Journal Prompts

1. Think about your first day at your internship. How have you changed and grown?
2. What are the unique qualities and skills you bring to the profession, and how can they help you and hinder you?
3. What type of feedback have you received from your supervisor, colleagues, instructor, and classmates? How will you incorporate this feedback in the future?
4. What experiences have you not yet experienced that you need to feel well-rounded as a service provider?
5. Imposter syndrome is a phrase used to describe the feeling of “not fitting in” described by many new professionals, especially those who come from marginalized backgrounds. The video Imposter Syndrome Is A Scheme: Reshma Saujani’s Smith College Commencement Address challenges the concept. Watch the video and reflect on your own feelings about your fit at your agency or in human services.

Self-Care Activities

1. Gratitude list. Giving thanks or being grateful has a long history of being a positive action. However, recent research has shown that simply expressing our gratitude in writing can improve our sense of happiness, well-being, and self-esteem (Simons, 2020; Yang, 2018; Shourie 2016). Gratitude is more than just saying thank you but observing to identify what we are truly grateful for. Positive psychology suggests that people who are more grateful have higher levels of subjective well-being, which has several benefits, such as being more optimistic by focusing more on positive things to prevent pessimism. Create a list of at least three things you are grateful for at the end of each day for a week. You can write more than three if you would like. At the end of the week, reflect on how keeping this gratitude list affected you. Keeping a daily gratitude journal may be a self-care activity you would like to adopt.
2. Sharing Your Gratitude. Your Gratitude List is where you listed the things you have or have received and are grateful for having them. There are studies that suggest that in addition to the benefits of keeping a gratitude list are extra benefits from sharing your gratitude with others (O’Connell, 2017). Sharing your gratitude can increase the positive impact on mood and self-esteem. If you are comfortable doing so, share a few of your items with people around you. Again, reflect on how this activity affected your mood. You may want to add sharing your gratitude to your self-care list.

Class Discussion Topics

1. How will you know you’re gaining competence? Think back to the beginning of your internship. Make a list of the skills you have learned over your time at the agency. What did you find most helpful in learning these? In what ways are you more confident in your role as a helper? Share this information in pairs or small groups.
2. What are your areas for growth, and who can help you grow? What plans can you make to help you continue to learn?

Practice Licenses and Attributions

“Practice” by Ivan Mancinelli-Franconi PhD and Yvonne M. Smith LCSW is licensed under CC BY 4.0.