A very good chance to learn about different sides of psychological and sociological support systems

My mane is Suhani, I am from Calgari which is in Alberta, it’s a province in Canada. I went to UBC which is the University of British Columbia, I went to Okanangan Campus, and I graduated in 2021.

I chose to do an internship here at Iasis because I have a medical undergraduate degree in microbiology and I decided that I wanted to go into a master’s in counselling. So I have a biological and genetic bicrobio background that I really wanted to get more counselling and psychological and sociological support background. A little bit more exposure to counselling and that area to help bridge those two departments to help me in genetic counselling because you are working with healthcare, which combines both those fields. So, when I was looking for opportunities, unfortunately, there were not as many hands-on or shadowing opportunities in the region where I’m from. Especially around Calgary because of the way, but there are other volunteering opportunities. So, when I was looking for options, I decided to look abroad, and I found this particular internship.

What I really liked about it, is that it allowed me to learn about different sides of psychological and sociological support, systems that are available internationally, in different cultures, this has been my first time in Greece and Athens, so I was able to learn a lot about the culture, the people, how diverse it is. I did not realize how diverse Athens is. I mean, how populated it is compared to where I am from. We have a fraction of the amount of people that we do here in the city. There were a lot of similarities that I’ve noticed as well because I was born in India. So I’ve visited Mumbai and Bangor many times throw-out my life, so there are a lot of cultural similarities between Indian cities and Athens, I have noticed. So I think it was easier for me to adjust, get used to the city life, the transit, the people, the communication style. It was also very helpful, a lot of people spoke English here, so I think that people here in general are very open, kind, and very expressive I’ve noticed. It’s very different to where I am from.

Some things that I’ve found interesting during my internship is- because I don’t speak Greek- I had to rely a lot upon non- verbal ques so a lot of facial expressions, social queues, things that I would not necessarily be able to tell based on the language but looking on inflections and the way that people are speaking rather that what they’re exactly saying. Also I’ve had support with other interns and volunteers who were able to translate for me, but at the moments that I was unable to I feel like you can learn a lot based off of how people behave. Based on social ques there. The way they interact with one another and other volunteers and other social workers and psychologists here, I could see the changes from the beginning of a group activity towards the end. For some people there was like an increase in their mood, they were more social towards the end, they felt better, whereas for others it was like a gradual progress. It was very settling. You have to be really paying attention to their social ques to really see the difference, but it was noticeable. Another thing that I found very interesting is the similarities and the different types of psychosocial support that is available here and in Canada, so things like CBT, group activities, I’ve had to deal with mood, social ques, social skills, some of similar group activities like having an exercise component in order to deal with the psychological side of mood but then also have like talking within a group, introductions, styles of activities, the questions, the work, which are very similar to group activities that I’ve seen in other psychosocial support groups in Canada. So I thought that was really interesting, how despite being miles and miles apart- completely different country and culture- a lot of the practices, the types of support are very similar, it’s very applicable because at the end of the day we are all humans. We all need very similar things.

I am very happy with the internship coordination here. They were very accommodating. We got lots of support. If I had any questions I was able to ask. Get direct answers very quickly as well. So I didn’t necessarily feel like thrown in the middle of nowhere. That was very helpful. I really did enjoy my stay here, I think that people in general are very helpful. If I got lost or if I had questions about certain things that I didn’t really understand what was going on, I could just ask, and then there was no fear and no judgment, at least none that I could perceive. Thank you so much.