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.

Capstone: Day 9

   Today we reflected on the patient from last week. We talked about the questionnaires he did. The questionnaires were based on his conditions, and they can vary from person to person. They help the psychologist gain more insight on the patient's feelings on their conditions. It helps them determine the type of therapy they need and how they should carry it out as their psychologist. I also learned the purpose of having ink blog tests. They are similar to standardized tests. Instead of measuring what you have learned, they measure mentality. There are 12 ink blots in total and they are carried out in the exact same way all around the country. After that we talked about videos that he had to evaluate. He is getting paid to evaluate psychological therapy in the Veterans Aid clinic. As he watches each video, he has to evaluate it to make sure that it is following the guidelines of the chronic pain therapy. While I was there I watched one video, and I was able to put in my input in what I saw. I was able to verbally evaluate the therapist and what I thought of the therapy.

Capstone: Day 8

        This is a continuation of day 7. On the second hour that I met with my mentor that day, I sat through another evaluation. This patient was there with the help of workers' compensation. He had been injured on the job a couple years ago, and up until today, he is still living with the issue. He injured his left arm and feels pain in the majority of his torso 24/7. Because of it, he can no longer work. He can't even do things he used to enjoy doing, such as camping and hiking. The patient was very open, which I didn't expect because he didn't look like the type of guy who liked to talk about his emotions. Towards the end, he started talking about how it was nice to actually talk to someone and have someone actually listen. He felt like my mentor actually cared, rather than being like the doctors who to him say, "Here's the medicine, see you next week". This really made me see why therapists and psychologists are important to have. They are there for people to talk to when they need someone to listen to them. They keep people from doing things that they shouldn't do. After he left, my mentor asked me to give my impressions on the patient as if I was the psychologist. The point of it was to see how my own personal thinking and my analyzations work.

Capstone: Day 7

       For today's blog, days 7 and 8 were done in one day. For the first part of the session we talked about the politics in the Psychology profession. We connected this to workers' compensation. To me the politics are smart concerning the bottom line, but at the same time, it can be morally wrong. Because of workers' compensation, treatment is paid for if a worker is injured during a job. Some people are denied the mental health they need because workers' compensation doesn't want to pay for it. There are some people who are severely hurt on duty and they can no longer work because the injury has deemed it to be physically impossible. This is turn connects to how the worker feels. Some get severely depressed, and workers' compensation pays for the psychological services. When the psychologist feels like the patient needs more help than what they can offer, they request workers' compensation to pay for psychiatric help to prevent the patient from committing suicide. Unfortunately, there are many times where workers' compensation choose to deny those services because they don't want to spend the money. This seems unfair to the people that really need help.

Capstone: Day 6

     This is a continuation of "Day 5" since I spent 2 hours with my mentor rather than 1. After he talked to me about the importance of making the patient as comfortable as possible, the patient arrived. She had been referred to him by a hospital, which is how psychologists get some of their patients. She was there for her evaluation. The evaluation is basically the very first meeting the psychologists have with their patients. I sat next to my mentor while she sat on the other side of the room. It was like they were in a fishbowl and I was observing from the outside. The woman that came in had a chronic illness, which makes her arms and her legs burn up. It rises her blood temperature, and the illness makes the person feel like they're literally burning. During the evaluation, my mentor asked her how her illness has impacted her life. Due to confidentially, I am unable to say more. What I can say is that she was very inspirational. Even through her personal health problems, she has been able to get through her life. It has helped her developed so much strength and positivity that people take for granted. This session with my mentor really got me more interested in the psychology field. It is really something I see myself doing in the future. I hope to sit through my evaluations in future sessions.

Capstone: Day 5

          My mentor was getting ready to meet with a patient today. He explained to me how to prepare the paperwork and the questions, and the whole process of preparing for an appointment. Since I was actually going to be sitting in on one, he also explained to me the importance of confidentiality. Psychologists can actually get in legal and ethical trouble if they let out anything that was confidential. In the meantime, while we were waiting for the patient, we talked a lot about the things that happen behind the scenes. This included typing up reports, sending bills, paying bills, and creating a comfortable environment for the patient. It turns out that the environment plays a huge role for the patient. The lighting, temperature, the scent, and the furniture all matter. They can determine whether or not the patient wants you to be their psychologist or not. The relationship with the patient and the psychologist is very important. The better the relationship, the more the patient will get out of the sessions.