‘Never too old to learn’

This is a guest post by Marie Dunlap, former intern at Stone City Counseling. She was a psychology student at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College who graduated on Dec. 15, 2012. She is 63 years old.

As a psychology major considering a career in mental health, I was able to do my internship at Stone City Counseling Center, in my hometown of Bedford, Ind. Stone City Counseling (SCC) is a small, private practice.

My internship supervisor was Becky Kleihege, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Butler and a master’s degree from Indiana University Bloomington. Over the course of my internship I became familiar with hers and the other therapist’s credentials. More than that, she was a wonderful mentor, which seems a little strange, considering I’m senior to her by quite a few years!  But we’re never too old to learn.

Becky held several positions before coming to SCC.  Because of that she was able to point out the pros and cons of working in a small private practice.  With that information, I was able to decide that private practice was for me.

I started my internship in the office. Jenni, the office manager and Sandy,  the part-time assistant, introduced me to the computer programs available for checking Medicaid eligibility, scheduling or canceling clients, keeping track of co-pays and checking on payments and balances due on Excel.

I learned the difference that insurance, education and licensure make in seeing patients. That was new to me. Since I have a love for the older population, I decided that I would have to pursue a master’s degree in social work so that I could see Medicare patients. That helped solidify my choice of grad schools. There are very few that offer on-line master’s programs. I located one here in Indiana – IUPUI.

I was able to attend a child custody court hearing since Becky was the child’s counselor and was going to testify. That was my first time inside a court room for a legal proceeding, and I have to admit I was a little excited!  The judge cleared the courtroom before the proceedings began, but as Becky’s intern, I was allowed to stay. It’s a sad thing to see two parents fighting over a child, hearing each of them accuse the other of being an unfit parent. Sitting there, I found myself taking the measure of the father – I didn’t think I liked him. Then I had a mental “Whoa.”  It was not my place to judge; I was to remain an impartial observer. Another learning moment about myself.

I was not able to sit in on any individual sessions due to privacy laws. I did, however, attend a couple of group therapy sessions for addictions. It was humbling to see and hear these speakers talk about experiences that I can only imagine and then to listen to they spoke of the twelve different steps that they have completed.

The people that I worked with at SCC were all kind and supportive. They were easy to talk to and were always ready to answer a question or point out a learning moment.

I believe this internship helped me grow as a person, learning more about myself and making me more aware of the needs of others and the ways in which they can be met. I believe I am on the right track career-wise and can’t wait to continue my education toward achieving my goal.