My Experience at The Open Door Clinic by Emily Barham

As a year 10 work experience student, I had the opportunity to explore a variety of workplaces. While I could have chosen anything that caught my eye, my interests lie in people and how they interact with one another. So, I contacted a therapy company in the middle of town whose website captivated me, and I secured a week-long placement to explore my interests in this topic.

As the week went on, I settled in and felt a sense of safety projected by others I talked to. The atmosphere was calm, collected, and comforting, and everyone from the clients to the therapists was warm and welcoming. Rather than listing what I found great about the place, I will focus on what I learned and how it will help me in the future.

I talked to a variety of therapists with different areas of expertise. For example, I spoke with a psycho-spiritual counsellor who shared his idea of love-centered counselling, and I sat in on a yoga lesson, which was transformative in the way I viewed movement. This built on a talk I had earlier with a therapist who used therapeutic bodywork, which emphasized the interlink between the mind and body and the importance of treating your body right to benefit your mind.

I also spoke with an acupuncture therapist about how herbs and medicines can help the body and mind. These conversations, along with many others, helped me understand that mental health is not just about the root of the problem, but also about the surrounding areas that can affect and harm it. Society, family life, and even simple interactions can impact your mind and its health.

I talked to a therapist who had a degree in psychology and mainly researched hearing voices in difficult life circumstances. This conversation helped me understand that experiences can affect people mentally, and the surrounding areas can be just as hard. I also learned about person-centered counseling, which showed me that some therapists do not need to have complex methods, and that some clients work better by just talking and connecting with their therapist. Gestalt therapy involves various methods, including the sand-tray method or role-play, whichever works best for the client.

Lastly, I learned about transactional analysis counselling, which explains why people feel the way they do, possibly from copying parents or having difficult childhood experiences. This drew me in because it explained others’ behaviours based on what they have gone through. All of this will help me in the future as it helps explains people's behaviours on a deeper level and gives me a head start on how life works in a clinic such as the Open Door. 

Overall, I learned a lot about different types of therapy and discussed what brought the therapists to where they were. While their areas of expertise varied, most therapists had one thing in common: they were grateful for the safe place that The Open Door Clinic provided for them and the positive impact it had on their lives.