Skills Week

Recently for the master’s program I am a part of as I previously have mentioned, I attended daily skills training webinars. It was a five weeklong course and one of the five weeks consisted of daily participation with our professor and fellow classmates. Honestly, I had no idea what to expect and was quite anxious. Typically, this week of the five would be done on campus all day long with one another, but due to high numbers of the new strain of virus the program was moved to online fully. When sharing this with others I received strange looks and was asked how can you train online and honestly what are you really training for? It felt offensive in some ways and in other ways insignificant where I no longer wanted to share anything about it, so I stopped. These self-doubts and criticisms made me question why I was still in the program, why I was still pursuing this career. I felt because others saw it as unimportant or did not take the time to let me explain so it did not make sense and because of this why does it matter. I think with all this thinking from myself and the nerves of the unexpected was what was really weighing me down, but I did not let it stop me and after this course I am so glad I am still on this track, still a part of it. The skills we have been taught so far to move forward as a counselor we used in mock sessions with our classmates in training as the rest of the class and our professor observed. We received feedback and saw what others had to offer to help us in the future as a professional. It was a very neat experience even with it all being online. During my time as a client and the counselor I loved being a part of that, showing what I can do and have been taught. Although in the past my feelings can be easily hurt, I did not let any negative feedback tear me down instead I saw it as growing points to what I can do better, and the positive feedback help show me I am on my way. Even with these being mock sessions I love the position as the counselor and realized I am doing this for me because I believe in it, and I believe this career and professional field is highly important. I may not know what my future exactly holds but at least I am enjoying it so far for what I am and can do. I am glad to say and share I feel I am learning so much in my master’s online college program and it has not even been a year yet.

Is there something you are going after that you were originally worried about but now so glad you did it?

(Side note: in a previous course we were taught the professional ethics and guidelines to being a counselor and a final project was creating a professional website we would consider using as a counselor. These pictures were taken and put on my website. I am fortunate to have family that were willing to participate and help me out 😊😉)