Are you aspiring to learn more about careers in psychology? Elaine de Guzman joined a remote Clinical Psychology internship (hosted out of India), to receive further training in her field and access a unique personal development opportunity. If you’re interested in what you can gain from this experience, read on, to understand what’s involved and how you can enrich and deepen your learning in the field.!
Hi Elaine! What can you tell us about your remote internship?
The mission of the organization I interned for, for my online Psychology internship, is to make a positive difference in the lives of people, creating a win-win situation for all. They provide various services such as career counseling, psychological testing, and counseling of families, individuals, and groups. They also offer remedial education and assessment to individual students and even to children with special needs.
I believe the session we had on dance movement therapy struck me the most. I was amazed by how the guest speaker talked about the various strategies she used to treat her clients. Her clients are of varying cases and circumstances. She uses this therapy with senior citizens, the depressed, and those with Alzheimer’s syndrome and Parkinson’s disease. She also uses this for chair-bound individuals. I also admire her selfless dedication to providing this kind of therapy with the elders on a pro bono basis.
How did this internship contribute to your personal and professional development?
My participation in the remote internship helped me to put my best foot forward because I knew that I would be facing people from different cultures, and I was anxious about doing well in my internship. The experience taught me how to be resilient, develop a positive mindset, and go out of my comfort zone. It also helped me realize that I can overcome challenges and limitations that may hinder me from achieving my goal once I set my mind to it. People provided their support to me, and this made a lot of difference too.
I also learned to set aside what I have been used to in the way I do my tasks and to focus more on understanding why others do things differently. This helped me appreciate them and their culture. It was also good to see how we are also very much alike despite our differences in culture. I want to be perceived by others as a respectable and competent professional in my field. I believe that my internship contributed a lot in helping me achieve this goal.
My significant learning points from this internship were:
- Remain humble and open.
- Be slow to judge.
- Strive to understand the ways of others that are different from mine.
- Learn to adapt to a new environment and discover new ways of doing and thinking.
- Respect personal and cultural differences.
- Be willing to get out of your comfort zone.
- Acknowledge the talents of others.
- Keep a positive mindset.
I now feel more empowered to have a growth mindset, know my strengths, develop them, but also learn from mistakes and be persistent in reaching my goals. I also want to keep practicing gratitude, appreciating life’s small pleasures. Professionally I am empowered to connect with others and interact with them in positive ways, connect and participate with professional organizations, and continue updating and developing my career.
What advice would you give someone about to begin a culturally diverse internship?
I would advise them to be open to surprises, to be open-minded, and non-judgmental. People from various backgrounds may differ from what he/she is used to in his/her country and no one is better or lesser than the other. Instead of judging others, one has to be willing to learn from other cultures and see things from a different point of view. It is also important to get out of one’s comfort zone.
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