Today I was inspired to write about one of the topics proposed by Hive account@galenkp for this weekend, specifically answering the question:

✨"What were you doing in the moment you felt most alive, passionate and fulfilled?"✨

Several beautiful moments of my life came to my mind after reading that question, however, the one that was definitely more intense, recent and special for me was the last semester of my Psychology career (from February to June of this year) 🥰, in which I did my Clinical Psychology Internship at the IMMI Institute (Municipal Institute of Women and Gender Equality of Iribarren), in the city of Barquisimeto, Venezuela.

In that lapse of time I had the opportunity to put into practice all the knowledge I gained in the different subjects I saw throughout my career 📚, and through that knowledge I was able to make significant contributions to the lives of a large number of people from the clinical area, through individual therapy sessions, and also teaching group workshops related to psychological intervention and mental health 🧠.

It should be noted that although I also had satisfactory experiences in my previous internships in three other areas of psychology (school, organizational and social), the one that has made me feel most passionate, alive and fulfilled has been the clinical area💕. In fact, it was the area that made me fall in love with psychology and led me to choose it as a career and profession since my 4th year of high school.

So, as you can imagine, those were very significant months for me, with a lot of learning and unforgettable experiences. It was really special to have my first patients, I feel proud to have been able to contribute to their lives through my profession, and of course, it was wonderful everything they contributed to mine 😍.

It is noteworthy, that among the reasons for which they attended psychological consultation were the following: grief processes, anxiety, stress, alterations in the quality of sleep, being victims of psychological violence, problems in their interpersonal relationships, parenting difficulties during adolescence, taking psychological follow-up during treatment for breast cancer, and suicidal ideation ❤‍🩹.

Of all the above, I can say that the most challenging and delicate were undoubtedly the cases of suicidal ideation, because although I felt great commitment and responsibility with all my patients, that feeling of commitment and responsibility intensified impressively in the cases of suicidal ideation, due to the vulnerable state in which they were. It was an honor and a privilege for me to accompany all of them in their therapeutic processes, and It was a pride for me to witness their evolution and transformation 🦋.

Every thank you, every smile, every hug, every feedback I received from each and every one of them is still engraved in my memory. Even one of my patients who overcame suicidal ideation told me in her last session: "Thank you for bringing me back to life" 🥹💜.

I definitely love having chosen psychology as my profession 😍, I thoroughly enjoyed my clinical psychology internship alongside Deisy (my great partner in this internship) and psychologist Daniela (our amazing tutor). Also, it was a pleasant surprise for us to have been the first interns of our university at the IMMI Institute, they made us feel at home and it was very important to us how much they recognized and valued our work. They even gave us personalized wine tumblers as a gift at the end of our internship. As you can see in the gif below, mine says: "Psychologist María Estefanía"🥰.

It has really been the most satisfying experience I have had so far, the moment of my life in which I have felt most alive, passionate and fulfilled, even more so considering that it was the last big step in my undergraduate career, because I am currently waiting the day of my long-awaited graduation, to officially receive my degree in Psychology 👩🏻‍🎓.

In short, it was wonderful to have finished my career in such a special way and to have been able to experience what psychiatrist Viktor Frankl must have felt when he said:

💜“The meaning of my life is to help others find meaning in theirs.”💜