(no subject)

[rdwaynewright]

So my advisor said I can switch to clinical. :) Now...I don't know what population I want to work with. :/

Not adults. I think it has to be children still. I don't want to do school social work, although I guess that would be an ideal setting for my interests. Maybe I'll work with homeless children and families or something.

Comments

[paraboobizarre.livejournal.com]

Working with kids, in any setting, is way harder than working with adults, so I would really re-think that, maybe talk to someone who knows more about what you would encounter and what skills you have to have to handle it.

I don't mean to presume anything about you, but you strike me as an extremely sympathetic person and that can be an extreme disadvantage at times. The more you engage, the more you drag work home with yourself. And kids make you engage even more than adults do :-/

I see it with myself - my kids (hell, even using the possessive here is really indicative) don't have any out of the ordinary problems, but I still take so much home with me. That kid had a black eye and he said he got in a fight with a kid at school but he's also lost weight and looks really unhappy, I wonder what's going on at home. This girl has lost so much weight and I see her perfectionism in everything she does and that's just not healthy, classic character trait of people with eating disorders.
It never ever stops.

[ayaneva.livejournal.com]

I hate working with adults though. I mean, I'll do it if I have to but adults are my preferred population. So many adult problems are so hard to address once they've occurred and I'd rather work to prevent the problems from occurring at all, instead of trying to fix them after they're a problem. Most of the direct service work I've done has been in organizations geared toward youth so I've interacted with teens and children at my past jobs/internships but it's never been really extensive contact. Usually a few hours a day for a day or two a week or something. My therapist suggested I find some volunteer opportunities now (that way I can quit them if it's a bad fit) so that I'll have some idea of what I want to do next year.

It's true that I am extremely sympathetic and you're absolutely right about that being a disadvantage. I've always reacted strongly to other people's emotions and sort of absorb them into my own. It's a problem for sure but I'm not sure I can do much about it though. I just don't want to do macro because it's so administrative and so much paper pushing and not only am I not good at that, but I'm also really unhappy sitting behind a desk in an office. I need to be interacting with and engaging people. It sucks because I have the sort of personality that needs to be active and engaged with other people and I want to know what their problems are and find ways to help, but I also get burned out very quickly because I become so emotionally involved. However, it's the emotional involvement that makes me engage and care in the first place.