Monthly Post for October: Book Work

Monthly Post:
So throughout most of my time with my Karla Rodriguez Vallejo (my mentor)  I can expect to complete the task of reading her books and extracting the important info from the books. One of the books that I'm most familiar with is Seeking Safety: A Treatment Manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse by Lisa M. Najavits. I have worked on this book the past couple of months. It's a very informational piece of text and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to add it to my working bibliography for senior project research.

Here is a picture of the book:

 The book has chapters that each are specific to a process in the works of successful therapy. For example:
chapter 1-Intro to treatment, chapter 2-Safety, chapter 3-Detaching from emotional pain, etc.
Thus I read through each chapter and I highlight the main points and I than jot them down in a notebook.
After  have jotted down enough information I than transfer the writing into typed form and print it out.
The printed information is than used and integrated into packets that Karla and I create for our group therapy sessions. Overall this book has been tons of help in guiding me through information, as well as giving me information to integrate into my packets.

Blog 8: Research and Working EQ

Content:

1. What is your working EQ?
 My working EQ is : What is the most effective strategy to conducting a group therapy session?

2. What is a possible answer to your working EQ? Please write the answer in thesis format.
   EQ is : What is the most effective strategy to conducting a group therapy session?

• Making packets with reading material and exercises that the group patients each receive, read and perform on their own time; afterwards they share and discuss their results during a group therapy session.
• During the group therapy session the therapist would listen and answer any questions or clarify any of the reading material to the group patients. Also the therapist would go around the circle and allow everyone to share out their experience over the weekend and allow them to say whether or not the tips that were given by the therapist worked or not.
• Over time the group will become more comfortable after a couple of therapy sessions, and ultimately the group will flow steadily and the therapist should be able to control and monitor the group's progress. 

3. What is the most important source you have used that has helped you come up with an answer to your working EQ?

   My most important source has been my mentor, Karla Rodriguez Vallejo. She helped me come up with my current answer (subject to change) by allowing me to contribute to her actual group therapy sessions. We usually do those steps that I listed and they seem to be effective. As of now, it seems like my best answer and I have personal experience with my mentor to support my claim. I have seen her group share out their weekends and discuss how my mentor's tips have helped. There is clear progression, therefore I believe the strategy that I listed is a strong candidate for the solution to my working EQ.

4. Who is your mentor, or where are you volunteering, and how does what you are doing relate to your EQ?

  My mentor is Karla Rodriguez Vallejo. She is a marriage and family therapist who works for a company named Pacific Clinics. She is currently working on 3 different therapy groups. I assist her on each 3 therapy sessions by helping her prepare for her sessions, sitting with her during sessions, and reviewing the sessions with her afterwards when the group leaves. This allows me to get a hands on experience of Marriage and Family therapy and witness real people talk about their lives and analyze how my mentor assists the group and spreads her knowledge in order to help everybody out. I'm very grateful, and I'm learning so much through my mentor and experiences with her. 

Independent Component 1 Approval

Content:

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
           In order to complete my 30 hours I will work with my mentor and complete my independent component hours along with my mentorship hours. This is possible because I'm seeing my mentor 4 times a week and helping her almost every day for various hours. I will be assisting her with preparation for her group therapy sessions by gathering and creating packets for her patients. I will also be assisting her through out her group therapy session. Afterwards we usually debrief to each other and she teaches me her methods of therapy which i find fascinating. Overall these hours will be easy to complete and will help me understand my senior project better.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
          In order to prove I completed my 30 hours I will create a virtual spreadsheet that will show what exactly I did every time I help her and document all my hours. I will also get copies of the packets that I assemble, and add pictures of us prepping for the therapy sessions as well as maybe picture of the group session. However that is only if confidentiality is not an issue. I should have no problem providing evidence of my 30 hours.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.
     My independent component will help me in various ways to explore my topic.  For instance, I will be spending time with my mentor as she educates me of all the therapy strategies she knows and as well have practice in actually testing out these strategies during our group therapy session. Overall the experience will help get me exposed to real-life therapy sessions and get an authentic vibe and atmosphere of how my topic really is. I am excited and ready to be enlightened.