For 10 days, I attended the online summer internship in Clinical Psychology with Fortis Hospital (Sukoon Mental Healthcare) organised by their Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences from 3rd to 12th July. It was something I decided to do to stay connected with my chosen field and studies in the middle of this extended break that my life has been in since the lockdown. It consisted of 4 main components:
Daily 2 hour online classes where different psychologists and therapists would talk about aspects of clinical psychology and share their own personal experiences and styles of implementing the theory being taught. The staff at Sukoon Health was very diverse with a psycho oncologist, psychiatrist, clinical psychologists practicing different methods, such as one who was proficient in the psychoanalytical approach. They discussed how they practiced, specialisations, specific career paths and very calmly answered our numerous questions.
An experiential project on coping with the lockdown. This required us to discuss the effect the lockdown had on our mental health and then research principles of positive psychology that could be implemented to treat our individual symptoms and problems.
Assignments were given after every class regarding what was discussed that day. For example, in our first class we were discussed clinical interviewing and other methods of assessment, so our assignment was to take the case history and mental status examination of a person. I typed up the transcript of all that I discussed with my client and even presented a reflection on the problems I faces, my strengths and my weaknesses. (This paper discusses more in detail about the importance of a mental status examination and details that are included in such assessments of an individual: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK546682/)
Critical Analysis of different Research Papers. As psychologists, we should always be looking for methods to improve our skills and take example from the works of others. As psychology is an area of study that is still developing, a large number of research is being published each year to evolve and improve this practice. To get us in the habit of reading case studies and research papers, we were given a list of research papers that would delve into topics not usually discussed in our textbooks and course material. As this internship focuses on more of the practical aspects of practicing as a clinical psychologist, the research papers assigned were as such as well.
https://www.researchinpsychotherapy.org/index.php/rpsy/article/view/235/178
For 10 days, a different topic would be presented and broken down for us:
Day 1 - Overview of Clinical Psychology: From Clinical Interviewing and Assessments to Intervention
Day 2 - Understanding Diagnoses of Psychiatric Disorders
Day 3 - Establishing a Therapeutic Alliance in Clinical Practice
Day 4 - Tenets of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy): An Evidence-Based Psychotherapy
Day 5 - Advent of the Third-Wave of Psychotherapy DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy), ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy)
Day 6 - A Glimpse into the Psychoanalytical Approach to Psychotherapy
Day 7 - Psychotherapeutic Approaches for Specific Populations
Day 8 - Understanding Trauma Counselling
Day 9 - Applications of Psychology: Beyond the Clinic
Day 10 - Psychotherapy Directed Inwards: Self Growth and Self Care
At the end of these 10 days, we were given a 100 marks test on these topics to see how much of the information we had retained. I got 85!