I first became interested in counseling when I was helping a friend with serious drug related problems and family problems seek help and counsel from advisors. Being just sixteen, I didn’t know how to help him efficiently and felt both powerless and helpless at trying to find adequate resources and services to help him deal with his problems. While I did eventually find counseling services and potential help for him, the effects of his psychological problems were so brutal that he committed suicide. This profound experience of losing a close friend to suicide forced me to develop a strong interest into understanding the role, guidance and motivations that leads people to such extremes. At this point, I had already cultivated the desire to
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While the condition did impact me both psychologically and physically over the course of my summer, I was able to recover rather quickly and continue the pursuit of my psychological. In order to get a more specific understanding on how societal factors and behavioral components may impact a person’s psychological mindset and behavior, I attained an internship position in Dr. Simine Vazire’s Personality and Self Knowledge Lab at the University of California Davis. My hard working, committed attitude to the research and my thoughtful lab reflections quickly led to my promotion to coding experience for behavior (using the LIKERT scale). While not directly oriented to a face to face approach session with participants, it still allows me to gain a subjective outlook to the ways a person may communicate or present various behaviors. Hearing a participant’s tone of voice, way of responding, and frequencies of laughter, sadness, or regular behavior allows me to experience the more subtle approaches that may very well be useful when I specialize my future skills as a counselor. Concurrently, by having worked closely with the research members of my lab at my university, I also realize how critical one aspect is: it makes a huge difference to be monitored and in close contact with graduate faculty advisors and students in order to succeed and experience
While the condition did impact me both psychologically and physically over the course of my summer, I was able to recover rather quickly and continue the pursuit of my psychological. In order to get a more specific understanding on how societal factors and behavioral components may impact a person’s psychological mindset and behavior, I attained an internship position in Dr. Simine Vazire’s Personality and Self Knowledge Lab at the University of California Davis. My hard working, committed attitude to the research and my thoughtful lab reflections quickly led to my promotion to coding experience for behavior (using the LIKERT scale). While not directly oriented to a face to face approach session with participants, it still allows me to gain a subjective outlook to the ways a person may communicate or present various behaviors. Hearing a participant’s tone of voice, way of responding, and frequencies of laughter, sadness, or regular behavior allows me to experience the more subtle approaches that may very well be useful when I specialize my future skills as a counselor. Concurrently, by having worked closely with the research members of my lab at my university, I also realize how critical one aspect is: it makes a huge difference to be monitored and in close contact with graduate faculty advisors and students in order to succeed and experience