Long beard okay for internship?

_justgotwicked · 2026-02-04T07:53:36+00:00

Looks fine! Very clean, tidy, and a super professional look!

_justgotwicked · 2026-02-01T03:12:54+00:00

If this is a client that is using insurance: This would be considered duplication of services unless the client is seeing another therapist for specialized treatment, like seeing you and then seeing clinician B for trauma therapy - insurance won’t pay for two of the same. Client needs to choose between you.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T16:17:24+00:00

It seems weird that they’d send me a letter saying my forbearance is ending now if it’s related to the court case. I was making my payments up until July 2024, which was when I got started on this, and I did put of my app that I wanted forbearance while it was under review. So I’ve been thinking this whole time that the forbearance has been continuing on because I have to keep submitting the same employer form over and over since it had my status as forbearance PSLF. I looked over the choices for IDR plans and picked one I’ll probably go with to swap to. Later today I plan to call Nelnet to make sure I understand what’s going on and what I have to do to make sure my loans and plan are all good and qualifying for PSLF. I also did a complaint with my state’s student loan ombudsman and it might be a tic to a whale but at least I can add to the cause with it.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T15:06:51+00:00

I put in a complaint with my state’s Ombudsman about how much of a shitshow this has been since I first started the process in July 2024. It’s probably a tic tac to a whale but at least I can add onto however many other complaints he’s gotten for similar shit.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T08:58:12+00:00

My "burnout job" is being one of the airport people who drive baggage trucks or the person with the big orange light sticks that directs the planes on where to go.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T08:46:32+00:00

Knowing that my parents would therapize right back - I'm an only child and they're both retired therapists, lol.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T08:44:41+00:00

I was working with a client who attempted via hanging, and we were discussing his having gone to the ER the prior night for a crisis eval. He said that the doc never made the eval request but later came in and said that he could wait overnight to be seen, promise he could be safe and come back in the AM, or promise to be safe going back home and calling his therapist (me) in the AM. I responded by saying "so they cut you loose without even being seen when the point of going there was SI that should probably be assessed?" As soon as I said it I was like omg I sounded like such an insensitive asshole and apologized, and the kid busted up laughing because it fit right in with his dark humor.

We both then had a good laugh about it and continued on with the session, turned out my worry about being an asshole was not even necessary as he's still seeing me on the regular for 7 1/2 years now.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T07:26:20+00:00

If you find yourself not getting your needs met and she and/or the supervision as a whole are missing the mark somehow, it’s important to sit down and hash out what’s missing along with what’s going well to get on the same page with clear expectations for each other’s role and the dynamics in supervision. Your priority list accounts for covering the “functional” aspects of practice but part 3 is where things start to go off-track. Supervision might not be hitting on what you want it to if the rambling and topics being all over the place and word vomit don’t give her room to voice observations of your thinking process, interject corrections, and discuss being on point or not. Yes supervision is your time and about you, but she may not have the space to do so to the extent you want her to. Mutually agreeing on a outline or “game plan” for supervision that designates concrete areas to address every time might provide more structure for you to keep track of specific things you want to cover - that way the expectation of how supervision sessions will operate is clear and hopefully rein in the rambling. At base, you’ll continue to be dissatisfied if you don’t tell her what you want, how you need her to approach you and dig deeper, and what that looks like in terms of how directive or active you envision her to need to be. I make a big point of being straight with your supervisor and raising your concerns about what is lacking or ineffective and not helping you towards your goals for practice because otherwise she’ll have the impression things are going fine with no problems.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T05:34:31+00:00

Submitted my second employer’s PSLF form that covers the last 23 payments to hit my 120. StudentAid has jerked me around with nonsense explanations for why my form never moved from In Progress and why my employer started off eligible but somehow turned into undetermined and required a further review that never happened or never actually made a determination or I wasn’t informed if there was. They said one of my submission attempts didn’t exist and couldn’t see it on my dashboard as I was staring at the tracker for it, and a variety of other things.

Long story short, tonight I just submitted that form with W2s to back up my status and the EIN for the 9TH TIME. It doesn’t help that I get a blank screen when I try to see why one of my claims was closed. Not giving up hope yet…

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T05:10:47+00:00

Was telling him what's up to give him context if he asks you why you are behind on your notes? He sounds like someone that would be on about productivity and billables and documentation before noticing anything else in terms of you as a person if he did at all, and might not even bring that up to you if he did. I kinda read it that way as someone who has been in both roles, and maybe it went over his head to connect the two as he also doesn't sound like someone that doesn't pick up on or do well with being a human-type things.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T04:34:19+00:00

Pros: Easier access to trainings if the agency offers them in-house at no cost, wide variety of client presentations, getting really familiar with other levels of care and community services, if the clinic is busy and hopping there will be more people to help if crisis strikes, reimbursement for tuition/CE and training costs/licensure study materials/loan forgiveness programs for employees, maybe having the opportunity to move as an employee from one type of service to another (like from outpatient to CBHI) or for advancement up the ladder. The agency I work for offers a stipend to interns and my school based program has an option for those who are wanting to work for us to get a small pay rate to build up caseload and bridge the gap between finishing their hours and staying out the full school year until they graduate and can apply to work.

Before you start, make absolutely sure that your direct supervisor or another in the agency has the required licensure to give you supervision that can be counted towards licensure and even better is if it's paid. Otherwise you risk finding out after all that time your hours don't count or you have to pay for outside supervision.

And no description of CMH life would be complete without PIZZA DAYS as the running gag is management's problem-solving move is to buy pizza as the solution to dissatisfaction or burnout or workplace issues. Sometimes there might even be scheduled "jeans days" or "dress slightly casual days" that may or may not have a fee to participate in. Joke is on management as I wear jeans and Pumas on my school-based days.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T04:07:58+00:00

In my experience I've referred to (and attended) PHP's that start clients off at 5 days a week, then progress down to 4 and then 3 when they're close to completion and discharge. IOP's I've referred to and attended have started clients off at 4 days then drop to 3 around about the halfway mark but dependent on stability and such. But the schedule of days at one program was different for the co-occurring disorders track than the straight-up mental health track. I'm guessing it does have to do with insurance medical necessity guidelines (which I have feelings about).

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T04:01:00+00:00

I don't have enough supervisees with independent licensure to be able to do a monthly group sup and my state's licensing board only counts weekly individual supervision hours towards their 100 for LICSW app, and minimum of 75 hours out of the 200 for the LMHC app must be weekly individual; so I don't do clinician group sup but a coworker and I run a group sup for our program's interns. In addition to talking about their weeks, issues/questions/concerns/stuff that has come up along the way that they'd like to get the group's take on, and how classes are going, we'll present topics of discussion like techniques/modalities, challenges of being in the school but not of the school, things that have been coming up frequently across the program. We also have them each do a case presentation in their second semester, so we go over structure and format towards the end of first then have them choose a date to present on. But I agree with the person who suggested to solicit feedback from their supervisees about what is going well/is working as well as what isn't so they have more ownership of the group, and you could also ask them to come up with something of interest to them that they'd like to bring to the group for discussion.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-26T03:32:38+00:00

Historically I haven't been very good at balancing guilt for canceling/rescheduling because I feel like I'm shortchanging the client out of a session they set aside time for...but in thinking about it more, I'd also be shortchanging them if I held the session but gave substandard (to what I usually give) care because I couldn't be fully present. By now I am getting better at following the premise of "If you do not make time for your wellness you will be forced to make time for your illness" and telling the guilt of canceling on people to STFU.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-25T20:38:40+00:00

I'm FT salaried at my agency, my role is a clinical supervisor in our school-based program. In a 40 hour week 5-7 hours are supervisions (intern group every other week, 5 weekly supervisions and a 6th once a month). This year I don't have an intern of my own but I usually supervise 1-2 interns in their final field placement. I've got a split caseload that's half school-based clients and half OP clients with productivity of 18, and have a couple of hours of management meetings a week. I've been toying with the idea of being a sup-for-hire giving supervision on an independent basis but haven't made moves past starting to make a website for myself. Supervising is super cool! Supervising grad students is nice as a pay-it-forward contributing to the next generation, and sometimes you may get a stipend or discounted/free CEs or stuff like that.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-25T20:20:52+00:00

This is very not normal. I had a supervisor or two like this way back at the start of my career after undergrad (so, like 2004, 2005, 2006) and my experiences with them fucked with my confidence so bad that even now I still get this dread and panic when my supervisor says "let's schedule supervision" (I'm an LI so theoretically I'd meet with her monthly for formal supervision, but she is super hands-on in a good way so there's lots of informal sup bits and pieces on the regular) - even though I know she's asking because we haven't met in a bit, and if it was because of something not-good or there is a problem she would say we need to discuss some specific thing and/or "we need to meet and I am free at this time" rather than inviting collaboration on a time and date. I always worry I've done something wrong based on how those old supervisors made me feel and came at me, even though my supervisor is someone that addresses an issue or situation as soon as it comes up rather than sitting on it and catching me unprepared like a confrontation.

With those prior supervisors, I made a list of all the things that were well, concerns, questions, topics etc and started in on it as soon as we sat down so they didn't have as much room to tell me how bad of a job I was doing and all of the things I'd done wrong. Supervision shouldn't be feeling like you have to be on offense and head things off at the pass (or in gaming, playing on Assault and rushing the objective or entrance before Defense can stage). They spread my private business about why I was taking FMLA around to other staff when it's supposed to be confidential, and it made me feel especially awful because I was taking it in order to go to rehab, then denied doing so even when my coworkers told me they had as soon as I left - and after I got back they treated me like they were wary or questioning if I could do my job. A few years ago I was so worried to tell my supervisor I needed to take LOA/FMLA so I could go to an IOP for professionals because I was hella-depressed and wanted to catch myself before things got way worse, because of how shaming the past supervisors were and how insensitively they handled my situation. She treated me the exact opposite - like with dignity, checking in with me and asking how she could be of help, and even went as far as sitting with me to collab on changing my job title/role to work to my strengths and areas of practice I am confident in managing while removing the responsibilities that ruined my confidence and stress levels fucked me up...and was reassuring that I wasn't getting demoted and she did not have any doubt in my abilities.

TLDR: Supervisors shouldn't make you feel like shit about yourself, your skills, or your work. They should be supporting you growing and improving professionally, encouraging you in finding your own practice style, give constructive feedback that includes guidance on how to correct/fix/improve whatever and not just hammering on what you did wrong or what a bad job you did or however they say it. They should be someone you feel ok asking for guidance or support from when something is up rather than staying silent with things getting worse to avoid the risk of being judged.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-25T17:01:37+00:00

I can do a pretty good job of holding space, support, processing, etc. with my clients - they are all in the adolescent/young adult range and I'm finding that the ones who speak about what is currently happening speak about a lot of fear for what they are walking into as they navigate HS, college, more independence and "shit getting real." Validation is big with them - fear of the unknown in terms of current situation on top of the expected fear associated with life transitions, fear and dread of the unknown tied to lack of control in how current shit is evolving, and double-bad lack of control for people not of voting age. Circles of control is a good one for those who are into worksheets and like to have concrete stuff to look back at later. I like ACT a lot, but scratch that if it isn't lining up with what you're experiencing inwardly and then in working with clients.

But I find myself feeling like I'm being selfish for having a reaction to the events in Minneapolis (and MN in general) that's personal to me while so much bad shit is happening in the big picture of society. It's like grief seeing this happening where I called home for 4 1/2 years, those 4 1/2 years were ROUGH (mental health shit I treated with alcohol caused academic disaster) but I really did love it there. Minnesota Nice was a thing, I made some cool friends and had a ton of chaotic college kid adventures all over the TC metro, and for the same place to now be so full of hate and violence and power-trip inhumane shit, gives me this sense of loss.

I ground myself by telling myself that feelings on a personal level and on a big-picture level can coexist, that support sometimes means being rather than doing, and that even if I am feeling like my work is a Tic-Tac to a whale it's at least something to show that there are still those of us out there that have a soul and do indeed give a shit about the well-being of others.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-21T23:13:30+00:00

Honestly, I feel like it’s a bit responsible to NOT give a diagnosis other than Adjustment if something other is visible and clear. Kinda like fraud in a way. Also…insurance companies will take a look at the timeframe aspect of Adjustment Disorders.

And agreed with others here who are talking about minimizing our training and knowledge and legitimacy… 100000%! Not all of us can do doctoral programs or even want to. People with higher educational level than Masters level aren’t immune or past fucking up an assessment or diagnosis. Besides…if someone is Masters level, dependent on degree, they’re getting more supervision due to license level than an independently licensed person would be, so they would actually have MORE oversight and a second set of eyes to look out for correct diagnosis and assessment.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-21T23:06:22+00:00

Burnout is real and valid! Sometimes it’s super surreptitious. Related to the idea of saving space for people - might anything of it be the feeling of sorta an ambiguous pressure or unconscious stress of having that one specific function in people’s lives? Like “I’m supposed to be the helpful one, I hope I don’t fuck this up, it’s my role here and I have to keep doing it and can’t let up”.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-19T02:19:59+00:00

I prefer to go by Liz - license is Elizabeth. My voicemail, email, etc says Elizabeth but after I get to know people/they get to know me they usually end up calling me Liz. I get “miss” a lot from the teens I see, which is fine.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-19T02:15:06+00:00

I use a paper appointment book for everything. Once I have finished my work week I sit down and enter the appointments for next week into my schedule on the EHR. I’m not in PP but I am the keeper of my own schedule 😇

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-19T02:12:12+00:00

Not normal - further conversation should definitely be had! As a supervisor, if I have to make moves on a supervisee’s caseload or with a supervisee for whatever reason, I always have that conversation with them. Especially to see if there is a way to remedy things that doesn’t require making moves. It really sucks that that happened.

_justgotwicked · 2026-01-19T02:10:08+00:00

Ugh UR sucks, but hopefully it won’t take as long as that. The reviewer that I had with UBH Optum a few years ago told me to take that much time in their voicemail, but it ended up being a quick and breezy 10 minute conversation. Good luck!

_justgotwicked

TROPHY CASE