Done with Redlands

As of tonight, I'm no longer a therapist for any of my counseling center sites. I had my last night at the University of Redlands tonight. So I'm now officially relieved of all my responsibilities to clients. If anyone offs themselves now, at least it isn't on my watch anymore. (I always tell my student supervisees that my biggest concern is making sure no one kills themselves while we're responsible for them). And since I'll be at Casa Colina next year doing only assessment and no therapy, I don't have to worry about any of that stuff for quite some time!

It has definitely been a good year for me, in terms of my clinical placements. I've enjoyed being a part of the counseling centers at both places, although the U of R has definitely been my favorite. That's probably the reason why I am going to be collecting data for my dissertation there!

Speaking of which, we're moving along with those plans. I gave a draft copy of the methods section to the director of the counseling center this afternoon, and it seems like it meets with her approval. The next step is to get started with the IRB process - at both LLU and UofR. My goals are to be done with my comps by the beginning of July, to submit both IRB proposals by mid-July, and to have proposed my dissertation by mid-August, and to start the study at the beginning of September. Since I'm done with clinical stuff except for supervising my students and only have the one (retarded) class that I'm taking, I'm going to be devoting a lot of time to this dissertation over the next several weeks until I start at Casa Colina. Nanny Rebecca will continue coming on her regular days, and I'll continue leaving the house as I do now. Only instead of going to be someone's therapist, I'll be going somewhere with my laptop so I can advance my dissertation! It would be nice if I could work at home, but if Rebecca knows I'm here, she will want to be with me and I can be a lot more productive if I get away.

Concurrent with the dissertation stuff, I will also be getting ready to apply for internship. Some friends in the department and I are going to form a support/accountability group that will be meeting weekly to keep each other on the ball with our AAPI, organizing application materials, narrowing down sites of interest, and keeping track of deadlines. We'll start meeting sometime in July but it will really pick up during the months of September and October. Applications will be due in November and December, then interviews happen in January, rankings are done at the beginning of February, and then match day is in mid-to-late February. You'll all be hearing a whole lot about that process in the months to come. It will be a nail-biting good time, I assure you!

Tomorrow is Ramy's last day at the Norwalk courthouse. Today, his office took him to lunch to wish him well. His court staff and even his judge and some prosecutors came to be a part of it. He is generally embarassed by any attention that is directed toward him, but he had a good time. Apparently, they used the opportunity to roast him and tease him. Tomorrow, Rebecca and I are going to Norwalk with him. I think he wants to show off Rebecca one last time to all the people there. So Rebecca and I will be skipping Gymboree in the morning, and we'll go one day next week to make up the class.

Some of you may remember me mentioning the blog of a guy whose wife with cystic fibrosis had a double lung transplant and whose baby girl was a micro-preemie. His wife Tricia has done very well after the transplant and is out of the hospital and doing rehab/PT stuff and today they were able to bring their baby girl home from the hospital as well. What a family of miracles!