Sophie is in the A.B./M.S.S. combined degree program offered to undergraduate students at Bryn Mawr College. She is a first year M.S.S. 她在推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜主修心理学，辅修儿童和家庭研究，即将完成大四的学业. The A.B./M.S.S. 该计划使布林莫尔大学的本科生能够在大四时开始他们的社会服务硕士课程，最多可以将三个本科学分转换为社会服务硕士课程.S.S. degree. Learn more about the program here.
Where is your field placement?
My field placement this year is at Spectra Support Services in Broomall, Pennsylvania.
Can you briefly describe what a placement day looks like for you?
Spectra provides both therapeutic and behavioral services, and so my day will typically include a mix of both of those things. 我在他们的日间项目中工作是为患有自闭症和智力发育障碍的成年人服务的, or IDDs. Sometimes I am shadowing staff and other times I’m doing direct work, and I lead a weekly art group with clients which has been really great. I also have been able to shadow music therapy sessions, which has been a great experience of both shadowing and sometimes participating in sessions. Depending on which day I’m in, I will shadow therapy sessions, some with clients that my supervisor is doing therapy with and some with other therapists on staff. This has allowed me to gain a wide range of shadowing experiences with children, adolescents, 成年人有各种各样的临床诊断和治疗方法这些都是很有帮助的. I also have two clients that I do direct work with, one of whom is an adult that I do CBT-style sessions with, and my other client is a child with whom I do social skills coaching.
What have you learned about yourself through this placement experience?
我想说的是，我已经能够在一些领域发展出自己的优势，而这些领域是我刚开始实习时没有想到自己会做的. 参与多个要求的培训来做行为工作，一开始让我对这种工作感到害怕, but I think once I got past the training stage, it was really about connecting with these clients and learning the best ways to support them. It has been really helpful to recognize not only that I am capable of doing this kind of work, 而且这些都是我在未来的实习和临床工作经验中会用到的技巧，可以帮助我理解我们的行为是如何受到我们的思维方式、感受方式和周围环境的影响的.
How have you grown as a social worker through this experience? Can you highlight specific skills you have gained?
My field liaison, supervisor, 和任务主管都做了非常出色的工作，他们给了我各种各样的任务，涉及光谱提供的社会工作的所有不同领域. In addition to more direct clinical work, I’ve also been able to do social work tasks such as finding resources for specialized cases, contacting agencies for referrals, and finding housing resources. I also got to do some work with their call log when people call Spectra in search of therapy. 到处都有很长的等候名单，所以在告诉人们等候名单有多长之后，这真的是一种管理人们失望情绪的练习, and collecting their information so that they can be put on the waitlist. That was definitely a challenging experience, 但是，通过区分和认识到在这些情况下人们的情绪不应该被个人化，从而培养处理这些情况的技能也是很有帮助的.
How has your classwork been relevant to your placement experience?
认识到我们的课堂作业是为了补充我们在实地所做的工作，这是很有帮助的. 我觉得我真的很喜欢基础实践，因为我们有时间讨论我们的实地工作，只是听别人的经历是如此有益和有趣. 随着我们越来越专注，我们的课堂作业也越来越具体，我们想要做什么, starting to take some of these clinical courses is making me feel excited about the upcoming year. I look forward to my placement next year which will be more specialized, as I now have a solid understanding of this work, not only through the experience that I’ve gained in the field this year, but also the knowledge I’ve gained in my classes.
What is your favorite part of the GSSWSR community?
The mutual support among students is one of my favorite parts of the GSSWSR community. I feel like with the people in my classes, we all support each other through the experience of being a first year in this program. Even though we’re all coming from different backgrounds and different stages in our lives, 很高兴看到我们在这次经历中团结一致，能够相互支持，并利用我们不同的背景相互学习. 我的同学们的经验和背景都很广泛，这让我印象深刻，我觉得我们可以把彼此作为宝贵的资源. For example, if I wanted to learn more about the child protective services (CPS) process, 我知道我们的项目中有一些CPS工作人员非常乐意与我分享他们的经验, and this holds true for anyone’s work, educational or personal background. I feel like in these relationships we develop with our fellow classmates, 我们可以谈论学校以外的生活和我们的实地实习，这真的很令人耳目一新，并创造了一种强烈的社区意识.
关于创伤的课程是如何出现在你的课堂作业和实习经历中的?
创伤知识课程是gsssr项目中我最喜欢的方面之一，因为我对创伤研究很感兴趣. 我注意到，我们在课程中读到的很多文章都考虑到了我们的环境和经历会对我们的行为产生如此强烈的影响, 所以我很清楚在课程和课堂讨论中，创伤知识的方法. 创伤知情的观点在课堂上非常普遍，学生和教师都在命名它，并围绕着对创伤如何在各种情况下发挥作用的共同理解来塑造我们的讨论. In my field placement, 我有很多机会跟随客户探讨他们自己早期和最近的创伤经历如何影响他们的心理健康. 我还了解到创伤是如何影响spectrum对自闭症和缺碘症人群的工作的，因为我们离一些对这类客户群体造成创伤的做法并不遥远, and so I think Spectra is very aware of this. 每个人都意识到不要为客户激活这些创伤经历，要尊重并意识到潜在的触发因素. 我觉得这很重要，因为你不一定能在所有地方找到同样程度的尊重和基于优势的观点，在与自闭症患者打交道的地方, 但仅仅知道光谱是如何了解创伤的，以及他们的工作是如何被意识到的，并做了所有正确的事情来解决创伤，这已经很棒了.
Where will you be for your second-year placement?
My placement next year will be at the Center for Counseling and Education in Marlton, New Jersey, 我将主要与儿童和青少年合作，这是我的目标人群，所以这非常令人兴奋. 我还能在游戏治疗方面得到一些很好的培训，这也是我非常兴奋的，因为这也是我毕业后希望做的事情.