As this final school year winds down, I have noticed how much we have all learned through the program at Antioch. I hear classmates discuss issues with clear understanding of this profession. All the pieces learned in the many classes are coming together as we develop our individual approaches to counseling.
I feel a greater confidence in my abilities while maintaining an awareness of areas where I still need to grow. I think one of the important concepts I’ve gained through the education process is an understanding and appreciation of the complexity of the art of counseling. There is no one correct approach, but there are certain treatment protocols that have been shown to be successful.
One of our final projects is an analyses of our own theoretical orientation. This is an interesting process because we are challenged to understand what theories are driving our individual work and what aspects of our life and training have drawn us to these particular theories. We write a paper explaining our understanding of our orientation, using current literature to support the efficacy of our work. Finally, we present the information to our professional seminar courses, demonstrating our competency with recordings from client sessions that illustrate our work. The process is fascinating.
Not only does this project serve to demonstrate to our competency to the professor, it allows us to identify our own level of competency in the work we are doing at our internships. It clearly illustrates how prepared we are to step into the role of counselor independent of Antioch.
