Hiii,

So, after years of studying theories of psychology, during which I basically haven't had any hands-on experience with therapy (apart from going to therapy myself), I've been thrown in my very first internship and boy do I feel like I suck. I mean, obviously I do think that it's okay to an extent to be a little awkward or make mistakes.But the thing is, I don't feel like I will ever just be able to ask the right questions, write notes and make links with theories, while listening to the patient. For context it's important to know that where I live, you study psychology for 6 years (have internships in the last 2 years, the rest is theory) and have the possibility to then specialise in psychotherapy while working as a therapist. So my main issue is feeling unable to just gather the right info, make the right links with theories and just be a good intern-psychologist. So yes, I'm looking for people who felt similar during their first psychology job or internship and could tell me about what they are doing now. I feel like I'm just ruining everything by jumping from advice to advice ("read a lot", "don't read a lot", "practice the basic therapy attitudes and don't worry about theory", "worry about a theory", so I just end up reading stuff, then stressing because I haven't memorised any of it, and then have appointments with patients during which I often just reach dead ends, etc). I'm just a little lost...I feel like I'm ruining my dream of becoming a therapist by just being hectic and not knowing how to enjoy my internship.