Marisa Holland

Agency: Casa de los Niños

Term: Spring - 2001

I am doing my internship at Casa de los Niños. This is an agency that helps children who have been abused and families in the midst of crises. My main responsibility is in the Family Visitations Service department. I supervise visits between a non-custodial parent and their child, and exchanges between a custodial parent and non-custodial parent. In addition to this, I document what occurs during the visits and exchanges. My other responsibility is in the Residential Services department. I monitor visits for the children that are living in the Casa residence. I also document what occurs on these visits.

I chose to do this internship because it allowed me to work with children. I want to be a child psychologist; therefore, I want to gain as much experience as possible working with children. In addition, I want to develop counseling programs for children and their parents and Casa offered me the opportunity to do this later on in my internship. Another aspect that attracted me to Casa was the fact that there are many programs that allow me to learn more about helping children in crisis.

After graduation, I plan to take a year off from school and work in the field of child psychology. After that year, I will go back to school to receive my masters degree in child counseling psychology. Following that I will work towards achieving a Doctorate of Psychology in the same field. As for career goals, I want to open my own practice and develop counseling programs for children and their families.

I have learned many things about the social services field because of this internship. One main thing is the personal reward you receive from knowing that you are helping people when they are at a very low point in their lives. The rewards are not large; rather they are a simple smile or hug from a child, or a "thank you" from a parent who is struggling for help. These little things make you realize that you can make a positive difference in people's lives. I have also learned how to communicate and cooperate with people better. In this field I deal with many different people, all of who have very different personalities. One of the hardest things is learning to deal with each person as an individual and not generalizing them into a category. This is an essential characteristic when you are working with people in a counseling, and everyday situation.

My advice to a student who is considering doing this internship is to be patient and empathetic. Working with people that are in the midst of a crisis can be very hard and stressful. Patience is essential because it allows you to perform your job better. It enables you to interact with individuals better, and understand their story a little more. Empathy is also important because you hear many stories that are sad and unfortunate. In order to make the parent and child feel comfortable you must have empathy towards their situation.

Furthermore, if you are interested in working with children and their families then this is a good opportunity. There are many things that you can learn from this agency that are beneficial in every aspect of your life.

One of the best experiences that I have had at this internship is when I was supervising a visit for a little girl that had not seen her dad in a couple of years. She was very nervous and anxious before the visit and was unsure about seeing her father. I assured her that everything would be all right and that I would be there the entire time. After talking with her for a while I was able to calm her down and have her realize that everything would be fine. The visit went well and she was very happy to see her father. The best part was after the visit when she gave me a big hug and said thank you for comforting her before the visit. She said that she was very happy that I was there for her to talk to before her father arrived. This statement made me feel so good and it reminded me why I want to work in this field. It is little situations like this that make this internship, and career field, very rewarding.

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