Patricia was one of many interns at Willingness. She shared her company experience during her time in Malta. She delves into all the knowledge, skills, and professional guidance that was received during her time at Willingness.
You should go the extra mile
…or in this case, you should take the plane and fly the extra mile to Malta for an internship abroad at Willingness. That is because their summer program offers probably the most varied program you can find in an internship. It will help you develop your personality and improve your professional skills.
In this blog post, I will not only tell you about my tasks at Willingness but also why I left my comfort zone for the growth zone.
As an intern at Willingness, I was part of many different projects and got to experience the work of different professionals. Actually, I worked as a teacher, researcher, counsellor, student, babysitter, secretary, and entertainer in this internship. Approximately 50% of the time we worked with children in the summer camps in Malta and Gozo and for the other half we worked at the hub in Ħaż-Żebbuġ.
The latter included daily team meetings, supervision, and case reviews. We worked as teachers for children ranging between 3 to 12 years. Some of the children had behavioural problems such as ADHD and autism. For a few days, I also looked after a child with ADHD. Moreover, my group and I carried out interviews, wrote a scientific paper about it and presented it at Willingness Team Day.
My entertainer tasks included dancing and performing the camp’s anthem at Camp. I also got to be a student listening to workshops about clinical, health, gestalt, and family psychology from the different professionals working at Willingness. Some of us were allowed to offer support and containment sessions in a mental health safety tent (“Chat Bar”) at the festival Summer Daze in Malta.
Since I already had my master’s degree in Psychology they also let me do intake meetings for the clients at Willingness. Last but not least, some of us were also taught how to do client management and correspondence. All in all, this mixed program is especially helpful if you want to learn more about your specific career preferences. However, enjoying working with children, is essential to like this internship.
Some of my personal highlights were waking up to the breathtaking view of the apartment they organized for us in Gozo, having a coaching session with Matthew about running a private practice, attending the Clinical Psychology workshop, working at Chat Bar, and being part of our internship excursion to Gozo.
I grew so much as a person in this internship because I overcame things that made me feel uncomfortable in the past. Some of my personal challenges were wearing a sloth costume for the camp, becoming spontaneous and flexible for clients and in different work settings, being assertive at work, giving a speech in front of the whole staff, finding an apartment in Malta and dealing with the heat in Malta J.
A huge role in my journey played, the team of Willingness as they really provoked and implemented our opinions. I am thankful for the trust they gave us to carry out different tasks and not to forget the effort they put into this internship program. Their desire to always improve their service and professional skills is truly inspiring and motivated me to go along.
This is why I am ending this with a quote to hopefully encourage you to take the next step and fly the extra mile to get out of your personal comfort zone as well.
“If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone” (John Maxwell)
John Maxwell
Written by Patricia Schaar – Psychology intern at Willingness