Anna Prickett
Artifacts
Below are a few projects and papers from my time at Auburn University. Each of these projects and assignments have taught me how to apply information from my classes that will be beneficial to me as a counselor.
Adolescent Manual
The course Adolescent Development in the Family teaches how adolescents develop through the lens of a family. We considered theories and preventative measures that help adolescents to succeed in a healthy and prosocial manner. One assignment we had was called an Adolescent Manual where we created a manual with information from each chapter that teaches an adolescent about what is happening in their development throughout their teenage years. This assignment was worked on over the entire semester and students were to add more information as they learned more in the class. The manual was supposed to be written to an adolescent, answering the questions they may have about their development. This assignment helped me learn more about what is going on in the life and brain of an adolescent, which will make me a better and more knowledgeable counselor in my future. Since this was written for an adolescent, I will be able to reference this manual for far longer than just my college years as I counsel adolescents. I was able to gain both written and critical thinking skills as I analyzed how to answer various questions in a manner best for an adolescent.
Literature Review Paper
Within the course Adolescent Development in the Family, students learned about how adolescents function both in and out of the family. This course emphasizes that there are many aspects of an individual’s life that must be considered when understanding how an adolescent functions. At the end of this course, each student picked any topic within adolescent development to write a literature review on. Students found at least five peer reviewed articles and wrote a review on what they learned from these articles based on their topic. I chose to research how mental health and peer relationships affect one another for adolescents. I chose this topic because I want to work with adolescents in the future as a counselor, and thought it would be important to further my understanding on both mental health and peer relationships within the life of an adolescent. This assignment gave me skills in research, which has benefited me in many other courses as well. Additionally, I learned about the reciprocal relationship between peer relationships and mental health, as well as how to combat the negative outcomes that come from these. This will be beneficial to me as a counselor as I will be able to understand what an adolescent might need when they are experiencing depression, anxiety, or bullying at school.
Family Practitioner in Practice Presentation
During the fall of 2023, I took the class Development of Interpersonal Relationships, which looks at family processes to study how various life events affect the family system. Throughout the semester, students were in groups of five called “family groups,” where each person represented a specific family member (mom, dad, teenager, grandmother, etc.). We met with our groups weekly and evaluated how various stressors impacted the family both as a whole and as individual members. For our final project, we determined how a Foster Care Social Worker could assist our family with the stressor of having a foster child. We looked at how this stressor impacted individual family members, evaluated the stressor through the lens of the Vulnerability-Stress Adaptation model, and looked at how enhanced pre-service training through the social worker could benefit the family. This was beneficial as I was able to learn more about the role of a social worker, since I will most likely be working with social workers as a counselor. I was not only able to gain teamwork experience, but I was able to put myself in the shoes of both a family and a professional through this assignment. This allowed me to think through all aspects of what a foster family will go through, which will make me a better and more empathetic counselor in the future.
Professional Development Project
The course Professional Development and Ethics seeks to help students gain a better understanding of their career and graduate goals. This class studies professional ethics and explores career opportunities within the HDFS major. Throughout the semester, students had to get 20+ service learning hours at a volunteer location and write a reflection on those service learning hours. I used my practicum at the Auburn University Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Center as my service learning hours for this assignment. Through the practicum, I spent 84 hours throughout the semester learning from the program director, Scott Ketring, and coding therapy sessions for the graduate students. Within the assignment, I noted my educational perspectives from the service learning. Overall, this service learning significantly increased my understanding of my career and allowed me to shadow therapy sessions. Not only was I watching the therapy sessions, I was additionally coding whether or not the therapists were implementing important therapy practices in their session. I was able to learn a wealth of information on what should happen in a therapy session. I additionally was able to learn confidentiality skills, using the professional ethics we learned within the course. This reflection on my time at the MFT center enabled me to joyfully anticipate my future career.
Research Paper
Within the course Introduction to Counseling and Psychotherapy, students got a foundation into the counseling career. Students learned various therapy theories and how to apply those theories in the setting of a therapy session. At the end of the course, students chose a topic in the counseling world that they wanted to research and write a paper on. I chose to research how Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) impacts anxiety disorders. Throughout this paper, I explain what CBT is and how it impacts anxiety disorders in comparison to other theories of therapy. This assignment, and class in general, was extremely helpful in understanding how to understand anxiety disorders. As I become a counselor, understanding theories of therapy will be vital. I will be better equipped to continue to learn about how to help someone with an anxiety disorder from both this course and this research paper.
Mental Health Litearacy Assignment
Within the course Mental Health Awareness and Advocacy, students gained further understanding of the mental health disorders that are prevalent and how we can advocate for and be aware of how to help those with these disorders. Students gained a basic understanding of the warning signs, risk factors, symptoms, and treatment options for mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. One goal of this course was to be able to advocate for each of these mental health disorders. One assignment asked students to create a pamphlet or fact sheet that educated the community about a specific population and mental health disorder. I chose to study how depression impacts the elderly population. I chose this topic because I saw the effect that Covid-19 had on the elderly population, and wanted to understand it further. This assignment taught me how to tell if an elderly individual I know may have the warning signs for depression and how I can help them if they do. I will be able to translate these skills into my graduate program in Counseling as I further learn how to treat those who are enduring depression.