My journey with Willingness started the moment I saw the announcement of the internship in EFPSA’s social media and it caught my attention immediately. The multidisciplinary team and the variety of services offered at Willingness were something new and interesting to me. The more I learned about it, the more I felt the urge to meet with the team and work with them. The team is open-minded and striving for improvement constantly . These were only some of the reasons why I wanted to be an intern at Willingness.
As I was lucky enough to get to be a part of the Willingness team, I had a chance to meet with extraordinary people from different disciplines and professions. There are lots of reasons that Willingness stands out from other clinics. I believe the most differentiative part of Willingness is the multidisciplinary team they have, which leads professionals to develop a broader perspective and a feeling of teamwork. While working with a client, the possibility of consulting with other professionals from different disciplines and offering a holistic treatment is a great advantage for the client as well as for the therapist. I believe that therapists working in a supportive environment can increase their motivation.
As a clinical psychology master student, multidisciplinary team meetings, which take place every two weeks at Willingness, were very valuable for me to learn more about the practical side of therapy. It was a mind-opening experience to see different opinions about an issue based on people’s background, education, school of thought, etc.
In the two-month online internship at Willingness, as an intern for the Sex Clinic, I did not only learn more about therapy but I also worked in a systemic review and a clinical audit with other sex clinic interns. Through various tasks, I believe Willingness helped me develop myself both professionally and personally. I gained more experience in the research process and academic writing as well as the writing skills for the blog posts. As interns, we had presentations skills training and we were responsible for a few presentations which helped me get better at it through practice and feedback. In addition to the improvement of writing skills, this internship was a chance to improve my English fluency as well.
The internship being online brought some advantages as well as some disadvantages. Being away from the clinic and not having meetings in person are some of the factors that could affect someone’s motivation negatively. However, the Willingness team being very supportive and available for any concerns that interns could have are factors that decreased the negative effects of an online internship. Despite the fact that this was an online internship, it was possible to see from miles away that the atmosphere of Willingness was very friendly as well as professional.
I always thought that what job a person does is very crucial for someone’s life but an individual’s colleagues and workplace are important factors for one’s career and happiness as well. Based on my observations, the Willingness team members seemed content about these factors. During my internship, I was also very glad to be a part of the team and I enjoyed my journey while learning more.
If you want to learn more about Willingness internships you can reach out here.
Başak Turan is an intern at Willingness. She is a psychology graduate and currently a Clinical Psychology master’s student at the University of Bergamo, Italy.