This was yet another one of my favorite courses, by this point I started to see that all of my favorites had been the hands on counselling classes, so I must have been headed in the right direction! I am lucky to have already been in a counselling position by this point, so I was excited to collaborate on some of my more difficult cases with another counsellor in my division who I knew had plenty of expertise to share!
I was lucky enough to work with Alicia Dedecker as my supervisor, who at the time was a guidance counsellor at Earl Oxford school. Alicia and I had a working relationship already, having worked in the same division for almost ten years by this point. I was extremely grateful that she took me on as a practicum student as I had looked up to her as a mentor for many years. She seemed to have the work-life balance figured out- managing to achieve so much in her schools while also finishing two Masters degrees as a working mom. She was always incredibly well spoken during professional development days and while I knew she was brilliant, she was always warm and kind and never seemed to speak down to anyone.
Alicia did not disappoint me throughout my practicum and gave me so many valuable tips as we talked through cases together. I appreciated the experience that she brought to the table and the reassurance that it gave me that I could trust her judgement. I will always appreciate the time that she took to mentor me, especially the questions to consider moving forward that she shared in her final evaluation.
Throughout this course we would also meet as a class to discuss case studies and share thoughts and ideas with each other on possible next steps. (Check out the full course outline here!) This class really made me realize the importance of having a network of professionals to lean on, which I’m happy to say led to us forming a small group within our division. Our hope is to take this one step further and create an official PLC that is recognized within the division, in the hopes that more will be recommended between other schools. Professional learning groups like this make it easy to share things like case conceptualizations and learn from each other’s experiences, which in the end helps our students more effectively.
Favorite Resources:
This resource is most useful to me, but I included it here thinking that it could still be helpful to read through, even though it’s not about you! Whether the comments were spoken of as achievements or suggestions for next steps, we can all use these as goals that we routinely self-evaluate for.
Micki Banks
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