Checking in with Bianca Morris

Speaker 1 Hey, everyone. It's Brian here at Child and Teen Counseling in Woodland Hills. Child and Teen Counseling is a nonprofit 501 c three organization dedicated to helping kids, teens, and families live happier lives and providing therapy at affordable rates. And I am joined today by superstar therapist trainee Bianca Morris. How you doing today, Bianca? Speaker 2 I'm good. How are you? Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Glad to be here. So, Bianca is a relatively new therapist trainee, and I'm wondering if you can explain to us what is this deal with therapist trainee? What does that mean? Speaker 2 Yeah, so a trainee is basically someone who's in their graduate program, but they haven't yet graduated. And so every student joins in this thing called a Practicum, where you applied as many sites as you want to, and then once you get accepted, you begin to practice everything you've learned throughout school and throughout your life and practice on real clients. And so, as a trainee at Child and Teen Counseling child and Teen Counseling, I'm supervised by Kent Tucson, and I have my own set of clients that I basically see every week. Speaker 1 So what you're telling me is that Kent is watching your every move, right? Speaker 2 No, I actually see them by myself, but if I ever have any questions or concerns, I can go to him for anything. Speaker 1 Right, okay. And when how long has it been since you started seeing clients here at Child Teen Counseling? Speaker 2 I started seeing clients a few months ago, so I'm still fairly new to this, but I feel like I've been getting the hang of it, and I'm learning a lot along the way. Speaker 1 So I know that you have an extensive background working with kids. What made you want to be a therapist, and particularly what made you want to work with kids? Speaker 2 Yeah, so I've just always had a fascination with psychology ever since I took an AP psychology class in high school. And since then, I did my Bachelor's in Psychology, and I graduated with that. And then right after that, I started working with infants, and so I've worked with infants and at preschools and elementary schools, and I'm currently working at an elementary school with children with developmental disabilities. And I also feel like, as an only child, I've always just wanted to take on that caretaker role but still be able to foster that independence in people and have them find tools for themselves without me handing things to them, which I think really builds strength and confidence. Yeah. So I've always loved working with children, and I think that teens, I've discovered, are very fun and engaging, and there's never really a dull moment with them. Speaker 1 Is there anything in particular that has surprised you about working with teens or that's been very different from your work with children in the past? Speaker 2 I think that with teens, it's so interesting because there's always a cris of the week for a majority of them, and I mean, I'm young. I'm not too far away from that myself, but I would handle situations much differently now. So it's so interesting to hear the situations that they're in and compare them to similar situations that I was in in high school and think of how I would do them differently and kind of guide them based off of that. Speaker 1 Okay. Wow. All right, well, there you have it. There's an introduction to Bianca, and you can check out her bio page@childteaincounseling.org and find out more about the other services we offer. Thank you so much for joining me today, Bianca. 0Speaker 2 Thank you. Speaker 1 Yeah. Cheers.