Journal Entry #1 (1 hour)

My commute to my internship was unexpected but ended up fine. I initially missed the bus due to miscalculating the time. I thought it would only take me a couple minutes to get to the nearest bus stop, but I ended up missing it. Thankfully one of my friends was able to drive me to the internship. I think I may end up leaving around 5 minutes early from school to get to the bus stop on time, and i’m sure Patricia(environmental science facilitator) wouldn’t mind. I also observed the bus stops around the building after I left to go home and I saw the bus stop right across the street which is convenient.

Courtland and I talked mainly about proper attire/attitudes when it comes to a professional work environment. I think that there is a level of respect that comes along with dressing nicely and that’s definitely what you would want during a job interview or workday. I soon realized how I don't have many professional outfits and as I get older it would be a great idea to shop for some. We also went over my resume and unbiased language which was super helpful. Courtland suggested I stray away from words with negative connotations like “stubborn”. Nobody has gone over my resume with me and hearing some feedback was refreshing.

I overlooked the trello management board shortly after our meeting and it seems familiar. I think I may have already used a this sort of project management board in my summer immersion program while we were completing our projects. I may be wrong, but we had 3 sections on our boards: not started, in progress, done. If it’s anything like that then it will definitely be helpful to me. I’m excited to get started on working on a project for my internship but also nervous. Regardless I know this will be beneficial to me in the future.

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Journal Entry #2 (2 hours)

Courtland explained Trello a little more to me, and I think that I might start using it for projects overall. The parking lot method where he puts all of his ideas onto a section of his digital board is a good example of how I can organize my thoughts better. I also got a task to do over the week: looking up different therapists that Courtland could connect with along with new marketing strategies. I was very excited to have a research activity to do as a task. I typically enjoy having to read different articles that offer different perspectives and I found myself doing exactly that.

I started by looking up different marketing methods but quickly ended up seeing the same strategies over and over again. I had to go through 5 pages of google just to find 4 methods. Most of the marketing methods were ideas that Courtland has already incorporated into his business: Like facebook ads, connecting with different therapists, a directory, ETC. My favorite methods that I found was connecting with a yoga studio just because of the simplicity. Whether it’s a viable method or not, I am not sure.​
 

Journal Entry #3 (2 hours)

Today me and Courtland did not meet but I did work outside of the office. Courtland had me look up some potential networking relationships on psychology today. I tried to look for therapists that would compliment his practice or would be able to refer me to his office. I searched for therapists that specialize in women's issues and other niches along those lines. Hopefully they will be able to refer men that they are not able to see to Courtland. I also tried to look for therapists that are focused on general psychology and men so that Courtland could network with them to see how their business is going and to see if they had any clients they were not able to see. I also noticed a lot of therapists did not have their contact information on psychology today, which was inconvenient. It made me think more about how inconvenient it would be for a potential client. Therapists should definitely have their profiles up to date with all of their contact information.

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Journal Entry #4 (2 hours)

I have done some outside research about reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is learning the principles of success and the goals you would like to reach next instead of going on to the next goal without any background information on how it can affect you in the end. It made me think alot about how to reverse engineer my own goals to succeed in what I want. For example, i could think about in the long run what i want in life (a stable job and family) and work backwards to see how my path could be constructed to get ot my goal. It's an interesting concept that I would love to see in practice and how it had helped other individuals seek their goals.

 

Journal Entry #5 (2 hours)

Today Courtland and I had a long discussion on what networking strategies he has implemented to get more clients. He has launched in the past a get together with other therapists called drinks with shrinks which was a huge success. He had me gather up all of their names and find out what addresses they worked at and fill out a spreadsheet with the information. He also taught me a common method that he uses to network with other therapists: just take them out to coffee. For example, while networking you could spend five dollars on a cup of coffee to meet up and build a relationship with another therapist. Afterwards, the results of that networking relationship may not appear immediately but hopefully, within the year you will have at least one more client come in through their referral. That single referral could more than triple the money that you invested. Networking is one of the most important skills I have learned while completing my internship. It's important to invest your time and money into relationships that could benefit you in the long run.

 

Journal Entry #6 (2 hours)

I looked over Courtland’s business plan and his website. His business plan is VERY lengthy. The most interesting thing I saw was his list of competitors. Although competitors may seem like rivals, McPherson channels other aspects (like what that competitor specializes in) and uses that to his advantage. He also had them ranked to show how much of a competition they were. As for his website, it is very modern and slick. I think that it stands out compared to other therapists websites that i have looked at. Usually they all have the same kind of images: Zen gardens, flowers, candles, anything relaxing. Courtland’s picture tell more of a story and are overall more interesting.

 

Journal Entry #7 (2 hours)

Today was the first day in a while that I returned to the internship since we took a bit of a winter break over the month of December. It was a much needed break since I had a lot of last minute college things to do like send out SAT scores and finish up my essays. We are more than halfway through with our internship and I need to get better at tracking my hours. I think that they might be wrong right now but I keep track of my hours outside of work a lot better. I am going to start setting reminders on my phone to write down how many hours I have completed. Sometimes we only meet for an hour and later on I forget. My memory is definitely no the best in the world.

 

Journal Entry #8 (2 hours)

As we are closing down on my internship, Courtland and me have just been discussing how his path lead him to being a therapist. One of the things that we discussed was how he found his niche. I initially thought that specializing in one aspect of the therapy (like women’s issues, men, adolescents, ETC.) would make clients weary on coming in for a consultation but according to McPherson, it could make you gain clients. If you show potential clients that you specialize in what they need, they will be more inclined to contact you rather than someone else who doesn’t. As I go into the psychology field I would like to spend my early days trying to figure out what my niche is so that I can focus my expertise.

 

Journal Entry #9 (2 hours)

I think that the way that Courtland Mcpherson directed my internship was unique and very helpful for my future. Most of our time spent together was discussing the action behind the scenes for his business. I have spoken with my other classmates about what their internship entails and most of their internship consists of just doing tasks that their director wants/needs. Having more one on one conversations about Courtland Mcpherson’s business and stories about what he has learned over the years has helped me better understand what I am getting myself into when it comes to majoring in psychology. I’ve also heard more about his experience while being a social worker which has interested me and I might look more into what social work could look like for me in the future.

 

Journal Entry #10 (2 hours)

Before I started my internship, I thought that running your own company alone would be easier since you wouldn’t have to report to anyone above you: like a boss or manager.

After working alongside Courtland McPherson, I’ve become aware of the individual responsibility that goes into managing your own business.  He often has to remind himself to fulfill the tasks needed for his company to thrive, since he has no partner that works alongside him. However, there are advantages to running a company alone.  While looking at marketing pieces, Courtland McPherson can choose marketing strategies he would like to implement into his business to capture his own vision. Even regarding my internship, Courtland McPherson was able to manage my internship on his own and allocate whatever tasks he needed at the time. Running a business on your own can be challenging, but also rewarding.

 

Journal Entry #11 (2 hours)

Today me and Courtland talked mostly about the lingering questions I had left for him. We had a really good in depth talk about how he ended up as a therapist from initially being a realtor. Although I am not the best at thinking about questions on the spot, I thought of some beforehand. Last week Courtland mentioned that I should try and come up with more especially since our time is coming to an end. I think that questioning will be a good skill to learn especially for college.

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INTERNSHIP CLOSING  REPORT

Being able to intern under Courtland Mcpherson was very educational, especially when it came to me figuring out what path I would like to go down in regards to my career in psychology. Although his business is quite small, with him alone working to expand it, it was still a lot of work. I learned how to market a therapeutic practice and the work that goes into networking with nearby therapists. Instead of trying to avoid or overpower the therapeutic competition around the island of Alameda, McPherson decided to channel it into his own practice. By taking other therapists out to coffee and starting a relationship with them, he was able to get other therapists to send him referrals of patients that they could not provide therapy to. This was his best strategy for expanding his business.

I would have liked to learn more about the back end of running a therapeutic practice. Although I did look over The Little Red Telescope business plan, it would have been beneficial to know how to find a location to start a practice, the financial needs and how many patients are needed to keep the business stable. I might look towards interning at  a bigger therapeutic practice so that I know if I would prefer to keep my future practice smaller or expand it to have multiple therapist in it.