self-disclosure on internship

[oceansize]

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I'm in the boat of people applying for internship right now, and I've been seeking opinions from folks who have completed internships at different sites. I've been surprised at the number of times people will reference "self-disclosure" as a criterion. Like, "careful, I've heard site X requires a lot of disclosure." Or, "oh site Y isn't great because they aren't into disclosure." I realize everyone has different levels of comfort with self-disclosure. In grad school, I've often found it very helpful to talk with my supervisor about what kinds of emotions and thoughts I was having in a given therapy situation (even in CBT situations where this isn't typically done as much). Is this the self-disclosure they're talking about? Or does internship have something beyond this, that I should consider as part of my decision?

For example, I noticed one site I applied to has this statement:

"Personal self-disclosure by interns is encouraged in order to facilitate our goals of increasing cultural awareness regarding self and others. Thus, interns may be invited to share aspects of their background that have shaped their world view in important ways. This is voluntary although encouraged, and takes place within the context of individual supervisory relationships and in the internship cohort during seminar trainings."

Seems reasonable to me. But am I missing something? Thanks!

 

[DrivenDoctoress]

I don't think you're missing anything, but I haven't paid too much attention to that being a 'thing'. I'm interpreting it the same way... that sharing personal info in context of supervision can be a valuable part of training and developing your clinical skills.