Hi everyone!

    Quick update regarding the job interview- as expected, I was not offered the job. However, they did offer me an unpaid internship to sharpen my clinical skills. Although some of you might think it unwise, I decided to accept it. (I hope I don’t regret it!) As part of this internship, I was invited to observer a virtual group for couples, and that is what I want to comment on here.

    The content of the group was satisfactory, including important ideas in communication (not being distracted by the cell phone, body posture, paraphrasing…) and empathy. However, I found myself feeling quite bored and constantly looking at the time. Immediately following the group, I began thinking what was it about the group that made it so boring to me. Was it the fact that I already knew the content? Nah, I didn’t think that was it. After delving more into it, I realized that the reason I found it boring was because there was little to no emotion or energy in the room. It was basically flat back and forth between the co-facilitators and the group members without any passion or excitement present. One of the facilitators did bring up the idea of doing a role-play on paraphrasing, and thinking back, those were the only 2 minutes that I was not wishing that the time would fly and the group would conclude.  

    At the time of the group, I wrote down different thoughts about the topics that were being discussed. Looking over those notes, I see that for each topic, I had jotted down a reference to an anecdote, a catchphrase, or interesting idea. I feel that presenting the topics with them, and bringing passion and energy into the space would have made the group that much better.