Therapy Abroad: Belize. Monkey Bay and San Ignacio.

Therapy Abroad provided me with a once and a life time experience to not only travel the world but provide meaningful therapy to individuals who otherwise could not afford or access services.

This unique opportunity provided me with skills that can not be taught in a typical placement or classroom. Working in Belize required quick creative thinking, dynamic assessment, and thoughtful recommendations that were appropriate for the people we worked with. With limited WiFi access and materials, students were asked to get creative and utilize objects, screeners, and materials in new ways to obtain information (e.g., using an articulation picture screener as a tool to assess "wh"-questions). I also evaluated a range of disorders, syndromes, and deficits that I may not have worked with here in the US.

Some staff were wonderful to work with. Ellen was a great resource during our time in Monkey Bay. She was delightful, knowledgeable, and eager to help in any way she could. She made us feel safe and made my experience at Monkey Bay memorable. Tyrone was also a great wealth of knowledge and a great person to have around for the trip. We wished he could have been our driver for the entire trip.

It was a pleasure working with the community health workers (CHWs) and their work/experience in Belize. They were great translators when we needed them to act as such. One CHW said that she was learning a lot from us as we were learning from her. She came everyday happy and excited to work.

I had an amazing trip that was fun, educational, and at some points emotional. Home visits were the most emotionally taxing and most rewarding. Providing families with strategies and ways to support their children or loved ones was such an empowering experience.

I highly recommend this trip for students who want hands on experience, challenging clients/environments, and want to be a better report writer (because you write a lot of reports and you need to be through for the next clinician; no detail is too small or unimportant!).