Blog 23: Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement
              What I am most proud of is my answers and the sources I had to back them up with. The reason is because a lot of people just quickly reference a source but I went into detail about the article or interview. That was something I was super confindent with.

(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
            What worked really well was my independent components. They actually helped me answer my essential question. They gave me different scenarios of clients and helped me understand my best answer.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?
             If I had a time machine I would go back and change how fast I was talking through the presentation. I felt as I was rushing through it.

(5) Finding Value
The senior project has been helpful for the future because I learned that the people around will always have a huge influence on you. They can change your entire decisions in life making. Also that you need to help clients to cope with the issues they are going through.

Blog 22: Mentorship

LIA Response to blog:

    Literal

     Flor Martinez Catholic Charities and The County of San Bernardino Contact 

    Interpretive

     What the most important thing I gained was the responsibilities and hardship for a therapist. This showed me how to deal with the different clients coming in. I attended seminars with my mentor and learned that offended times a therapist will need their own therapist. Learned different coping methods. During my Mentorship time I found out about the biopsychosocial Model, which I based my answer off of.

   Applied

   This helped to answer my EQ because I not only learned about the biopsychosocial model but I    built an understanding of the therapist. My answer three is  "In order for the client to make process of control they must have a therapist with the fullest attention and well insight about a client." Going to different events and learning the importance of the role of the therapist in a client's life.

Blog 21: Exit Interview

(1) What is your essential question, and what are your answers?    What is your best answer and why?

            My essential question is "What is the most important aspect of a client's support system that they need in order to control their mental health?". 

            My first answer is the most important aspect of a client support system to control their mental health is there social life. My second answer is a client with mental health issues go to therapy and having a therapist help with them through the process of control. The third answer is looking at a clients biological intake and condition.

  My best answer to my essential question is that in order for a client to control their mental health, is their social life/environment. Reason for this being my best answer because often times when a client is outside the therapy room they look for someone to help them make decsions and to look up to. This is important because this can influence a client to continue going to therapy sessions or taking their medication.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

            The process I took to arrive to my answer was a very hard and tough. Throughout my whole mentorship I saw the stories of different clients and how the main issue was they had no one to support them and if they did have it, it had already been too late in the process to help the client. 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

           The problems I came to face with was staying in control hearing the terrifying stories of clients. The way I resolved this was my mentor took me to seminars that would have other therapist communicate on how to build empathy with the client not sympathy. This actually helped me in hearing stories of the clients and learn to relate on a therapist's level.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

Armando Michael Rivera was one of the greatest source I used because he constantly helped me with articles and I interviewed him and found me Dr. Bonnie Gillaspy to do my last interview. He also helped me in the base of my essential question.

The second source that helped me was "Positive Therpay" by Martin Seligman which was an article talking about how to deal with clients going through depression. This discusses how a good supportive family/friends can help them to take antidepressants and help them get through the hole they feel they are in. This article is what first made me realized that social environment would be my first answer 

April Blog Post: Independent Component

            During my time of mentorship I came into some trouble when I did my mini experiment. I conducted the experiment at Rancho Cucamonga high school. First off let me say how much trouble it was to go on campus. How the office didn't even treat me like an adult and they treated me like a child. When I first told him about my independent component they laughed at me. I had never felt so down and I've never felt like I had no power. This independent component actually taught me to appreciate I Poly and how they treat you like an adult and they don't do things as a normal high school would do. I'll also appreciate the people that go to I Poly. I was having so much attitude with people because they don't know who I was and I was a stranger. So this part of my independent component was a real struggle and to be honest I would probably never do it again at that high school.  I would never recommend anyone children to attend that high school. Also I recommend just for anyone in general to never go there.

Independent Component 2

LITERAL

A. Include this statement: “I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours and 30 Minutes of work.”

B. My mentor Flor Martinez who works for Catholic Charities and the County of San Bernard

C. Hours have been Updated

D. I’ve done about 30 Hours and I completed the outside one therapy sessions. Learning about different clients come in different ages and different situations. I learned how to react to it. Another I have completed was a mini experiment with my mentor. This was to understand more of the biopsychosocial model. Learning that the social aspect of clients life is very important.

INTERPRETIVE 

I know it just shows a High School, but this is the High School were I conducted my mini experiment. This is Rancho Cucamonga High School. This shows my independent component because this is where I spent most of my time at and not only that, but this is where I finally understood the whole importance of social environment. My mentor helped with with this. This High School discourage pictures, so this was one I sneaked in. This school was strict but I was able in the end to complete my mini experiment there

APPLIED
The independent component helped greatly into answer my essential question because it was based of the biopsychosocial model and shows how different ages deal with stress. This gave me a great understanding how social environment is so vital to a client. A client needs a good social environment because if their no support they will cling to other bad things. Like gangs, drugs, alcohol, or other bad activities to sustain them. The experiment showed over half the people in a normal high school don't get that support at home and try to stand out in school or go to bodily harm. So this actually showed me as learner to Pscyology that the social aspect of a client's life is so important.

March Blog Post- Interview # 3

When I was given interview #3 I was thinking of the best person to interview and get a different view on things. I really want to choose a different kind of person someone who was rare to the fields and beginning new. So I decided to pick my father who had just begun conducting his work as a therapist.

I felt that my father would best fit because as a male in this field, it was super rare. I thought it would be nice to get a different view from someone who might have a different experience than a female. He even told me that different genders have different reactions to him because he is in a female and doesn't have that carrying or motherly look. But once you grow a bond with the male they begin to grow closer to the client.

My father who actually just graduated three years ago with a masters degree in psychology, is very brand-new to the fields of psychotherapy. He has been in a few different clinics and was currently placed at the Pomona clinic has actually seen quite a few things even though his small, short time there. I thought it would be a good idea to get his experiences into my interview.

This interview actually help me to answering my essential question. Also to help me into planning my final senior project. I thought this was the most help for interview that I've had in a long time. And I would interview him again!

Fourth Interview Preparation

1.What kinds of goals do you set for yourself to help clients achieve their personal goals?

2.What’s the best method to keep a client coming to therapy sessions? 

3.What’s the best method to have a client keep their taking medication if failing to take or has problems?

4.What books should I read in this field?

5.Please describe what you think the Biopsychosocial model is?

6.What kind of connection are you supposed to build with a client? What boundaries can you not cross

7.How is it like being A female in this field?

8.What is an example of a hard situation a therapist can go through?

9.What would you do to best handle that situation?

10.How are you able to keep under control during a tough situation of hearing about a clients life story?

11.What is important about the biological aspect of the biopsychosocial model?

12.What is important about the social aspect of the biopsychosocial model?

13.What is important about the psychological aspect of the biopsychosocial model?

14.What are some experiences (clients) you dealt with? Explain with the biopsychosocial model in mind.

15.What college did you attend and what is your status at this moment?

16.What are some activities that would be great to do for my final presentation, to represent the biopsychosocial model?

17.What can be ways to intrigue my audience into my topic and make things a much better learning experience for my final presentation?

18.What kind of protection do you have as therapist against any kind of lawsuits or false accusations?

19.What kind of protection do you have in a moment where a client might get physical or violent?

20.Have the experiences that you seen coming to the office help you in your own life and and learn in making your own decisions and what to do and what not to do?

Answer #3

1.  What is your EQ?

     What is the most important aspect of a patient's support system that they need in order to control their mental health? 

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

     The most important aspect of a support system to control a clients mental health is there biological intake.

3. Give 3 details to support the answer (a detail is a fact and an example)

     -depending on what a client is in taking in   their body and example is like sleep or food.

     -also is how the medication is affecting their body in a good or a bad way and whether they should change their medication

     -an example would be with somebody with the anxiety who is going through a lot of stress but isn't sleeping which can be the cause of their anxiety because the lack of sleep. 

4. The research source (s) to support your details and answer

     Buckner, Julia D, Richard G Heimberg, Anthony H Ecker, and Christine 

Vinci. "A Biopsychosocial Model of Social Anxiety and Substance Use." Depression and Anxiety, 30.3 (2013): 276-284.

5. Concluding Sentence

All of this can affect on how they act and who they are and the decisions that they make a come ahead

Answer 2

1.  What is your EQ?

     What is the most important aspect of a patient's support system that they need in order to control their mental health? 

2.  What is your first answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

     The most important aspect of a support system to control a clients mental health is there social surroundings.

3.  What is your second answer? (In complete thesis statement format)

     The second most important apsect of support system to control a clients mental health is the psychological part of their life.

4.  List three reasons your answer is true with a real-world application for each.

     Meaning the therapist they see.

-The therapist need to give the fullest attention to a client in order to have a client feel like someone cares.

- The therapist needs to be able to check how they are doing in their daily lives and not brush off little things that come ahead .

- The therapist needs to know how to control a situation when present and what actions should be taken.

5.  What printed source best supports your answer.

     Lacewing, Michael. "Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Insight, and Therapeutic Action." Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 21.2 (2014): 154-171.

6.   What other source helped answer?

     My mentor was my other source and help me answer the question. My mentor and I explore the biopsychosocial model and found that it's like a circle and it's combined with different things in order to keep it at ease.if it lacks the one thing then the circle will break. It's just like a person if they're missing something then they'll just fall apart.

7.  Tie this together with a  concluding thought.

     Psychological is very important because it is how the therapist is with a client this might even be a client support system and a therapist needs to be able to give its time for a client.

Blog 15: Independent Component 2 Approval

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
What I plan to do for my independent component is to finally be in a therapy setting, with a therapist and a client. I will observe the client and take notes on things that I notice and things that should be a concern. After, the therapist and I could have a one on one and discuss what was wrong and what the client is diagnosed with. We could think about approaches we could take to help the client, like medication or therapeutic activities. The same as last independent component.

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
To meet my 30 hours will be pretty easy because if a therapist has a certain client agreed to a certain time in the week. They usually meet 1-2 times in a week and and last about 1-2 hours. So if I were to go at least once or twice a week I would be able to make my hours in less than 15 days.

3.  Explain how this component will help you explore your topic in more depth.
This will help me understand my topic more in depth because I will be looking at a perspective of a therapist. I will be able to understand the procedures and activities to do with clients. As I am there I will start to understand the benefits of a client going to therapy sessions on a regular basis and I will be able to see the client’s behavior change gradually.  I will explore the biopsychosocial model in depth. By seeing clients and if one of those things is taken away what happens within a client.

4.  Post a log in your Senior Project Hours link and label it "Independent Component 2" log
done

Independent Component

LITERAL

1. (a) Write: “I,Monique C. Rivera, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 32 Hours 30 Minutes hours of work.”
2. (b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

My mentor Flor Martinez who works for Catholic Charities and the County of San Bernardo

3. (c) Update your hours in your Senior Project Hours link. Make sure it is clearly labeled with hours for individual sessions as well as total hours.

Done!

4. (d) Explain what you completed.  

 I’ve done about 32 Hours and I completed the outside therapy sessions. Learning about different clients and how to react to every situation.

INTERPRETIVE

Defend your work and explain its significance to your project and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

   

    The reasoning for this photo is that most people believe in the cliché therapy session where someone lays on the couch and tells the story of their life, but that's not exactly how it is! It's more like the right side of the picture where it shows a simple couch and some tables next to it where somebody just sits and talks about their problems and what they go through in their lives to a therapist. A therapist’s job is to make things better in their lives and to help them take medication and etc.

APPLIED

How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate this.

    The independent component helped me understand the foundation of my topic by having these different clients come in and go through their different situations to understand the biopsychosocial model. The biopsychosocial model is the answer to my question and I will be using this for my final presentation. Bio which is your intake of food, medication, or sleep. The psycho is the therapist and their mind on how their processing things.  So, they do need a good therapist in order to help them control their mental health. And the social is family support and family environment.One example is the girl who was anorexic and  was going through family support troubles. Her bio intake was bad because she wasn't eating caught her to lose nutrients to her body and cause her organs to fail. So, when one or two things is taken out of the cycle which can break a person in which can cause harmful effects of their body and to their mind.The example with the teenage client was he was harming himself by using things such as drugs. So his bio intake was affecting him and how he was not able to complete things in school and his attitude in home. Also, at home he was dealing with abusive father. All that tied into him not functioning right and going onto drugs to help him. The last client who is going through depression was going through the bio intake because she had stopped taking her medication and started distancing herself from family which caused her to commit suicide. These examples are extremely helpful towards answering my question and all these examples help tie in to answering the final question.

January Extra Blog Assigment: Prep For Lesson #2

     Before my lesson #2 I visited my mentor and went through the answer I had for my question. We discussed that social surroundings was the best way to go for the first and best answer. We discussed again how it was part of biopsychosocial model and to save that for the final presentation because it would be too long of presentation for me to go into detail.
     I asked which client from my independent component would best fit social surroundings, she said " Well it would be too overwhelming to tell too many stories because its such a sensitive topic and you only have so little time." So after awhile of going through the different clients that we talked about before, we picked one that fit perfectly into the answer. This one client is anorexic and was given family support too late, and how it was caused by her mom and softball to stop eating. My mentor told me that my activity was a great idea, but said that I might lose the classes' attention. So that actually made me a little worried for my presentation.
     I actually talked to her for a bit telling her I was worried about how my lesson would go because I had nightmares about it. She gave me really good advice saying that its a presentation and if you mess up its a learning experience. She told me if I made a mistake once that it wont be likely to repeat it again. So that prep time with my mentor was great and she actually made me feel more prepared for the presentation

Lesson 2 Reflection

1.What are you most proud of in your Lesson 2 Presentation and why?
I am very proud of my hook activity because people we able to relate and it drew them into the presentation. I was really proud of my content and remembering important information.

 2. a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Lesson 2 Presentation (self-assessment)?
       AE       P          AP       CR       NC

     b.     Explain why you deserve that grade using evidence from the Lesson 2 component contract.
I believe I hit everything except Audience involvement, it was only during the activity that I felt that it wasn't executed the way I had planned.

3. What worked for you in your Lesson 2?
What worked was my hook and my content.

 4. What didn't work? If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your Lesson 2?
Well I would have changed the activity a little bit so that I would of had more people involved. Probably have table teams instead of half of the room as a whole team.

 5. What do you think your answer #2 is going to be?
Biological Aspect of a person's life.

Blog 12: Mentorship 10 hours check

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?
       My Mentorship is being done at my Mentor's home office, but works for the County of San Bernardino and Catholic Charities.
 2.   Who is your contact?
        Flor Martinez
 3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?
        40 Hours and 30 minutes
 4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.
        The part of the ten hour service was actually doing lessons with me to help me understand more about therapy. But, a lot of my hours went to activities, talking about my EQ, therapy seminars and training.
      

Blog 11: Holiday Project Update

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

    To be perfectly honest all I did was my weekly meetings with my mentor and catch up with my research notes. What I also did was some thinking about my EQ and how about going about in answering it.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

     Well, I learned that in order to keep yourself on track of your work is to be consistent and doing it during break. During break I thought of ways to answer my EQ and find the best response. I have an answer but the sources was talking to my mentor a little bit about it, but mostly referring to my research notes. I would like to further conduct even more research and talk to both my mentors before I pick an answer.

3.  If you were going to do a 10 question interview on questions related to answers for your EQ, who would you talk to and why?

       I would pick my second mentor, my dad, Armando Rivera because he has helped me through all the steps of the way with my project. Also, he has worked in different therapy clinics and different experiences. Also he is a male in this field so he has a different point of view and experiences. Lastly, he always consults with different therapist on their opinions and what to do in different situations.