NYIPT Template

In this article we learn how a social worker, 10 years in the field, participated in the training at NYIPT, and became more competent in her position and in her capacity to help children

As a second year student in the NYIPT program, I cannot begin to say how much my involvement with the program has informed my practice. I had been working in the field of social work for 10 years and had established, what I believed to be, a comfortable niche.

When I made the decision to join the NYIPT program, I was ready to begin the next phase of my professional career, hoping to gain a deeper understanding of my clients and a greater insight into what made me a clinician. The program gave me the opportunity to further my understanding and development, as well as the opportunity to better service the children and families I work with.

I can confidently say that the program has met these expectations and beyond. I am particularly grateful to have had the experience of working with knowledgeable clinicians and supervisors who have taken the time to guide and support me in my work with adolescents and their families. I have become more confident and comfortable when delivering services and truly enjoy those “aha” moments, when the theory I study in classes can be directly related to my practice.

For the past 4 years I have been working with a 17-year-old female student whom I will call “May.” May has faced many obstacles in her life, having struggled through the traumas of the death of a parent, living in foster care, substance abuse and the continued obstacles and challenges of becoming the first in her family to finish high school and go to college.

When I began working with May I was terrified. I was expected to help a child who, in spite of her academic successes, coped with overwhelming stress by physical aggression towards herself and others. I was also dealing with my awareness of feeling pulled into her world of chaos, and at times I thought I was losing the battle of trying to establish some sense of stability and consistency.

There were some limited advances in the beginning of my work with May. As she became aware that her life was not “just fine,” she began to ask for help, but her way of coping was totally overwhelming.

After two years of floundering with May, I became a candidate at NYIPT. The requirements of weekly supervision and my own therapy had an immediate positive impact on my work with May. Her grades started going up, she began to gain some insight into herself, and she stopped injuring herself.

In addition, she has been able to respect the boundaries I have learned to create for our therapeutic relationship, and she has also learned to set some of her own healthy boundaries. May is now better able to communicate her own needs in some of the more serious relationships she establishes with peers.

I might take some credit for helping May achieve these behavioral improvements, but I would not be doing justice to what NYIPT has truly taught me. Currently, May and I are working through her anger towards me as her therapist, as well as other transferential issues that have come up in treatment. Specifically, we are in the process of addressing how she is behaving towards me, seeing me as the mother she currently despises yet cannot live without.