Capstone: Day 15

     My mentor contrasted Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Behavioral Cognitive Therapy (CBT). These two types of therapy are particularly used for patients suffering from chronic pain. The purpose of the two types of therapy is to get the patient to change their behavior so that their pain does not get in the way of them living their lives. While their purpose may be the same, the process by which they are carried out, vary by the therapy. The therapy used depends on the patient. My mentor compared ACT and CBT with 280 and 101. Both freeways get you to San Jose. However, the scenery may be different, the traffic may be more heavy on other, or one might be quicker. Either way, they both go to the same place. He also showed me some exercises that he gets some of his patients to do, which are quite interesting. He also talked about thoughts versus experience. Chronic pain patients let their thoughts overpower their experiences. It not only applies to chronic pain patients, but to us as well- We just don't realize it.

Capstone: Day 14

     When I met with my mentor today, we talked about how we're going to schedule our meetings so that I will finish my hours by April 30th. It will be more difficult because our schedules are starting to be more conflicting. However, I'm looking on the brighter side. I might also meet up with his secretary more often to get in more hours, but I'll see because of, again, conflicting schedules. This meeting was more of a catch up session. We talked about the project, including the research paper and what else is to come in regards to what else to come. We also reflected on the meeting I had with his secretary. I compared and contrasted her views on the psychological field with his perspective.

Capstone: Day 13

      My mentor will be out of town this week, so I met with his assistant/secretary today. She goes to his office once a week to do all the clerical and administrative work. The purpose of the session was for me to be exposed to the whole filing aspect when it comes to psychology. My mentor has drawer fulls of files of his patients, and I thought that was a lot. It turns out that there are other practices filled with walls of patient files. While I was there, we also talked about the different types of psychologists. This touched more on my future and what I would consider doing if I were to pursue a PhD in psychology. Reflecting back on that conversation, if I were to really pursue that goal, I would want to a be psychologist who either works with children with mental retardation, hard core criminals,  or the mentally insane. This connects back to another conversation we had where we talked about how everything depends on the person and what they view to be interesting, which is how psychologists choose their field. Either way, the best psychologists are those who are able to develop a strong mentality because they are exposed to different, mind altering circumstances every single day.

Capstone: Day 12

      I learned about a certain therapy called ACT. This stands for "Acceptance & Commitment Therapy. It is a therapy designed for those dealing with chronic pain. I learned how this connects to the "Relational Frame Theory". The theory is like math. If A=B and B=C, we can conclude that A=C. However, instead of using these variables to represent numbers, they represent thoughts and actions in the world of psychology. We connected this to my paper on domestic violence. If A is the physical pain when experiencing domestic violence, and B is the emotional pain, C would be the emotional pain someone gets when they hear or experience something that reminds them of the violence. This theory can be proven true in things like post traumatic stress disorder, and in everyday lives. This theory can be better understood through a verbal and visual explanation, but that doesn't seem possible at the moment. This may be something I will talk about during my presentation at the end of the year. In general, I found the theory to be very interesting, especially since it's true. The explanation my mentor gave me was the watered down version. There has been books written about this one theory. He also gave me an assignment so that I can fully experience the "Relational Frame Theory" taking its course. Just to set the record straight, the assignment is related to doing something, not experiencing domestic violence.

Capstone: Day 11

       My mentor and I calculated how many hours I have completed and we planned out how I will complete all my hours by the deadline. According to my mentor, I have completed 11 hours, not 10. Therefore, the entry today shall be a fill-in for the hour I did not realize to blog about along the way. It will be reflection of my experiences thus far. Being a psychologist all depends on what you make of it. To some people, it can be the most boring thing ever, while to others, it may be the most rewarding thing. Bottom line is: if you want to be a good psychologist, you have to love what you do.  There is more to the psychology profession that meets the eye. It's not like the stereotype people see in movies. They do more than sit on a chair asking "And how do you feel about that?" Their patients are like fingerprints. They're all different. They're all the same in a sense that they go to see therapists for mental and emotional reasons. However, they all have different stories and backgrounds. There is a certain connection that the therapist and psychologist share. Being a psychologist is more than making money. It gives people a chance to make a differences in other people's lives by simply just being there for them. Having someone who listens makes a huge difference.

Capstone: Day 10

    What really stood out to me about today's session was our conversation on good and bad psychologists. I was wondering what can possibly make a bad psychologist, and he was able to answer my question. There are psychologists out there who have inappropriate relationships with their patients. Some take advantage of their patients and some even make their patients feel even worse about themselves. There are also some who fall asleep on their patients. I learned that if you go on the California Board of Psychology website, you can see every registered psychologist in California. You can see "reviews" on them. It's almost like a yelp for psychologists. There are some who have even gotten their licenses suspended. This conversation taught me how important it is to do your job, and to do your job well. People can see if you really love what your doing, versus just doing it to do it. It was actually a good learning lesson.