What I have been up to….
So over the past two years since graduating, to say I have been busy is an understatement! I feel like in these two years I have grown a lot as a person and had a lot of new experiences which I will take forward with me. In this blog post I’m going to explain my absence in a bit more detail and everything I have been up to and will be up to in the near future!
So I graduated from university with a BSc (Hons) Psychology in July of 2018, which was amazing. It was great to celebrate three years of hard work with all my friends and family, but sad at the same time that we would all be parting ways! Fast forward a month and I secured my first proper job, meaning I had to leave behind my weekend job I had for the past five years working with children which I loved! During this month I also moved into my first home….so I was very busy!
I started my first proper job in September working with the elderly, mostly with some for of dementia, in a wellbeing coordinator role. In this role it was my responsibility to put together a varied and interactive programme of events and activities to enhance the residents wellbeing and mental and physical health. I was kind of thrown in at the deep end with not much training. I spent hours and hours at night times planning activities and calendars and finding and contacting entertainers/therapy animals/reminiscence and exercise groups….anything and everything I thought the residents would enjoy! I loved seeing them smile and seeing their joy dancing to their favourite songs or chatting and opening up about their lives, it was great to get to know them all.
During my university degree, my dissertation had focussed on interactions with nature and their impacts on physical and mental health. I wanted to incorporate this into my work as much as possible as I know how important nature is to wellbeing. I planned a total revamp of the garden area, adding sensory and reminiscence to the garden. We included a herb garden and area to grow fruits and vegetables, a seaside area including a beach hut! Plenty of things to attract wildlife, create light and sound and plants of seating areas. I also got the residents in nature as much as I could, whether it be feeding the birds, going for a walk or sitting outside having a chat. I loved being able to use things I had learnt during my degree to improve their wellbeing.
During my time there I made lots of amazing connections with both staff and residents. I began teaching one resident to read and write, we spent many hours chatting and learning and made amazing progress, I was so proud of them! I even brought ponies, alpacas and even a zoo into the home to meet with residents who loved animals and missed being able to see them, they absolutely loved this and animal therapy is definitely something that can work wonders!
Fast forward a couple of years to now. I sadly left my job to pastures new. I have always wanted to make the leap and study for my MSc and was missing studying and learning so much. So I have made the jump, quit my job and going on to more challenging things! In September I will be studying my MSc in psychological wellbeing and mental health! I am so excited to be learning again and starting something new and although I will miss my old job, I needed to be challenged and grow and I want to do that sooner rather than later, I will be studying full time and putting all my time and passion into psychology and mental health in the hopes of furthering my education and career to one day land my dream job. But for now….welcome back to ThePsychedLife!
Comments