I’m writing from the computer lab at MSPP because it is my first official day back at classes.  This spring will be my last semester of graduate school and marks the last few months before I get to add some more letters to the end of my name (Samantha Burns, M.A. here I come)!!!

Winter Break Recap:  My winter break flew by with a trip to Colorado during the holidays, a warm weekend getaway to Florida, a 3 day holiday weekend to visit my parents in Pennsylvania, and some down time at home playing with my cat and watching trashy reality TV!  I did work at my internship three days per week during the majority of my break.

So what’s in store for me this semester?  I will be taking 2 courses: Internship Seminar, which is a class that I had fall semester and accompanies my internship, and Capstone, which is basically similar to a mini-thesis.  I spent a lot of time over my winter break thinking about my Capstone topic and doing some preliminary research.  Right now I think I am heading in the direction of exploring infidelity among couples, gender differences, and treatment approaches.  Exciting, right?!

Currently, things at my internship have been pretty busy.  I’m co-leading a 3 hour long substance use group Wednesday nights, as well as participating in an expressive arts therapy group in the partial hospitalization program (located in the same building), which is for clients who need a higher level of care than is provided at my outpatient office.  I am also seeing 6 individual clients with a variety of disorders and one family! 

That’s all for now, wish me luck with my last semester!