Blog 11: Lesson 1 Reflection

Many people do not know a lot about suicide, and my goal for the end of this year, is to educate as many people as I can on different ways to help those who may be considering suicide and potentially save lives.

1. What are you most proud of in your lesson, and why?
For my lesson, I am most proud of my hook activity because my main intent was to try to lighten up the mood before I began talking about my topic which can be a bit dark to understand - suicide. The hook activity was a game called “Fact or Fiction,” which is like a game show in which the audience has to try to determine whether or not a statement on suicide is indeed a fact or fiction.

2. What assessment would you give yourself on your lesson? Explain why you earned that grade using evidence from the component contract.
I would give myself a P+ because I met all the requirements for content of the lesson including 3 realistic scenarios, 5 bullets of content, potential answers to my EQ, and references to online sources and my mentorship, in addition to meeting the time requirements. Not only this but I also was able to keep my audience engaged for almost my entire presentation which not many people were able to do.

3. If you could go back, what would you change about your lesson?  How can you use that knowledge to give a better Lesson 2?

If I could change something about my lesson, I would give the ending to the stories that my mentor shared with me. I would also have visuals which everyone could see because I had one chart and another poster that I don't think everyone could see which may have hindered how people took my presentation.

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

Mentor (noun): An experienced person in a company, college, or school who trains and counsels new employees or students

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

The location of my mentorship is the office of which my mentor works in. She has her therapy/main office and I am often placed to work in her back office so I can organize different materials such as patient files and manage any incoming paperwork.Other tasks which I often complete are the contacting of behavioral health insurance panels to try to worm through the system and help my mentor be added on, other times when it is more demanding I help my mentor with law aspects of the field by filling out charts on different patients if it is needed.

What usually occurs when I do paperwork is that my mentor comes in to chat with me in between her sessions and gives me a little lesson on different aspects of psychology that way I can piece together the essential parts to my topic. This part, above the rest, is what I consider the most meaningful because I am able to get real feedback from an expert who unlike online sources can describe in detail how to handle situations such as posted before.

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  

The mentor that I have is actually the mother of my friend/classmate Lauren Burney. It was through Lauren that I actually made my initial contact to her mother who was kind enough to talk to me over the phone so that I could explain my plan to her.

Out of honesty, I was really nervous when it came to coming up with ideas to helping out because many people are very closed about their practices, and tend to keep a closed mind when it comes to receiving help. However, Dr. Burney is a very warm and welcoming person who despite my shyness is able to effectively communicate with me.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person.

The current comfort level that I have with my mentor is relatively high simply because she is a really easy going and seemingly relaxed when it has come to allowing me to peer into her career. It is because of this comfort that I have found it fairly simple to complete tasks she provides me because most of them involve important documents so there is  a level of unspoken trust which helps morale in the office and I am very excited to continuing a relationship with my mentor.

4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

What I believe went well in the interview was the involvement and openness of my mentor in responding to my questions. I had interviewed my mentor for the first interview as well which was a very extensive hour long interview which made it easier to focus on the qualifications portion of my interview.

What I do acknowledge that I need to improve is my overall enunciation because at times I would speak very fast and make myself unclear as an interviewer which hindered the understanding of my questions so that I had to repeat myself a second time in order to make myself clear which is not out of the ordinary and I tend to do often.

Interview 2 Link Here

Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

A common misconception is the topic of suicide is that speaking about it will cause suicidal thoughts or intent, however talking about it is the first step in preventing it from happening.

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person.

I currently my mentor  remains as Dr. Maureen Burney Ph.D., Director of Psychology at Chino Mental Health Associates.

My mentor and I have spoken of having our interview but have not had the chance to formally set a date, however if all goes well, I hope to have my interview done this weekend, as we have arranged a meeting for this Sunday to hopefully complete it.

2. Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons.  

After several weeks of looking into different branches of psychology, I have been able to narrow down my topic to the area of suicide prevention, which is primarily due with my hopes of one day being able to save the lives of others through communication, listening and problem solving. Not only is suicide a concept that affects adolescents, but it is a topic that means different things to different social groups based upon ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, age, gender, sexuality and even social classes.

Suicide prevention seems most promising to me because not only is it a topic that I am interested in, but I have an emotional connection to this topic by helping my friends and relatives who have experienced suicidal thoughts, and it is for them that I am striving to understand why it occurs to begin with.  

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

The kinds of sources which I believe will help  me throughout the next month to gain more in depth research would have to be books from the CalPoly University Library and Articles from the University harddrive. journals from the journal of Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior which is a compilation of reports from around the world.

4. Write down a possible EQ.  

What would be the best approach in educating the public to be able to identify suicidal intent in peers, friends, relatives or others?

Blog 8: Independent Component 1 Proposal

Growing old does not mean the end of your life, it means having a lifetime of memories to look back on whenever you feel alone.

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

What I intend to do for my 30 hours of my independent component is collaborate with Gennesis Romero, whose topic is elderly care, in order to create and run a blog which focuses on the mental health of the elderly and the probability of suicide based upon external and internal factor. In addition to this, we intend to connect social media outlets in order to reach a middle ages and young crowd to raise awareness on issues that affect relatives in order to provide a brief understanding of what occurs in the elder mentality as a way to help the elderly maintain a longer, happier life.

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2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
As mentioned previously, Gennesis Romero and I intend to run a professional blog on WordPress that would serve as our main tool in informing the public domain with information enriched entries. For our blog entries, we intend on doing extensive research using online and physical resources as well as conducting real life interviews with professionals such as psychologists, CNAs, RNs, and other people closely affiliated with the elderly.

In addition to using this extensive research to create our blog, we also intend on creating educational resources for volunteers of senior centers/retirement homes to educate themselves upon. In addition to this, we also aim to educate different age groups by also using research to run a Twitter account to reach young adults, and give them tips on signs to watch out for in their elderly relatives (immediate, short bursts of information). On top of this, we hope to have a Pintrest account that with the use of visuals will inform middle aged adults on the mentality of the elderly, the caring for a longer life, and the risks people take as they continue to grow.  

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

The way in which this independent component will help me explore my topic, would be by creating a deeper understanding on how suicidal intent may increase with age. By focusing primarily on one single age group instead of a broad amount, I will be able to see how suicide not only develops but affects others by doing extensive research.

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

The image above is taken from my mentor's website which entails her credentials and other information regarding her practice.

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

My mentor is Dr. Maureen Burney and her current place of employment is at the Chino Mental Health Associates, where she works as the director of psychology for her private practice of therapy.

What I believe makes my mentor an expert, is not just the years of study she did to complete her doctorate in psychology, but also the time, dedication and mass experience in different branches within the the overarching dome that is psychology; having it be work with troubled children or in the suicide unit at the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center, my mentor has reached out to each branch in order to get a taste of what each one is like.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

1. Was the field of psychology something that you always knew you would be invested in or was it something you discovered when you entered college?
2. What made you decide to become a private practitioner?
3. What type of experiences would you say are the most beneficial when you decided what branch of psychology you wanted to specialize in?
4. How many years have you dedicated your life in the field of psychology?
5. What would you consider the most rewarding aspect of your career?
6. In addition to having sessions with patients, what is demanded from you as a therapist (patients, maintaining license, seminars, etc.)?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

The senior project has seemed like a breeze, however when it comes to typing out an interview, having god-like speeds would make it a lot simpler. 

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?  

Throughout these few weeks of working on my senior project, so far what has been working well is my very lax and open ended schedule with my mentor, which is something I am very grateful for. As an individual, there are a lot of time restraints that I have and being able to work at a self determined schedule has been working wonders for me. Since my mentor works an open range of hours, coming in every week for 5-6 hours is a simple task I try to accomplish on Fridays when school lets out early.

Ultimately, what has made this project a positive experience is the relationship that I have been able to develop with my mentor. In complete honesty, I tend to be really awkward when I am really nervous and during my first several hours that I completed with my mentor I have been able to reach a variety of levels of comfort with my mentor. Since my mentor is really talkative, striking up a conversation is never that difficult and when I have something to discuss regarding my topic, my mentor is always eager to help and feed me information based upon either research or her personal experiences with patients.   

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

What I have personally have found most difficult concerning the senior project has been time management, which is something that I have to learn to balance on my own. There are times where I put a lot of time and effort into one small detail and forget about the big picture that my mentorship or research is suppose to be.

Separately, something I would recommend revising is the transcribing of the interview. I understand that the purpose of the transcription is to make sure that it is not plagiarized from the internet, however my interview was about an hour long and even with the use of dictation websites it was still excessively time consuming. Personally, if the transcription could have been simply a summary of the interviewee’s answers instead of the entire dialogue is the interview exceeds 20 minutes, it would have been a lot simpler, considering that we were also supposed to upload our interview onto our blog as an entry.

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

Sometimes the key to opening the mind is simply renewal. For many, this means looking at new information, and for other it means completely starting over.

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

The most important thing that I learned from this interview is that in order to be good in the field of psychology, you have to be able to keep up with the current research being let out every few months. As easy as it may see, many psychologists often lag on updating their tactics, causing their clients to progress very slowly or even feel no change throughout their entire course of sessions with their therapist. On rare occasions this can cause even the death of a patient.

For example, many therapists still believe that by having suicidal patients sign a “suicide contract” their patients will completely feel abided to follow it, however in no study has this ever been proven remotely effective.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

Yes, I in fact did receive additional resources from this interview, 2 sources that have never even considered before this interview.

One of the first things that we discussed was the broad spectrum which psychology embarks. There are many professions that connect regarding the types of patients they take in. Whilst focusing on “suicide” social workers, counselors and other therapists are often the ones that get put hand in hand.

My mentor immediately mentioned the organization of Tri-City mental Health and immediately was able to give me the information to one of her friends who is a counselor there. In addition to that, it suddenly came to my conscious mind that I actually have a family friend who is a social worker and works with teenagers as well, who I hope to interview soon.

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?

My interviewee, along with being my mentor obtains a doctorate in psychology with a specialty in clinical and health psychology. Throughout her education, she took advantage of opportunities to test out different aspects of psychology, such as working with troubled children, working with adolescents, and working with adults. In addition to this experience, she has also performed more than 30 years in her field and has been able to gather knowledge.

Links to the interview are provided below:

Pt. 1  Pt. 2  Pt. 3  Pt. 4  Pt. 5  Pt. 6  Pt. 7  Pt. 8

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

 

"If you can't figure out your purpose, figure out your passion. For your passion will lead you right into your purpose."

Write a short explanation of what you are hoping to accomplish through your senior project topic.

Senior Project, an entire course of its own, has been designed in order to give students a glimpse of what future careers, educational paths and experiences are like. By forcing students to look into a variety of resources (e.g. hands on learning, interviews, shadowing, etc.) individuals are able to look deeper in a topic of their own selection. Throughout the course of the year, my biggest goals whilst completing my senior project is focused primarily on deciding whether or not psychology is a field that I would like to enter.

Like many of my peers, I am an undecided on the field that I would like to enter. Of course I have my interests, and psychology is one of them, but as far as having a set path I plan on using this year as a test to see if clinical or health psychology is something I should pursue as a future career. I have always known that I want to help people in whatever way that may be - whether it be in an office one-on-one with a client, in a research center, working in law enforcement or even catching criminals.

In addition to establishing my foot stone to my future, a goal which I plan on fulfilling throughout the course of this project is finding the key to a healthy relationship between a psychologist and their patient. This is one of the most essential things for myself to learn because this is a skill that can be applied to life outside of a career. It is one thing to be able to listen to a friend, but a complete other skill to be able to help them keep looking forward and assisting them in finding a solution to their problem.  

Blog 3

Interviewing a new person is a bit like looking for a pot of gold, the more you search, the closer you get to finding treasure.

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?

The person who I initially plan on interviewing is my mentor, Dr. Maureen Burney who has provided me with an enlightening view on the overall career of a clinical psychologist this past summer. In addition to this, Dr. Burney has demonstrated how the muse to her career is more than just helping her patients move past a problem, but it is also to find the crux of their overall problem to help her patients take a step forward themselves and finally be able to take action in their own hands. This type of inspiration has shown me how much passion an individual can have towards a career and is something that I hope to be able to unravel in my first interview with Dr. Burney.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?  

• Upon the initial session with your patients, what is your approach in identifying the underlying issue that a client may have? How long does this process take?
• Why do you believe that so many people in your profession often skip looking for the root of a problem which a patient/client may have?
• Having worked in this profession for several years, what have you seen to be the most important factor in approaching a client upon their first session with a psychologist?
• In what ways has deciding to become a psychologist affected your life experience? What led you to realize that this was the profession for you?

Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

The human brain is  like a maze, it shifts in many directions and the only way to navigate through it would be to dive right in.  

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

My mentor is named Maureen Burney, Ph.D.

• (909)247-9630
• Chino Mental Health Associates - Counseling and Mediation Center

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?     

My mentor, Dr. Burney has years of experience in different areas within psychology, ranging from university research, to working with disturbed children, and presently as a psychologist with a specialty in clinical and health psychology which is all detailed below.

Dr. Burney, began her educational career in Pitzer College where she received her BA in Psychology with an emphasis on Physiological Psychology with Highest Honors. Afterwards Dr. Burney attended the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles where she achieved her M.A. then her Ph.D. in Clinical and Health Psychology.

From there she moved onto working as the Supervisor of the Crisis Intervention Team at the Los Angeles Suicide and Prevention Center. As time progressed she moved herself into various jobs to gain experience in different aspects of psychology. She went onto working as a Senior Research Assistant and as the Physiological Psychology Laboratory Supervisor at Pitzer College. She moved onto working in the LA County Department of Mental Health as a Masters Level Practicum, and moved onto being the senior program specialist and counselor at La Palma Hospital. She spent some time as a Psychologist at UCR and now finds herself as the Director of her individual practice as a psychologist at Chino Mental Health Associates.

Resume Linked Here.

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.   

In what ways does an individual committing suicide affect those they are aware of?

Why is reaching the crux of a patient useful in helping them solve their issues?

How does the physical presence of a psychologist affect the growth of a patient, versus having sessions over the phone?

The photo above is of the desk in which I performed most of my hours with various tasks of printing client statements and looking into past office records. 

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

From the time that I have spent with my mentor so far, the most important thing that I have gained so far would have to be the concept that the more an individual allows themselves to experiment, the easier it will be for an individual to find their passion. Although this concept is not necessarily tied into the topic of psychology, it has given me some hindsight for my future.

My mentor has told me many stories of how she finally decided that being a psychologist is what she wanted to do with her life. In college she spent time in many different locations working in branches of psychology and traveling, while simultaneously getting one step closer to her true passion. As one becomes more willing to experiment, more doors open, and that is  

Ultimately, learning to take advantage of new experiences has been the most important thing I have gained so far, because it is motivating me to grow as an individual.

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

The topic which my senior project will be based upon, is psychology. My mentorship has assisted me in making my decision because speaking with my mentor alone has given me the opportunity to understand how much of a difference one person can make in the life of another, and their loved ones.

When one person suffers from emotional or mental distress, then they begin to slowly have a trickling effect upon their family members, friends, peers and even co-workers. Different illnesses cause distinct reactions, and when one is able to work with a patient in such a manner, you are able to touch the lives of many, and that is what I would like to do with my life.

Summer Hours Linked Here

Blog 1 - Senior Final Lesson/Interview Reflection

1. What three lessons were most helpful for you to see, and why?

The lessons that were most helpful for my to see would have to be the Fashion Design presentation by Alexandru Andronescu, the Criminal Profiling Presentation by Justine Solorio and lastly, the Network Marketing presentation by Christopher Figueroa. These presentations each held one common aspect, and that is passion.

Each of these presentations were individually crucial to my understanding of senior project because they each demonstrated the knowledge and the fascination that an individual should have with their chosen topic.

Take the presentation on Fashion Design, which was one of the lengthiest presentations that I attended should have lost my attention past to 30 minute mark but in fact did the exact opposite. On a personal level, fashion has never interested me because I have never had time to develop my own style, but the enthrallment that Alexandru Andronescu expressed for the art of designing garments, left me to eager to design my own fashion line.

In Criminal Profiling with Justine Solorio, the topic was fully covered and all important terms were broken down showing that she had a strong understanding of her topic, but most importantly she was able to take that topic and make it her own by focusing on one main aspect, serial killers, which not only captivated herself but her audience as well. Similarly, Christopher Firgueroa’s presentation on Network Marketing was a simple presentation with an emphasis on the “why” behind actions and success, which brought out his inner fascination in success by moving up in what is a pyramid.

The passion expressed in that one presentation allowed for me to understand how much more interesting one can be when they venture into a topic they are passionate about over a topic that would be more convenient.    

2. List one thing that you learned about the senior project in interviews that will help you get off to a good start?

One of the most important things about senior project that I learned from in the interview would have to be the concept of “passion over convenience” tied together with adventure.  Although the concept of passion is one that I explored above, it once again renounced itself during the senior interview.  

According to several of the seniors I interviewed, it is better to put more effort into finding a mentor within a field you are interested than simply choosing a topic because a relative already works in that field. By choosing a topic that you are already interested in, spending hours with a mentor or spending a year attached to that topic will not seem as time consuming as it is. However, the idea of adventure also should be intertwined because if you know a topic so well that you do not learn much from your experience, then the excitement from that topic would have been exhausted and may result in getting tired with that subject.

3. What topic(s) are you considering, and why?

The top topics that I am considering are criminal profiling and psychology. As s personal choice I would rank criminal profiling as my top choice because the career that I want to consider as an adult would be in the position of Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI in the Behavioral Analysis Unit. By spending a whole year being the shadow of someone already in a similar field I can decide if this is a career that I want to pursue.

Psychology would be my second choice because the development and function of the human psyche has always interested me. It astounds me how inside a big ball of neurons lies the reason for every action an individual can make. From nature vs. nurture to Pavlov’s theories on conditioning, all of these concepts and theories continue to consume my mind.    

4. What EQ do you think might be interesting to consider in guiding a project like this? (Please don't worry about any sort of formula...we want this question to come from your genuine interest).

Criminal Profiling:

What is the best way to ensure that a profile is as close to precise as possible?

Psychology:

What is the best way to assure that a patient’s psychological diagnosis is accurate?

5. What are some ideas you have about finding summer mentorship?

Several ideas that I have for possible summer mentors would be a detective in the Investigation Unit for the Ontario Police Department because of a connection I have through friends who work in that station already. If that does not work out I plan on similarly contacting private investigators in my area to see if anyone would be willing to allow me mentor below them.

In the case that I have not found a mentor in the criminal profiling field, then I will contact a close family friend who is a full time therapist and mentor under her.