Hello everyone,
Professional Introduction
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My name is Jason, and I am in my final semester at Liberty University, receiving my
bachelor’s in Christian Counseling in May. I am incredibly privileged, blessed, and grateful for
the opportunity to embark on the internship stage of my Psychology Degree program and share
this class with you all. My primary focus will ultimately be on combat veterans suffering from
comorbid PTSD and addiction, as this is what I went through for many years, but now I have
found myself healed.
I have been selected to complete my internship at a mental and behavioral health agency,
Family Service Association. This organization works with many family and community members
involved in the Uvalde shooting tragedy that happened last year; however, my supervisor spends
most of his time with men on federal probation, dealing with addiction and gang mentality.
People involved with gangs experience a disproportionate amount of violence and trauma, which
can lead to the development of mental health and substance use disorders. In addition, statistics
show a much higher prevalence of suicide, homicide, and risky sexual behaviors in prison gang
populations (Stensrud et al., 2019). Due to those risks, federal prisons tend to place these young
men in segregation, where they spend 23 hours a day in a small cell alone for most of their
sentence. Imagine being locked in your walk-in closet with a metal toilet for 5-10 years.
So far, in my first four sessions, I have learned a few standard things between clients; if your
family lives in public housing, you cannot return home with them. If you have to check the box
on employment applications saying that you have been charged with a felony, many people may
hesitate to hire you. You might struggle to regain custody of your children, or you might be
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returning to a traumatic environment that is violent and unstable. Along with all this, they must
check in with a parole officer weekly, get random home inspections, take random drug tests
weekly, maintain a job, attend counseling, and attend meetings such as Alcoholics or Narcotics
Anonymous. It is more than most can take. This is why it is a fact that more than 30% of these
men will return to prison before their parole is even over. Offenders are four times more likely
than the general American population to have a mental illness, which puts them at increased risk
for substance use issues. The odds certainly are not in their favor.
Based on my learning and life experiences, I believe psychology’s principal goal is to
establish goals and develop approaches to address emotional issues, shore up skills in coping and
communication, improve self-esteem, promote changes in behavior and strive for improved
mental well-being. While undergoing my internship with this organization, I will be interested in
evaluating clients’ hierarchy of needs and self-identified mental health goal completions as the
clients work through a cognitive behavioral and acceptance and commitment combination of
therapy. Things like food, housing, employment, healthcare, substance abuse recovery, and
relationships all have a place in Maslow’s pyramid (Smith, 2019), and I believe these all to be
critical to whether these men go back to prison or not.
I chose this site and degree because I have an inner desire and God-given purpose of growing
and helping others. Once someone like myself recovers from things such as PTSD and addiction,
an overwhelming desire to give what you received to others comes boiling up. Paul wrote that
those who are now strong are called and obligated to help our brothers who are still weak. Using
patience and love(Holman Christian Standard Bible, 2021, Roman 15:1). They are nonprofit and
Christian, which were both big pluses for me. I believe God calls us to provide for and assist
others just as we would want support and help if we were in need. I am very excited and eager to
continue this journey. God Bless
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Holman Christian Standard Bible (2021). Oxford University Press.
Stensrud, R. H., Gilbride, D. D., & Bruinekool, R. M. (2019). The childhood to prison pipeline:
Early childhood trauma as reported by a prison population. Rehabilitation Counseling
Bulletin, 62(4), 195–208. doi:10.1086/421392
Smith, L. (2019). Moving Into; Through Prison: Improved Wellbeing through the SPARC and
Prison Voicemail Initiatives. http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/36340/
