Kids Are Resilient. No One Is Unbreakable.
Real resilience doesn’t come from emotional neglect.
Studying clinical psychology, this year I took a practical internship in Educational Psychology, working with children between the ages of seven and twelve at an after-school program. A practical internship bridges the gap between theory and practice, but this experience taught me more than how to apply what I’d read in books to what I saw in real life, it taught me to watch and listen for small details that make all the difference.
Clinical Psychology cares about the stories people tell and the words they use to tell them, but it also cares about timing. As therapists, we constantly ask ourselves, why now? Why is my patient bringing this story up now and how does it fit with their state of mind and everything else I know about them? Even though educational psychology has a different scope from clinical practice, focusing on the learning process and the interpersonal dynamics inside an institution, a clinical ear was indispensable for my colleague and me to figure out what the kids needed and act accordingly.
The kids had incredible stories to tell. Some were funny, but the ones that stuck out the most were traumatic, like the eleven-year-old girl who witnessed a neighbor shoot her dog when she was seven. They had stories of losing…
