Family Life Education Internship

Families have always needed all of the tips and tricks they can use to live their best life, and family life educators have always risen to the challenge. Sadly, many programs have had lots of work put in to them, only for a handful of people to attend. This has always been an issue in family life education.

But just because families aren’t coming to the well-designed programs from family life educators, it doesn’t mean they are going without information. They are getting it- from the internet! They go to Facebook, Pinterest, and Google to find solutions to their problems every single day.

And while many do find helpful solutions that make a difference in their lives, many of those solutions aren’t backed by the research and knowledge that family life educators have. So one issue is resolved, but another one will result.

Over the years, I’ve seen many dedicated students in undergraduate programs for family life education feel the excitement that comes from teaching families- only to struggle to find jobs after graduation. Many feel like they have no choice but to return to school in order to get a job.

This internship helps families and new professionals learn!

This is a hybrid site- a mixture of working in the office, meeting in the office, meeting online together, and doing some work at home.

Office

My therapy office is shared with two other marriage and family therapists. There is a waiting room and two therapy rooms. There isn’t a separate office room, so any time we spend together at the office will be around my therapy schedule and when the other rooms at the office aren’t being used.

Trainings and References

There are lots of moving pieces, and it can feel like a lot to remember at times. You may need to ask me about something, only to remember I’m in a block of therapy sessions. So I’ve created some trainings and references for you.

Trainings and references are housed in the course portal. The course portal houses the different FLE offerings- and our reference library.

Connecting to Each Other Online

Other communication will take place via programs like Slack, Asana, Trello, and using the phone and other video methods to connect for our meetings, planning sessions, and brainstorming.

Co-Working

We will also do “co-working.” This is a lot of fun. Let’s say we’re creating a new online course for families. We will meet over video and finish any brainstorming we have and divide up the tasks. Then we’ll set a timer, mute the volume, and leave the video on so it feels like we’re working in the same office together.

When the timer goes off, we connect, see where we’re at, take a break, etc.

Internship duties include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Assist with administrative tasks related to the therapy practice.
   • Interns will learn how to use the therapy client portal.
   • Interns will help with the in-take process, scheduling, and answering client questions.
   • NOTE: Interns will not have any access to any medical records for clients. Access to those portions of the client portal are locked per HIPAA and other laws.
2. Assist with prepping and teach small group classes to individuals and families who fit the screening criteria for FLE services, as opposed to therapy.
   • Interns will provide support and services in these areas:
     • Time management/overwhelm/life balance (Family Resource Management)
     • Strategies for handling children’s behaviors (Parent Education and Guidance)
     • Improving communication skills (Interpersonal Relationships)
   • Interns will be provided with training and support in how to give support in those topics, including handouts, strategies and methods of interventions, and access to deliver the support and consultation via virtual means if in-person meetings are not an option.
   • Interns will help with the delivery of live classes and seminars:
     • Providing support and assistance in the delivery venue (Zoom, Thinkific, or in in-person)
     • Leading and co-leading portions
3. Meet 2-3 times weekly for meetings with me.
   • Meetings will provide a check-in on goals, questions about technology, brainstorming ideas, and creating content.
   • Meetings will take place either at the office or via Zoom.

There are four overarching traits I need:

1. Kind, clear, patient communicator in both written and verbal skills.
2. Comfortable with learning new technology beyond Microsoft Office, email, and phone apps.
3. Eager to get creative, experiment, and revise content and output.
4. Skilled at figuring things out, asking for clarification, and following directions.

• who has to get everything perfect on the first try. Brainstorming, practicing, revising, and tweaking are a part of the process! Done is better than perfect. Progress over perfection. (That doesn’t mean we turn out mediocre stuff…just that it doesn’t have to be “Michael Phelps Olympic swimming race quality” in order to share it.)
• who resists asking for clarity and help. The day we stop learning, we die. You will be exposed to lots of things you’ve never done before in this internship, and it may take you a few times before you remember some of it. That’s OK. I’ll have lots of resources in the course portal to help you, and we will have lots of interaction throughout the week.
• who thinks this is an easy site. We are not slackers. You will NOT be sitting at home in your pajamas making posts on Facebook or Twitter. You will take what you have learned in school to pair it with technology to help families learn the things they didn’t know they didn’t know. (For example- did you know that singing is the fastest way to stop feeling anxious? So how can we help families to learn this fact? What would catch their attention when they are scrolling? How can they implement it? Does it work with young children, too? So we’ll find our angle, and then we’ll put together a PSA video that’s fun and catchy. Or a gift. Or a meme. Or a podcast segment. THIS is the kind of stuff we’ll make happen.)
• who is afraid of personal growth. No, I can’t and won’t be your therapist. But personal growth is always happening in our lives- if we allow it. You will face some fears. Take hearing your own voice. That can take some getting used to for most folks. Or handling a tech issue. I have gotten so frustrated that I executed the most perfect palm heel strike from my martial arts training right on top of the motherboard of my laptop. Yup. Guess who was setting up an brand-new computer 3 hours later? I now walk away if Google can’t help me.

• who can laugh at themselves. No, we don’t poke fun of others. But we do laugh when see ourselves totally geeking out in silly costumes. Having a sense of humor is one of the hallmark traits to resiliency, and we hone that in everything we do.
• doesn’t mind being silly. Period. This takes a high level of confidence to do it right. Families are most comfortable when they know the person they are connecting with is a human, not some perfect robot. But if we’re too silly, they won’t think our message has truth to it. We’ll work on finding that balance while being true to your individual personality.
• views “mistakes” as part of learning. Messing up is part of the growth process. So I guess that means it’s not really a bad thing, then, right? The things we remember the best are the things we DIDN’T do perfectly the first time.

Interns will be given credit for any handouts they create in addition to those materials provided by the internship. Those handouts are the property of the intern to use as they wish after the internship ends. The internship supervisor must approve any handouts created by the intern prior to use.

Interns will be provided with ways to receive “affiliate income” as allowed by law and any internship policies from their institution. This affiliate agreement can be used during and after the internship. If the educational institution giving credit for the internship does not allow any income during the internship, interns can join the affiliate program if they wish once they are legally and ethically able to do so.

PLEASE NOTE: Failure to abide by these policies can result in immediate dismissal from the site. Each software application and subscription service has its own terms of service. In addition, there are laws that must be followed at the Federal leve. Violating the terms of service and laws can result in steep fines and other penalties for me as the license holder. We do not play around with these, and there is no wiggle room. If in doubt, ASK immediately!