Graduate school can become tough at times, so most of the time, I need to get some time to relax from the pressure. Last semester, I was relieving my pressure by traveling to other cities around Chicago. It was like an escape trip, where I leave all the commitment and work in Chicago and just have relaxed time somewhere else. This semester, I was not able to travel a lot because of the weather and work load, however, I signed myself up in acting classes. Acting is my main hobby since I was very young. I always liked acting in a sketch, play, or even just a small scene for a project. I minored in theatre in my undergraduate years, and acting was the exit from all the hard works that I had to do for other classes. Of course, it did need its
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I joined the acting classes in January as a way to do something that I like and just focus on a hobby rather than school work. At the beginning, it was focusing on the acting classes and not worrying about my school, because the classes were on Tuesday nights. However, as time progressed, I learned how to balance my schedule. Being in acting classes helped focus more on school work to be honest. The constant working on the same subjects over and over can tiring and unproductive. So, having an activity where I escape from the work load, and just focus on what on a hobby, kind of refreshing my mind. Not to forget, the improvisation classes themselves help me in some of the classes where I pretend I am a patient. I remember last semester in interviewing class, we had a lot of exercises where students had to act like patients. There were no scripts or preparation for the exercises, so it is pure improvisation. Of course, the exercises do not need an Oscar winning performance, but it is helpful for the student who is being the psychologist to see someone showing some symptoms of the …show more content…
I tend to see how practicing a hobby can help a person. That is why, I learned when I do an intake, I ask the patients about their hobby. Although, some people think they do not have a hobby or they do not what it is, it is helpful when a psychologist help them discover it. Hobbies are not just waste of time, or just an escape time from reality, but it can be for treatment. I am currently researching about international treatments for schizophrenic patients. Some of the treatments I came across were expressive art therapies. In Denmark, Teglbjaerg (2009) made a study about art and other expressive art therapies to two groups of outpatients for one year. “A main finding in this study was that art therapy gave rise to an experienced stronger sense of self. For the patients with schizophrenia, the result can be understood as a strengthening of the minimal self in this phenomenological sense. While working with art, the patients shape images and are shaped by the aesthetic interaction with the art materials. The experience of self gave rise to a better demarcation and an improved emotional capacity, which seemed to make it easier for the patients to get involved with other people, both in and outside the group” (Teglbjaerg, 2009). If we take this example and apply it to other mental illnesses. Having a hobby in general, it does not have to be an expressive art, can make the person be
I joined the acting classes in January as a way to do something that I like and just focus on a hobby rather than school work. At the beginning, it was focusing on the acting classes and not worrying about my school, because the classes were on Tuesday nights. However, as time progressed, I learned how to balance my schedule. Being in acting classes helped focus more on school work to be honest. The constant working on the same subjects over and over can tiring and unproductive. So, having an activity where I escape from the work load, and just focus on what on a hobby, kind of refreshing my mind. Not to forget, the improvisation classes themselves help me in some of the classes where I pretend I am a patient. I remember last semester in interviewing class, we had a lot of exercises where students had to act like patients. There were no scripts or preparation for the exercises, so it is pure improvisation. Of course, the exercises do not need an Oscar winning performance, but it is helpful for the student who is being the psychologist to see someone showing some symptoms of the …show more content…
I tend to see how practicing a hobby can help a person. That is why, I learned when I do an intake, I ask the patients about their hobby. Although, some people think they do not have a hobby or they do not what it is, it is helpful when a psychologist help them discover it. Hobbies are not just waste of time, or just an escape time from reality, but it can be for treatment. I am currently researching about international treatments for schizophrenic patients. Some of the treatments I came across were expressive art therapies. In Denmark, Teglbjaerg (2009) made a study about art and other expressive art therapies to two groups of outpatients for one year. “A main finding in this study was that art therapy gave rise to an experienced stronger sense of self. For the patients with schizophrenia, the result can be understood as a strengthening of the minimal self in this phenomenological sense. While working with art, the patients shape images and are shaped by the aesthetic interaction with the art materials. The experience of self gave rise to a better demarcation and an improved emotional capacity, which seemed to make it easier for the patients to get involved with other people, both in and outside the group” (Teglbjaerg, 2009). If we take this example and apply it to other mental illnesses. Having a hobby in general, it does not have to be an expressive art, can make the person be