Catharina Pieterse

Agency: Casa de los Niños

Term: Spring - 2003

I was apprehensive at first about working with the agency, as I was a little intimidated by the clients I would be expected to serve. You see, I work with the Family Visitation Services department. This is the department that helps conduct visitations for parents who are going through a tough divorce. My specific position is called a monitor. What the monitor does is observe and report what occurs during visitations between parent and child or exchanges. Visitations may occur on our site or sometimes in public areas such as the park or the mall, etc. During visitations, a monitor observes the visiting parent and child all the while keeping notes of everything that is done or said. The monitor has to write up a detailed objective report at the end of the visit. During the visit the monitor is expected to protect the child from anything the visiting parent may say or do. Talking about change in visitation or the other parent are big no-nos during visits. A monitor would immediately intervene to protect the child. Visitations are conducted in a manner so that parents do not have to see one another. The custodial parent drops the child off 15 minutes before the visit is to begin. The visiting parent then arrives at the scheduled visitation time, stays the remainder, and leaves when visitation time has runout. The custodial parent arrives for the second time to pick the child up 15 minutes after the end of the scheduled visit. Exchanges are conducted in much the same way, but the child does not visit the parent on our site and the monitor is not present. This is a service where basically the court has not ordered supervised visitation, but often the parents cannot get along at all, and so in order for the child to visit the other parent we assist in the exchange of the child.

I decided to do this internship because I have previously had experience with children of divorce and found them to be a population really in need of some protection. I enjoy working with children and wanted some experience in the field of working with families in crisis. I will be graduating this May, and my goal is to continue my education at the University of Phoenix and earn my masters in Counseling. I would like to eventually work with families in crisis, and Casa de los Niños was a good step in the right direction in gaining experience for my future career.

I have learned many things at my internship so far. I have learned to be objective in judging people either in a positive or negative light. I have learned that clients are not friends and they are not to be trusted in this sort of situation. I learned that the only client in this case is the child and no matter what everything is done for their protection no matter what the consequences for myself. I have learned that even I am easily fooled by a person's appearance. I have learned that real life experience and making mistakes are the best ways for a person to learn.

I would recommend this internship to anyone. Although it is work and the hours are certainly not the greatest, it is truly rewarding to see a child light up when they see their parent for the first time in a year in a half, which was my most recent case. I was assigned a family visitation in which the son and father had not seen one another in a year and a half. The child was so excited to see his father. He asked me every minute, "How many more minutes until my dad gets here?" He was so nervous when he first walked in into our doors with his mother. He was literally shaking. I took great pride that I was a part of helping this child to see his father for the first time in a long time. By the time the visit was over and the child returned with his mother he exited the doors and said to me with a smile, "This place is fun!" I melted. It made it worth the time I had to sacrifice from friends, homework, and much needed vacation time. His needs were clear to me and I understood what it meant to serve.

University of Arizona | College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
School of Family and Consumer Sciences | Family Studies and Human Development

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