[humanser] Dealing with blindness when applying to internships

[Jonathan Alpert]

HI Milissa,

If you are at Lesley U in Boston, I too live in the Boston area and could
give you some ideas of companies to apply to if you would like.

As for your question, I was never asked about that except for  two clients.
To an  advisor I would explain to them that there is  much more to
counseling then eye contact and seeing what the person looks like. audeo
cues such as  a person's tone, rate and volume as well as where the voice is
coming from can present   a lot of what someone with vision sees. .

A lot of my clients liked talking to me because I can't see them. They know
I can not see but that doesn't undermind my intellagents. They like that I
do not "look" at them in some "wierd" way but rather I treat them as a
human. I don't ask  about their race or how big they are or if they "look"
unhealthy, but if I need to know these things, I'll either ask a coworker or
if it is in a form, I will ask the client like any other question that is on
the form.

Do not forget to remind them what you can do, and some of the computer
program you do have that will assist you  you in filling out any paperwork.
When I started my internships only 7 years ago, my company was still doing
things in paper, not in computer so there was a lot of things I couldn't do
that you now can.

Good luck and again, if you need any ideas on companies to apply to, let me
know.

Jonathan



-----Original Message-----
From: humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org]On
Behalf Of Milissa Garside
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 9:57 AM
To: 'Human Services Mailing List'
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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