i feel ambivalent about experience. i think there are pros and cons and individual difference and fit and the like are more important at the end of the day. for instance, older clinicians can tend to go with the labeling 'heuristics' more than younger clinicians since they have more experience with people so labelled. that can lead to assumptions, generalizations, and stereotypes that aren't so helpful. but then younger clinicians can also tend to do this more than older clinicians since they just forked out for their copy of the DSM and they are so proud! and the experienced people can learn about all the funny borderline cases and the diversity of actual cases. so... i guess judgements and stereotyping isn't necessarily more of a feature of either younger or older clinicians it is more about individual difference.

i'm not too sure what to make of us... i guess she seems a bit awkward at times. mostly because she is trying to get the hang of the things she is supposed to be doing / getting through so it isn't terribly intuitive as yet. she kinda cracks me up. she will ask a very general question (as most therapists tend to do) and i make my usual move of asking them to clarify... and... she is the first person who will list about 4 or 5 aspects that she is wanting me to focus on (guess thats what she read in her textbook about what it is that she is trying to assess). i'm able to basically speak an essay addressing each of those aspects in turn (and link them up into a narrative) but i'm not sure how that strategy will work with the majority of clients... lol...

this is what makes me think that she hasn't had much actual patient contact... works ok with my very rationalist approach in general... but i've never experienced anything like it... she seems to like that i'm a student. genuinely (some cringe or start to feel insecure or whatever). but she seems cool with it (secure enough in herself, i guess). so that is fine. the crisis line... came from a stereotype about borderline self-harm and crisis to crisis to crisis.. she didn't pick up on that in our first meeting (and there is no reason why she should because that hasn't been an issue for me for about 4 or 5 years now). but the dx rang little warning bells in her supervisor (with the stereotype in hand) obviously...

i am curious about what they say about me... i expect it is mostly technical detail stuff which isn't so terribly interesting to me.... definately those three things i listed in my initial post... i wonder what else? hrm...

i've worked with training people before... but... this person.. i'm pretty sure she hasn't seen anyone for therapy before. i think... i could well be... her first assignment. odd... still, i suppose someones gotta be...

i guess... i'm not here for long so any work that is done while i'm here will be of the brief supportive variety. so she doesn't really need to be especially skilled or practiced for that. so long as the fit is right. and i think the fit is okay. she said, too, about having a week off for christmas but that we would try and schedule a make up sometime in the new year week so we didn't miss two in a row (supervisor again, no doubt). its kinda interesting, actually... the analyticity of it all... guess she has her little manual in her back pocket about how to conduct an intake assessment and the like... and she is trying really hard... and after however many years of learning the facts learning the facts learning the facts there is a person.. kinda odd.. i have a lot of sympathy for that. it is kinda odd. so maybe this will work out okay... given that i have more sympathy for her position than many would and given that she just explains her position fairly honestly from her pov (which is kinda funny strange and haha at the same time) i think we will...