The Interview

Today I had an interview at a PSR Agency here in Coeur d'alene called A New Hope. PSR is Psychosocial Rehabilitation. What I would be doing as a PSR is helping an individual who has a psychiatric disability (usually a mental disorder) restore their community functioning and well being. We try to make changes in the person's environment and in their ability to deal with their environment. It is combining treatment, independent living and social skills training and some psychological support for the client and their family, help with housing, vocational rehab, social support, network enhancement and helping them with fun activities.

There are a number of people in my Graduate Program that are PSR workers, there is a lot of hype about how much people dislike it and then how much people do enjoy it...I always said that I would never do it...but this opportunity opened for me and I am hoping that I do get the job. I think I can grow a lot as a person and as a counselor/psychologist. I mainly need it to get hours towards my LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor), it requires us to have 1,000 hours .... after all of my interning this spring I will be a couple hundred hours short, so this will give me the opportunity to have more hours under my belt, as well as experience which is always needed. As a school counselor or school psychologist you are only seeing one aspect of that child's life, you are not seeing first hand what exactly they are experiencing when they go home or in their day to day life. I unfortunately only get to see a piece of their world. This would allow me to have insight into what these student's are dealing with in a different atmosphere, I would gain an entirely new perspective! Of course these wouldn't be student's that I am working with at school - who knows, maybe? But I would be able to apply what I am learning for my degree to my job and my job to my degree...it's kind of a win win.

Hopefully I will be hearing something soon......