Tackling APPIC
Essay #3: How
Do My Training and Experience with Multicultural/Diversity Issues Influence My
Clinical Practice and Case Conceptualization?
by John T.
Carlsen, Psy.D.
Most internship applicants sell themselves
short when writing this essay. Without taking enough time to read the
question carefully (to see what it is actually asking), they wind up
squandering one of their best opportunities to promote their qualifications.
They simply launch into a historical description of the diversity classes they
have taken and start listing the racial/ethnic backgrounds, ages, sexual
orientations, and socio-economic circumstances of the clients they have seen.
As a result, having stopped after reading the first sentence in the essay
question, they simply summarize their experience and training with diverse
populations and move on to the next essay, thinking they have provided an
adequate response.
If only life were so simple.
Most of these applicants seem to take such a
haphazard approach because either they 1) failed to read the entire question
or 2) they find it so complex that they would rather simply answer the part
they understand and move on. Or, more realistically, they have waited
until the last minute to write their essays and want to dispense with them as
quickly as possible so they can send them overnight mail and hope they make it
in under the wire.
Fortunately, you do not have to follow their
lead. So, how can you make sure that you make the most of this
opportunity?
By taking enough time to find
some worthwhile things to say about your previous background . . . and saying
them within the limited space allotted. From my perspective as a
writing coach, this question goes far beyond asking you to describe your
superficial exposure to diversity/ individual differences. It asks you
to do more than simply regurgitate the recipe books of multicultural/diversity
theories that you read for your cross-cultural issues class. More
specifically, it invites you to demonstrate how you have taken ownership of
your knowledge so you can use it in practical ways. In short, it offers
you a very powerful way of gaining a competitive edge over other applicants.
First of all, as you plan this essay, you must
carefully consider how you will make your points as precisely as possible.
After all, with only 500 words, your "writing real estate" is
extremely limited and very expensive. The last thing you can afford is
filling it with "empty storage sheds" of theoretical ideas. Instead
of filling up the essay with descriptions of your previous training and
experience, you must find some examples of how you have applied your
understanding to your clinical work.. As much as possible, each word must have
justification for being on the page. Thus, you must find ways to condense
everything you say into as few words as possible.
As I recommended for Essay #2 in the last issue
of this newsletter, you have a much better chance of writing a clear, coherent
essay if you choose 2 or 3 actual cases from your current or previous training
that will illustrate your points. I encourage you to choose case
examples that specifically illustrate your experiences with
multicultural/diversity issues in treatment. In fact, where
possible, you might want to choose three cases that will help you to
illustrate your answers to both essay questions #2 and #3. Rather than
trying to capture and describe all of your experience in this area, that is,
you can choose representative examples that clearly illustrate the depth of
your qualifications. In other words, the more you can provide actual
illustrations of how you have used your knowledge of individual differences,
the more clearly you will be able to demonstrate the level of professional
maturity you have reached and distinguish yourself from your
less-sophisticated peers. In short, you will be able to go beyond
describing the extent of your training and experience to demonstrate concrete
examples of it.
The benefit of this approach is that it not
only shows the level of competence you have developed in this area but also
presents just enough information to make you intriguing to your readers.
By showing that you not only understand diversity concepts but
know how to apply them, you increase the likelihood selection
committees will want to interview you to learn more about your experiences in
this important area.
Start by breaking the essay question into its
three component parts and thinking about them separately before integrating
your ideas in your final version. Specifically, this question asks you
to integrate your responses to three specific, underlying questions. First, it
asks you to 1) describe your experience and training with diverse populations.
Then, it asks you to show how you apply this training and
experience in your actual clinical work, both in 2) conceptualizing your cases
and in 3) choosing the interventions you will use in therapy sessions.
In preparing for this essay, I also encourage
you to think first about how diversity influences your case conceptualization
rather than how it influences your clinical practice. The reason for this is
that you must conceptualize your case before you start using any interventions
in treatment. After coming up with your raw material, however, I encourage you
to write your rough draft essay according to the original order of the
question (that is, addressing your clinical practice approach before
addressing your case conceptualization). I believe that the APPIC committee
that designed the questions probably overlooked this sequential order when
they wrote this one. And, your readers will probably have the question in mind
as it is worded, so they will look for you to arrange your answer to fit that
arrangement.
For your rough drafts, suspend the requirement
of 500 words as you strive to uncover worthwhile things to say. As you
did with previous essays, write out your descriptions using as many words as
necessary when you begin. Then, shorten your sentences to phrases or single
words. The first part of the question is easy, simply listing your
previous experiences and training with diverse populations. The best strategy
I know is to take care of this description in the first 100 or 150 words,
reducing your sentences to descriptive adjectives about the people and places
you have worked. You can start by listing the various groups you have
worked with by diversity characteristics and the settings in which you have
worked with them. For example: "provided outpatient therapy and
case management to torture survivors and other refugees from Southeast
Asia" or "supervised volunteer university student hotline counselors
working with gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgender clients".
Then, for each of your three chosen case
examples, answer the following questions to address the second component of
the question, your case conceptualization:
- What were this client's presenting concerns?
- How did this client's particular background
and circumstances my thinking about him or her?
- How might multicultural/diversity issues
have influenced these presenting concerns (caused them, exacerbated them,
made them more challenging to address in therapy)?
- How did my own experience and training with
multicultural/diversity issues lead me to start thinking about these
presenting concerns (that is, begin developing a case conceptualization)?
- How did they help me to sharpen my focus on
which presenting concerns to emphasize and which to de-emphasize during my
assessment and in my conceptualization?
- Were there particular facts or dynamics that
caught my attention because of these individual differences?
Finally, to address the third component of the
question (how multicultural/diversity issues influence your clinical
practice) ask the following questions for each case example:
- What components of my case conceptualization
did I choose to emphasize in planning this client’s treatment (based on
my training and experience in multicultural/diversity issues)?
- How did my experience and training in
multicultural/diversity issues influence what I interventions I chose to
use with this client?
- Did these influences also help me to
understand the outcome of my treatment interventions (i.e. did these
issues have any relationship with how the interventions either worked or
did not work)?
Again, as you jot down memories of your
hands-on work with these clients, be sure to make note of how you actually applied
your understanding of individual differences (besides racial/ethnic
background) as you conceptualized and intervened in the case. This
approach will keep you from getting caught up in lifeless theoretical
discussions about how you would incorporate awareness of
diversity into your conceptualization by pushing you to talk about how you do
and have used them in your actual work. Unfortunately,
many applicants write as if they were still beginning students, trying to
convince selection committees with the fact that they "know" how to
address diversity instead of realizing that they now have some experience of
having "done" it already with clients.
Ultimately, whether or not you actually
wind up using the material from all three case examples is not important.
Rather, what matters is the fact that you have taken the time to describe each
case in detail. This approach ensures that you will come up with
something worth saying about each part of this question. Besides, you
can always use any left-over material in response to interview questions
(Always save all of your writing - you never know when or how you might want
to use it later.)
Finally, as you write and revise your rough
draft of this essay, be sure to structure it to alert your reader about when
you are addressing each component of the question. You can do this
best by using transitions and topic sentences (remember those from Freshman
English?). Often, you can accomplish your goal by simply re-wording the
question and spelling it back to your reader. For example, you might
say, "I acquired my experience and training in multicultural/diversity
issues in three primary settings" before going on to illustrate this
point by listing each place and describing what you learned there. Then,
for each of the other components, you might use the following topic sentences
(or something comparable): "Multicultural/diversity issues have
influenced my clinical practice in three primary ways, as
illustrated by the following cases: In the first case, _______" and
"Multicultural/diversity issues have influenced my case
conceptualization in three primary ways: First of all,
__________". (The boldface and italics are for illustration only -
they are not necessary in the final draft of your essay). By using these
words explicitly, you alert your reader to the fact that "now I am
covering this part of the question" and you prepare him or her to expect
a particular number of illustrations. This strategy prevents your reader
from having wandering attention while reading your essay and highlights the
specific things you want to say.
In summary, if you take the time to describe
your actual applications of your multicultural/diversity understanding rather
than simply describing your professional philosophy about it, you will wind up
with a far more explicit, clear, and powerful essay. That is, your
specific descriptions will show that you have not only learned about
multicultural/diversity issues, but also that you know from experience how to
apply them. This strategy enables you to move beyond telling
committees about your qualifications to show them what you
possess. It will also demonstrate that you have taken enough extra time to
prepare your essay in depth. This, alone, will set you apart from the
majority of your fellow applicants.
Can you imagine a more powerful way to gain a
competitive edge?
John T. Carlsen, Psy.D. is
a licensed clinical psychologist who trains and supervises psychology interns
and externs. He offers personal coaching and training resources for graduate
students applying for internships and post-doctoral jobs. Click here
to learn more about how to write
effective applications and prepare for interviews. Click here
to submit comments, questions, or suggestions for future newsletter topics.
