So here it is: Ashley’s guide to writing your Capstone and surviving. If you’re a Master’s student, you’ve heard this term (“Capstone”) since you started. It’s the terrifying “thesis” project you have due at the end of your Master’s career. You might think: “40+ pages!? I can’t do that!” Newsflash: You can! It’ll be the most time consuming thing you’ve ever written, but it’s completely doable. I’ll tell you how!

1. Pick A Topic You Love

You’ll hear this a thousand times from your professors before you begin your Capstone, but it’s completely true. Make sure you pick a topic that is interesting and engages you. It needs to be a topic that you don’t mind 20+ articles on, because that’s the commitment you have to make. If you have a disorder/population that you want to specialize in, I suggest you pick something relating to that. You’re going to be working on this project for at least one semester, if not two. Make sure you can stand it, because you’re about to become a master of it.

Why do bad things happen all at once? If you've never thought about it, it's absolutely true. For instance, this crazy blizzard that we're just getting over completely screwed me over in so many different ways. Not only did I get stuck at the hospital working ridiculous hours all weekend, but the power was out at my house and at work, leaving me freezing no matter where I went. And the constant driving over ice and snow destroyed my breaks. My car was out of service for two day, leaving me home from school and internship. As you know, these are two very important parts of my education. Missing even one day is just not an option. Not to mention even affording the repairs to my car left me even more broke than I usually am.

You could say that I was born to be in the Psychology field, but that I didn't realize it until it slapped me in the face right before I started undergrad. Before a very specific moment in time, my goal was to be a writer. I loved writing. Writing was my life. I hadn’t an inkling about the Psychology field or the wonderful things it would offer me. But, like many people on the path to therapy (or some other Psych related avenue), I was touched very personally by mental illness.

My path to MSPP began on my back deck on a sunny April morning, and somewhere between a bad phone call and the classroom where I sit now, I was changed by Psychology. I still don’t know why my heart cried out “be a therapist,” but it did. All through undergrad I did my best to get the fundamentals down, and two years ago I applied to this school and have not looked back.

Self-care is hard to come by in my life, as I imagine it is for most of the people reading this. When I’m not in class or at internship, I’m at my job at Pembroke Hospital. 90% of my week is spent doing some form of work, either at the hospital, in class, at home for class, or at internship. In fact, this was the first week where I actually requested work time off so I could get homework done. Three classes might not seem like a lot, but between capstone, my elective (this class), and internship seminar, I’m feeling pretty worn out. Right now I'm really looking forward to having more time to read a book, watch a movie, or play with my dog.

We know that self-care is an important part of our daily routine. So I want to share with you some of the things I’ve done this week for self-care, and things I plan to do to keep myself sane during this stressful time in my life. (Only three months left! Counting down!)
Last week was actually a pretty busy week for me. I had spent the weekend with my boyfriend, watching the Patriots and going to the Bruins home opener. (One of these things was good.) Even though my week started with the awesomeness of being with the man I love and doing fun, exciting things, I stupidly did not do much homework. That made this week especially stressful. But I did make time to go to the gym at least once.

One of the things I think MSPP doesn't do enough is tell their students how hard goodbyes are. There is no feeling quite like saying goodbye to a client, after forming a firm, positive relationship with them. This is especially true when the goodbye is unexpected. We all know that our Practicum and Internship has an end point. The relationships we form with our clients are very temporary, even moreso sometimes than the ones we'll make when we go to work after our degrees.

A new year, a new set of goals. Two years ago I graduated from Endicott with my Bachelors degree, and this June I graduate MSPP with my Master's. It's experiences like this that are particularly exciting, mostly because a whole new chapter of my life opens up once I get my degree. Now is the familiar sense of anticipation, planning a life after school ends.

Today was a historic day for me as a counselor-in-training. "Why, Ashley?" You may be asking. I'll tell you. It begins with a story, starting a week ago (last Friday).

Today the DSM-V was confirmed by the APA's Board of Trustees. This means that, finally, the new edition of the DSM will be published and used by professionals. Especially exciting is the number of changes made to diagnoses or criteria, that supposedly makes our jobs as therapists easier. For instance, Hoarding is now a DSM diagnosis, no longer listed as an OCD diagnosis. PTSD is now added to Trauma and Stressor-Related disorders, a new chapter added to the DSM-V.

Today I was driving home from the gym and I saw the strangest thing: someone had Christmas lights strung across the inside of their SUV. The inside! If I wouldn't have gotten into an accident, I would have done a double take. After this moment, I drove home hyper aware of the Christmas lights in my town. I was saddened to find that there were less than I remembered when I was younger. Perhaps this is just my perception, the nostalgic joy of being a kid driving around looking at Christmas lights with her family, versus the now-23 Grad student who doesn't believe in Santa anymore. But I swear, less and less people are decorating for Christmas, my family included.