Capstone: Day 19

      So on the last hour, we killed two birds w/ one stone. As I said in previous posts, my mentor is doing extra work that involves watching videos of psychologists in San Diego working with post veteran patients. All the patients are undergoing ACT and my mentor has to watch the sessions and evaluate how well the psychologists are adhering to the treatment. As for me, I was able to truly see the Hexaflex diagram at work. When undergoing ACT, the patients focus on certain aspects of the diagram in each session. With each aspect comes a certain title or goal for the session. The hour long session I watched was titled "Options for 'Learning to Live with It'". One point of the Hexaflex diagram was values, and that was what this session focused on. The patient had chronic pain from fighting in the war and was beginning to get depressed. The psychologist was trying to get him to stop focusing on the pain and to start thinking about what was really important (this also links back to mindfulness). There was one point that I found interesting during the session. The psychologist asked , "If you weren't in pain, what would you be doing?" The patient said things like he would be volunteering, spending more time with his family, and going back to school. Just by asking this question, the psychologist was able to figure out his values based on his answers without straight up asking "What are your values?" After that she said, "Well what's stopping you from going to school now?" The patient says, "I'm not that smart." It's not the pain that's stopping him from doing some of the things he wants to do, yet he is quick to blame it on the pain because he is so busy thinking about it. Honestly, there were some moments where I was bored watching the videos, but I got a lot out of it. I find the videos very interesting, but hopefully the next time we watch them, I won't be so drowsy.

Capstone: Day 18

      This is the second hour out of three. In the second hour, my mentor introduce the Hexaflex diagram to me. Psychologists call this diagram the "theory of ACT". The diagram is what sets apart ACT from other types of therapy like CBT. It shows the purpose of ACT and how it is suppose to be carried out. It made a whole lot of sense in its entirety and I was easily able to understand it. However, when it came to chunking it out into two pieces, that's when it started to get a little confusing. It was interesting, but a little bit hard to follow, so I am going to ask my mentor to clarify a little when we meet again. The Hexaflex diagram will surely be something I put into my presentation. He also used examples that related to the diagram to make it seem more relatable.

Capstone: Day 17

       So my mentor and I have not met for the past two weeks because of our conflicting schedules. Last Saturday, we took the time to meet for approximately three hours. Please take note that days 17-19 are all blog posts based on the same day. This post will talk about the first hour out of three. In the beginning we went over our schedules. We tried to figure out how I will be able to finish all my hours by the due date. After that, we picked off from where we left off from the previous session. He had given me an assignment that would raise awareness. For the assignment, I had to slowly eat either the first or the last bite of a meal. The purpose for this was to demonstrate how perspective can be changed by heightening your awareness. He also helped me connect this to my paper. If someone who is abusive improves their awareness, they will better be able to catch themselves when they feel as if they are going to do something abusive. We also talked about how awareness can alter negative thinking into positive thinking. This proves to be very helpful for those going through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). This was all very interesting. Not only did I gain a new perspective on awareness, I was able to connect it to my life. I have seen that the more I am aware of something, the higher chance I have of not being so closed minded about the situation. For me this made a lot of sense. It also connects with other people, too. It may sound cheesy, but we always have to be aware of other people's feelings. We don't know what they've gone through and their stories, and we need to be considerate of that.

Capstone: Day 16

          My mentor had this bag that has certain "props" that help patients better understand what he is trying to say. Props in the bag included a tug of war rope, Chinese handcuffs, a box of raisins, and rubber bands. He showed me how he uses these props on his patients and what kind of psychological ideas they are suppose to touch on. For example, the exercise we did with the box of raisins is used to give the patient a sense of awareness. This exercise helps them to appreciate the good and small things in life and to consider how things come to be how they are. My mentor used this exercise to tie into an assignment he gave me. When I went home, I was suppose to "experience" my first bite if dinner. I had to chew it slowly, paying attention to the smell, taste, texture, and the sound it made while I chewed it. For the second part of the assignment, I had to "observe" a homeless person and think about how they got to where they are now. I found the props to be really helpful for patients, especially for those who are more visual learners. It's one thing to hear it, but it's an entirely different thing to actually see it. This hour with my mentor really showed me how creative you can get as a psychologist. Not everything has to necessarily be done by the book. When my mentor and I meet up tomorrow, we will probably reflect on my assignments.

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.