It was the time of summer break, and just like many other students I too wanted to intern in the psychology field. One can find many internships paid, unpaid, training internships, online internship, in-hospital, volunteering and the list goes on. But it takes time and effort to find a quality internship which provides you with a training program as well as helps you become a professional in your field. One such organization I came across is, Healing Dove Foundation, which is involved in dealing with adolescents or youth who are emotionally disturbed and aims at supporting and creating a safe space for them to vent out.

When I first heard that we had to undergo a training period of 15 days before we begin with the internship, I was surprised. I asked myself, “Why a training program for a psychology internship?”. The reason being that the internships I came across never provided the interns with any training but just workload. Even if they were to have a training, it would be a paid one. But the organization provided us with an unpaid and quality training. The training was led by mentors from ICHARS and the trainees were from MHP and HDF. It was an intensive training period of 2-3 weeks where we were taught how to conduct lives, talk-it-out sessions, support sessions, workshops and research and surveys. We were also trained on how to write blogs and ways to involve in brand building. These were followed up by individual assignments and discussions among the participants in breakout rooms. We were also trained to help others in distress or in need of emotional support. At the same time, we also learnt the ways in which we can help ourselves when troubled or distressed.

Besides this, I have gained an insight and understanding into the values, ethics and the degree of professionalism required in the field of psychology and workspace. Some of my take-aways from the training program are:

Rapport building-

We learnt the importance of rapport building before each session and the ways in which we can build the same. At the same time, we also discussed the ways in which we can keep up the interactions between participants going on even after the session ends in a manner that benefits their well-being. This way we can keep them posted about the upcoming sessions as well.

Strategic planning-

Every aspect that we want to cover in any particular session, needs to be planned strategically beforehand to avoid issues during the session. The target audience, video, story, content, flow of session, ground rules, activities, games, homework to be given, etc. and the technical requirements need to be planned ahead of time. It allows smooth flow of the sessions planned. We also learnt how to work on effective activities that engage the participants in active interactions. Working on demo sessions before conducting the live can prove to be helpful to understand the effectiveness and the additional requirements for the session.

Professionalism-

It is important to understand the dos and don’ts, the code of conduct, the way we dress, our tone of voice, moderation of conflicts arising, etc. matters when we are hosting any kind of session. It requires certain level of professionalism, starting from the introduction to the conclusion.

Meanwhile, fulfilling the purpose and working in accordance to the flow of the session, adds on to the knowledge I have gained in this training period. It was more of a value and ethic-based learning for me. The fun light talks and the opportunity to connect with other trainees in the field of psychology has helped me gain an insight into the expectations of people from mental health practitioners. In a nutshell, it was a period of fruitful learning and experience in training program.