[humanser] Dealing with blindness when applying to internships

[David R. Stayer]

I worked in a large hospital setting for over 38 years prior to retiring.  I 
saw thousands of clients or patients or customers.  I ran support groups 
organized training sessions for colleagues, wrote manuals regarding policy, 
covered inpatient and outpatient services supervised colleagues and students 
all of whom were sighted.  If your field instructor wants to speak with me I 
am willing.  Contact me off list and I will give you my home and cell 
numbers.  I will call them whenever it is convenient for them.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Milissa Garside" <milissa.g79 at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 9:57 AM
To: "'Human Services Mailing List'" <humanser at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [humanser]  Dealing with blindness when applying to internships

>                Hi Everyone,
>
> I have been on this list for a while and have enjoyed the discussions.
>
> I am currently a graduate student at Lesley University getting my masters 
> in
> mental health counseling. I am slated to begin my first internship in the
> fall of 2010. However, my advisor recommended that I put my internship off
> for a year because I do not have any "work experience." I have been 
> advised
> to get some volunteer work which I have done. Although I do not have any
> "work experience" I do have a great deal of volunteer work within the 
> human
> service field. The decision to wait another year does not sit well with 
> me.
> As a result, I have spoken to several people at the university including 
> the
> disability coordinator as well as the field training person. The field
> training person saw my resume last night and agreed that I have enough
> experience to warrant applying for an internship. However, both she and my
> advisor have raised the question how is it that a blind person can 
> establish
> a therapeutic connection with a sighted client? . I don't feel that they 
> are
> asking these types of questions because they are trying to prevent me from
> interning. They just feel that these are questions that internship sights
> are going to want to know and I am going to need to be able to answer it
> confidently. When I was first presented with this question, I did not know
> how to answer it. I'm wondering if this is something that super visors
> really want to know? And if so, how does one answer the question of how we
> as blind people establish a therapeutic connection without sight? Any help
> is greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Milissa
>
>
>
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