to try to make it a reality. I think transformation made me much more open minded and a much more caring person.
This transformation matters to me for a number of reasons, but I am going to focus on two. The first reason, is that I had always prided myself on being objective in any situation that came my way. It was a trait that I thought was very important. While I still possess this trait, it is not as overbearing as it once was. I am now able to see the advantages of letting feelings influence you because feelings are very important. Before the transformation, I viewed these clients like the statistics they were. The statistics that had the deck stacked against their recovery. Now I see them, how far they’ve come and how far they want to go. I see hope for them and they notice the difference.
The second reason the transformation matters to me is because it will help me in my future career. I plan to pursue graduate school for clinical psychology and work a job where I will be helping clients. Some, like the ones I worked with over the summer and some not. All however, deserve the benefit of the doubt. All deserve to have someone take the time to get to know their unique situation. I think this transformation will make me better equipped to be the best psychologist I can be.