Labs/Clinic???

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The2abraxis

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I believe I am going to get accepted into an anxiety clinic/research lab as a research assistant, and I was wondering if it's "legal" to work with patients directly. I ask if it is legal because there may be/is patient confidentiality, and I am not sure if working in a lab with a supervisor is any different.

I know there will be the typical undergrad work, but what else should I expect (considering it is not just a lab, but also a clinic)? Thanks!

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I'm a bit confused by the question. Why wouldn't it be legal? By working directly with clients, I assume you aren't referring to actually being their therapist, which would be bad for a host of reasons. However, interaction with them may and probably will happen at some point. Pretty much any lab doing treatment research will blur the lines between lab and clinic so this isn't that unusual. We call ourselves a lab, but we're often providing treatment too and many of our clients perceive us little differently from their doctors office. The official title doesn't mean much. Regardless, you have to keep pretty much everything confidential. That doesn't change regardless of whether its research or practice.
 
thanks for the reply.

from the lab/clinic i'm hopeing not only to get research experience, but clinical experience as well (such as certain techniques, etc...). the only way i feel i could get this (besides reading :-D) would be through hands-on experience with a patient, so do you think they would allow me to watch/observe what goes on in a session, or "co-host" a session with them?
 
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ahhhh, okay.

That's a maybe. Depends on the clinic and the patients. I don't believe its illegal for you to be there. However chances of being allowed to observe or co-host depend entirely on what exactly is being done, and who is working there. Don't expect to be co-therapist for anyone with severe problems, but sitting in on a support group, potentially contributing to them after a fair amount of involvement, sitting in on supervisions, etc. isn't out of the question.

Chances of being trained to do a full-blown intervention as an undergrad are incredibly unlikely. However observing others doing them may be possible, and you might be able to start training on some basic assessment tools, though the role would be more as psychometrician than anything else.
 
ya that makes sense. in grad school, do they allow you to work one on one, either at an internship or what not?

im just excited to start applying what I know :-D
 
If/when this occurs, you will need to obtain consent from the patient prior to you watching live sessions or audio/video recordings.

Ollie covered the other things well. :)
 
As grad students, you are definitely doing one-on-one therapy (and couples therapy, and group therapy, and whatever else your little heart desires as long as your program has it available). Frequently you are the only one in the room, though you are generally videotaped and your supervisor will watch it and go through it with you. Often times critiquing you quite openly in front of a fair number of other people, so get to work on developing a thick skin early on;)
 
im all up for critique, it can only help in getting better (in most cases :) )
 
im all up for critique, it can only help in getting better (in most cases :) )

No worries, you'll have plenty of time to be critiqued in graduate school. I like to think of it as shaping behavior.:cool:
 
haha

would you say is it adviseable to question a critique/demand if it may be unwaranted. in some cases with some parents (which an advisor/supervisor may be!) they want every demand to be followed without question (the worst kind of parent :-D), even if the demand is pointless, strange, etc...
 
haha

would you say is it adviseable to question a critique/demand if it may be unwaranted. in some cases with some parents (which an advisor/supervisor may be!) they want every demand to be followed without question (the worst kind of parent :-D), even if the demand is pointless, strange, etc...

With that being said, you will swallow much pride as a graduate student. It really depends on your advisor's style though. For example, some faculty members in our department see their students as colleagues, sitting at an equal level as them. Others, on the other hand, view themselves as superior to the student. I've seen both ways work as long as the relationship between the student and advisor doensn't end up where the advisor is more of a friend than a colleague, and the demanding advisor doesn't tread "too hard" on the student.

This is why it's good to meet your potential advisor before you accept a position at the school. As well, I'd speak to the other students that are under your potential advisor to determine if your personality styles fit. If not, it's going to be a long 5 years you know?
 
Like myelin said it depends on the advisor in question.

My advisor is definitely more of the "colleague" type of advisor. In fact my entire lab is. I'm not at all uncomfortable disagreeing with people. We're collegial about it, its not like we "fight" on points - some people do that and I think its absolutely stupid and counter-productive. Others expect you to defer to them on anything and everything. I couldn't deal with that and as myelin said, it highlights the importance of the in-person interviews because I definitely would not have agreed to come here if I'd be working with someone like that. You'll be wrong alot as a grad student and its important to recognize that. However blindly deferring to others doesn't help you understand the reason WHY you might be wrong. Furthermore, we're dealing with very complicated issues and no advisor is "right" 100% of the time either, which is why I think being able to have a discussion about it without either party getting uppity and defensive is vital. Anyone who can't handle valid criticisms or discussions that might lead to the conclusion that they might be wrong doesn't belong in this field to begin with, regardless of whether they're just starting down the path, or have been tenured for 30 years.

There are plenty of faculty out there who treat grad student relationship it much like a parent-child relationship. As in think that "Because I said so" is valid reasoning. Personally I think they make terrible advisors, but to each their own.
 
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Ollie stated it beautifully. :)

One thing that can help you tremendously in graduate school is to back up what you say through previous research. When my advisor says something that I know isn't right :cool: I pull a few research articles for him to look at the next time we meet. My advisor is very objective and will change his thoughts to fit research findings, unless of course the findings were the result of flaws in the methodology. Then we go in circles about why they found what they did and how different methods may render different results. That's why I usually end up with another IRB proposal to work on over the weekend. So sometimes I should just keep my mouth shut!!:laugh:
 
haha thanks for the info, i agree 100% ollie :)
 
Agree with the others...

don't know if it was legal, but I did it as an undergrad... a few others did too, we had an advanced counseling practicum and a regular counseling practicum and lots of people had client contact just as if they were in a masters/doctoral internship (minus the fancy assessments and ALWAYS w/a supervisor present)....

I compare it to me doing future teachers of america in high school for 1 hour a day and then doing student teaching in college for 8 hrs a day...

I hope it's a rewarding experience! Keep us posted
 
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