Journey of the Intern Therapist

The week of Thanksgiving I had to terminate my entire, full caseload at a site for long-term depth therapy that I had been at for over two years.  Still reeling from this the following week, I was talking to a colleague of mine, a fellow MFTi, who reminded me that termination experience for interns can be very different than for those who are licensed in a set career in private practice or otherwise.  If a client goes to see an intern therapist, they will be very likely guaranteed an untimely ending to their therapy unless they initiate termination.  Interns shuffle around, they often move to different placements, they branch out, they stagger around, they have life events that come up.  And if an intern is a woman in her child-bearing years and is like myself - she may leave to have babies and develop her family in the window of time she has to do so. My friend and I concluded confidently: It’s more likely that as an intern you will encounter termination as a ma...

My first thought as I begin to write is, "Oh my God - Who cares what an intern has to say?"  I imagine this is appropriately reflective of my overall experience as an intern. Nevertheless, here I write with a vague notion and blind faith that it's the right thing to do. The first two years of my journey were a steep learning curve - relying heavily on theory to lend me ego strength as I navigated my way through first sessions with clients, supervision, paperwork, countless hours of training and so on.  More recently, something has shifted for me.  I find myself guided by my own intuition and sense of humanness.  This is both exhilarating and completely terrifying. It came about only recently when I sat with a supervisor who was going over a session with me.  I was doubting my own judgment on a particular intervention I used when he asked me, "What makes you so unentitled to your own authority?" I was pissed he would even ask this perfectly placed question....