Clinical Psychology Reflection Paper

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Summary: Eric shared a lot with me about his everyday life, past, and work. His regular routine includes spending time with his family, reading, writing, and even trying his own research by using his blue-blocking glasses and altered lighting to help him sleep. He bikes to school most days and goes mountain biking on the weekends. At work Eric teaches and works in his research lab to help disseminate information about psychology as widely as possible so that people know what information is available and which information is best. When talking about his past, Eric mentioned several instances that had shaped his perspective and goals like being hit by a car just a few years ago, going through counseling with his now-wife, and losing his sister …show more content…

However, he said he would want them, as well as the parents of children with mental illnesses, to know that there is hope, and that they can do things that will increase the number of good days so that it can be more …show more content…

For those who want to become clinical psychologists, his challenge is that they check their motivation thoroughly before jumping in. For those that make it, he says, it will be hard because sometimes you lose sight of the long term and simply cannot see who you are helping or how much.

Reflection: Doing this interview really challenged me. I work under Eric in his research lab, and this was the most that I had gotten to interact with him thus far. During the interview he was also introducing me to new concepts related to psychology, and even began to draw graphs and pictures to explain. To say that I gained from the experience would be an understatement. Not only did I learn these new things, such as how meta analyses are interpreted by clinicians to help with diagnosis, but I also got to know Eric much better, and I am now applying to travel to Korea with him through a study abroad program. His words about clinical psychology as a career and the difficulty of getting into a program really drove me to recognize that I have a long way yet to go before I decide to commit myself to any kind of career that requires so much dedication to follow through with. For instance, he told me that as a general rule most clinical psychology graduate programs are harder to

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