Solidarity at its FINEST

Last week I had the pleasure of attending two conferences both in Orlando and Atlanta. There were a lot of great sessions that went on including:

-ClayBUS: A Locally Developed Universal Screener for Behavior
-Private Practice Opportunities
-Exercise and Children's Academic, Cognitive, and Behavioral Outcomes: Meta-Analysis
-Reading in Motion: A New Intervention for Struggling Early Readers
-Tools for School Success: Parent Education Program
-The Who, Why, and How's of Serving LGBTQ Students
-Communicating and Collaborating with Health Professionals to Promote Student Success

I'm so proud of my cohort members who presented at FASP. They all did a fabulous job and represented our program well. Seems like just yesterday we didn't have a clue! :-D

-Substance Use Disorders in Men & Boys of African Descent
          *This presentation was especially interesting, as soon as I get a copy of the powerpoint from the presenter, Dr. Nzingha Harrison I'll be sure to post some of the topics she discussed as well as images of the brain on, and off drugs as well as an image that shows even after 20 years of non-drug use...images of cocaine light up an area in the brain called the Amygdala (really fascinating to look at)

The conference in Atlanta was really good, although I couldn't stay for the entire time, the luncheon shed some light on somethings that we as Psychologists should be aware of in our practice. What stuck out to me the most was the point that we are here to serve our clients and our upmost priority should be What do THEY need. It's important not to push our own goals for a student on them but to work in a way that will best help THEM  and get them to where they want to be too. As practitioners it can be easy to assume that we know everything and because we read this book we know about every plight a certain group is going or has gone through. That can't be farther from the truth. My colleague told me the presenter in the session she attended said "If you know everything, you might as well just go die." After laughing hysterically, when you think about that, it makes sense. Presuming you know everything and you have all the answers leaves no room for further development, or acknowledgement that you just might not have the right answer. I hope to always stay on a path of learning and that none of us every presume to know everything....it will only hurt our students and families we serve.

On another note, this week I was so stressed because it's November and I had YET to start practicum. I had to make some rearrangements to my data collection schedule so I could go yesterday and I was going to have to speak with my boss at the hospital about rearranging my hours too. Driving 45 minutes 2-3x a week was just not going to fit into my already hectic schedule. Naturally, I was freaking out. I'm applying for internship in January, I do not want to have a number of 'Incompletes' on my transcript, and I definitely did not want to give up my Winter break working on reports.

Thankfully I have an amazing cohort who saw my pain and frustration and one of them asked their supervisor, who is a part of a private practice, if they could take me on so that I'm here within the county. She agreed!!!!!!! So now I have a new practicum site, don't have to drive 45 minutes, it's a private practice-something I'm really interested in, and there are cases waiting for me right away! This definitely lifted a HUGE weight off of my shoulders and I'm just so grateful that I have such an amazing group of people around me! Our cohort's motto is 'Solidarity'.....well this is that at it's finest :-) I owe her dinner for a month!