Hello everyone! Here am I back home in my room, still daydreaming about Malta most of the time. It took some time for the impressions to settle in so that I can properly reflect on the whole experience… And what I can safely say at this point is – it was definitely worth it!
Where do I start from…
Looking back at everything that I’ve been through in those two months in Malta, it surely feels like it lasted longer. We (three other interns and myself) got to meet the whole team as well as most of the team members individually, filmed the social experiment, did a presentation, an audit, a blog post a week, and on top of it, got an amazing opportunity to volunteer at Chat Bar at two festivals – Glitch and The Bubble.
Speaking of Chat Bar, what an awesome concept! As it was done for the first time by Willingness, no one knew what to expect, but it turned out to be a complete success and for me, it was both fun and challenging to interact with the festival guests about topics varying from customs in our home-countries, to more serious ones, related to mental health issues. Team meetings at Willingness were also incredibly interesting and insightful. To have the pleasure and priviledge to see and hear first-hand how this small but truly compatible team of professionals works, communicates, unselfishly shares experiences and advices to each other was such a rare sight to see amongst our profession. I was truly impressed with the team’s constant will to learn, grow and make positive changes, looking for feedback and innovative ideas from absolutely everyone, and we, interns, were no exeption. Having mentioned that, I have to say that we were very welcomed and our opinion was always counted. While doing case studies, I’ve broadened my knowledge and perspective on real-life therapy scenarios, and Matthew always tried to push us even more, to make us think even harder and give as many opinions, solutions, possible ways of dealing with certain issues or situations. Since Matthew’s specialization is sex and relationships, we have learned a lot about these topics which was rather useful as we don’t get to study much about it at university.
The fact that I was living on my own for the first time (and on top of it, had that experience in a foreign country) was very exciting. Along the way I have met some of the most inspiring, creative, passionate and hard-working people which made me want to soak up as much as I can and motivated me to work hard and believe in myself because the possibilities are endless, we just have to be ready when they occur.
Nataša Nikolić is a student from Serbia, currently completing her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Novi Sad. Her main goal would be to combine two of her major passions – psychology and art/design. She is participating in a summer internship programme at Willingness.com.mt.