Psychology placement student, Laurence
Before I went to undertake my placement, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I went in bright-eyed and bushy tailed, and I was met by a fantastic team, whose dedication to the service users and the support offered I both saw and felt myself.
The organisation’s aim was to assist refugee and asylum seekers. At first, there were many internal processes and support mechanisms to learn and external support that was available to become acquainted with. This was done through shadowing my first couple of weeks as well as constant feedback and support from my supervisor. Then I was ready to take on my first service users.
Initially, this was a little terrifying, but once the training became second nature, it became much easier to be relaxed and feel confident in what I was doing.
My university training made this role easier; I would say the biggest ones for me came from counselling skills and ethics. Most notably, active listening, in that hearing everything the service users needed help with went a long way in finding solutions for them.
I would say that a knowledge of safeguarding and contracting I found useful as well. As when speaking to service users it was important to be alert for safeguarding concerns, which was needed in a few instances and to be able to follow the correct procedures where these arose.
Regarding contracting, there was a need to create professional relationships with the service users, to lay out what was possible in terms of support, the procedures for some types of support, and where our help ended and what we were able to do for service users to help manage expectations.
Lastly, I think the counselling principle of treating our service user as individuals allowed me to create a collaborative dialogue whereby their wishes and feelings were respected and the solutions that we agreed on together were important for them to keep their autonomy.
All in all, an amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone.
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