Wigs 4 Kids has a very special team. Everyone is
kind, intelligent, professional, and helpful. I have learned a great deal from
the entire staff. However, the two people I have learned the most from at Wigs
4 Kids are my boss, Maggie, and the social worker, Corey.
I have never met anyone with a heart and drive like
Maggie. She is the Founder and CEO of Wigs 4 Kids and she makes hundreds of
custom wigs for hundreds of kids. What is incredible to me is that she knows
all of the kids by name and their conditions. It takes so much love and
dedication to the kids to be able to remember all of that, so I respect her. I
hope to have that much love and devotion for my patients in the future.
Maggie has taught me so much during my internship so
far. She always tells me to “strive not for perfection, but for excellence.”
That is my favorite lesson I’ve learned from her so far: no one can be perfect,
but one can always be excellent. I learned to strive for excellence in my
poster project as well as in my e-mails and letters, and that has greatly
increased my communication skills.
I have also learned a very important lesson
regarding working for a non-profit, but also everywhere else, from Maggie: everything
is about give and take. If you take something, you must also give. Working at a
non-profit has been mostly giving, but I have also been taking. Nothing
tangible, as my internship is unpaid, but I’m taking knowledge, experience, and
school credit. But, in order to receive, I must give my time, my effort, and my
heart. This does not only apply to working at a non-profit, but also to life in
general. It’s a lesson hard-learned sometimes, but extremely valuable.
Corey the social worker has taught me a great deal
as well, and his lessons have been more specific to my field of study,
psychology. While observing his session, I can see that Corey, like Maggie,
shows a lot of heart toward his patients. I have learned how to handle patients
generally: treat them with respect, try to relate to them, and really listen to
their stories.
When I asked Corey is he had any specific advice for
me if I were to go into his field. He told me to be flexible: don’t corner
myself into one specific plan of action when choosing my work. Let my work
choose me. Be open-minded, because I may think I know exactly what I want but
then may change my mind after a certain experience. This was an important piece
of advice for me because when I decided to pursue art therapy, I had a very
specific population of patients in mind: adult or elderly cancer patients. I
have always been able to communicate better with adults and have had a lot of
volunteer experiences with the elderly, so either would be my ideal age group.
I saw first-hand how art therapy helped my mom when she was undergoing treatment
for cancer, so I wanted to provide the same kind of help to the same
population. However, after my experience at Wigs 4 Kids so far, I have kept my
mind open to working with kids as Corey had suggested. I have found that I
would in fact be open to working with kids!
Corey also told me to approach my patients as
equals: no patient is better or worse-off than another patient, no patient
should be favored over another, etc. I have noticed this when observing Corey’s
sessions. He also told me to “meet each patient where they’re at,” meaning to
try to see their situation from their perspective. If a patient is in denial
about their condition, I should approach their denial as correct and not tell
them that their denial is wrong. This was a very interesting piece of advice as
it was something I never would have thought of on my own.
Everything that I have learned from Maggie and Corey
so far has been extremely valuable and greatly appreciated. Both individuals
are very willing to help me and advise me along my way, which has opened my
eyes to many new perspectives and ideas. I hope to one day put each of their lessons
together and open my own art therapy practice. If I have the right amount of
heart, determination, and open-mindedness, I think I can be successful.
No comments:
Post a Comment