{Child Life}

Wonders and Worries is an organization in Austin, Texas started by Meredith Cooper, MS, CCLS, LPC and Melissa Hicks, MS, CCLS, LPC, RPT. They help children navigate through the scary world of dealing with a parent who has a chronic or terminal illness. All services are offered free of charge, which is just one of the things that makes Wonders and Worries so amazing! In addition, all therapy is done by a Certified Child Life Specialist. They offer individual sessions, group sessions, child and parent relationship sessions, recreational group activites, and bereavement support sessions. The one on one sessions are for kiddos ages two to eighteen. The group sessions allow children going through comparable journeys to relate to one another. What a fabulous and unique way to use your vast and priceless knowledge that you have gained in your Child Life education!

So, I tend to get tired of layouts very easily and quickly. I’ve been trying to teach myself stuff on photoshop and have been playing around with a bunch of different banners lately. I have to say I kind of like how things are looking here now, so I might keep it for awhile. I like the bike, the wing, the balloon and the puzzle pieces. I think the blue is calming. I updated the About This Blog page and also added an Internship page where I will be categorizing all the internships by state. Having an internship database has always been what I eventually wanted to do with this blog, there are just so many and only one of me! I’m working on it though, slowly but surely. Child Life is SUCH a competitive field and I feel like sometimes that gets the best of me (and everyone else) so I’m glad to help out others in their journey.

Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas offers a Child Life internship that consists of a full time, 15 week 600 hour session. Their deadlines follow the CLC guidelines. For the internship starting in the fall, the deadline is May 5th. They accept last semester seniors as well as graduates and graduate students. Requirements to apply for this internship include, must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and finished your degree in Child Life or a related field, or be in a program working towards that. They also require you to have 150 hours of supervised experience with “healthy” kids and 150 to 200 hours of supervised experience with hospitalized children. Here is a link to download the 7 page application packet you will need in order to apply. Along with the application you will also need to include an essay, a resume, official transcript, course work review done by the Child Life Council, 3 letters of recommendation as well as verification of your hours working with well and hospitalized kids. They want at least 50% of your hours to be completed by the time the application is due. A wonderful thing about Texas Children’s is that their Child Life Program was established in 1975! For more information, call 832-824-1754.

Hope this helps some of you out there. Keep the requests coming!

I’m running a little low on ideas and inspiration for here, so I need your help! What would you most like to see here? What would you like to see more of? Would posting more internship information be helpful? Would you like to know what hospitals offer Practicums as well? If you are an intern, would you like tips and strategies on how to get the most out of your internship? Is anyone interested in learning more about Child Life outside of the hospital? If you are already Certified and working, what would you like to see? Have you already completed an internship but are on the job hunt and need some additional resources? I know the field of Child Life has a variety of situations and stages in the journey of the career, so I just want to have a little bit of everything and be able to assist as much as possible, while still going forward in my own adventure in this field. Let me know! You can either leave a comment here or email me at sweetblueair@gmail.com

Thanks!

Today decided to force the same layout on all blogs so now my cute new header I made is all messed up. I hope they get it fixed soon. Grrrrr.

I recently received the conference program for the Child Life Council’s 27th Annual Conference on Profession Issues to be held May 21-24th, 2009 at the Westin Boston Waterfront in Boston, Massachusetts. I have never had the chance to attend a Child Life Council Conference, but this upcoming one looks like it will be amazing! The Emma Plank Keynote address will be done by Loretta LaRouche this year. The certification exam will take place May 21st, from 8 am to 12:30pm. Good luck to all those who are studying hard for it right now! A tour of Children’s Hospital Boston will be offered on Thursday May 21st with a limited space of 100. Some sessions that sound interesting and incredibly informative to me include, Play: An Endangered Species?, Sibling Voices: What Siblings Want You to Know!, Temperament and Personality: Child Life Assessments, Interventions, and Research, Boundary Waters: The Ebb and Flow of Interpersonal Relationships with Patients, Families and Staff, and so many others I could write a novel! If you want to register early, you can do so at the Child Life Council’s website. childlife.org

There is also an announcement of next year’s conference which will be held June 10-13 in Phoenix.