Marcella Sierra

Responsibilities

Being a residential recovery specialist intern you have a lot of responsibilities however a main one is being support to the staff and the clients. You help the clients move through their day offering them support and assistance. You are also able to help supervise youth and record observations while also helping assist with life-skill groups.

Accomplishments

My greatest accomplishment during this internship was building meaningful connections with the clients from the young adults to the adolescents. These client relationships built on trust where many of the clients were first resistant to treatment being able to offer that support for them feels very powerful. Through consistent support and active listening I was able to help clients start to open up to the program and actively participate in life-skill groups and activities.

Learning experience

The greatest lessons I learned from this experience is learning to meet clients where they are. Understanding that recovery is not linear and is completely different for every single person including where they start at. Learning to approach each client with patience, empathy and without judgement and understanding that progress looks different for everyone is crucial.

What advice would you give?

Take advantage of hands-on experiences whether that is interning, volunteering or practicums. Don't be scared to try something new because you never know what you might end up liking. YSS offers various different options with many branches various places that can give you a first hand experience of human services from all different ages and backgrounds.