Clients Talk about their Films to Social Work Interns

Today I had a chance to present on the Intermedia Arts Project to this year's interns at our clinic. Every year, Citywide & Community Focus Center recruits eager and capable students from a number of Bay Area counseling and social work programs for a year of supervised internship. This year the Intermedia Arts Project was invited to be a part of the 3-week long intensive training for the interns that occurs annually at our clinic. I brought along our client-participants to the training so that they could talk about their experiences with the digital storytelling project. We began with the 30-minute "Unheard Voices" video which was warmly and enthusiastically received by the interns. They asked a lot of questions to the clients afterwards. If you ask me, I think some of the interns were "star struck" by our client-participants--which is a good thing. The main reason for today's training was to help our future social workers/clinicians to see our clients in a new way--not just as patients but as human beings who have a lot of important things to say.One of my hopes for our project is that our client-participants would continue to have opportunities like to this to talk about their experiences and to interact with the public through multiple viewing/screening opportunities throughout the year. This would not only help fight stigma against mental illness in a powerful way, but it can really enhance their self- esteem. Today's session has certainly boosted my own self-esteem.