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Five minutes with...Jackie Bemcivenga
Icebreaker Conversations with the Mental Health Counseling Class of 2015
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The current students in Touro's Mental Health Counseling (MHC) program range in age, background, and lifestyle, but they all share a desire to become excellent mental health counselors. Our students have a commitment to community service and a passion for improving the lives of those around them. Take a few seconds to learn why Jackie chose MHC.
Name: Jackie Bemcivenga
Hometown: South Huntington, NY
Internship placement: Mount Sinai Psychiatry
Favorite part of internship: In addition to working with mental health counselors, I work with many doctors, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists. Since it’s an inpatient unit, I see the different cases and treatments for illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, etc. from a different perspective—the MD one—than the therapy-based perspective we learn in school.
Valuable classroom lesson: When beginning a crisis intervention session, first empathize with your client and let him or her speak to you. Be open-minded. Every client is different, so the approach to take with one may be different than the approach to take for the other.