Profile

Angela Wagenleitner

My internship at the Lichtblick day care centre of Volkshilfe Steyr.

 

Key data

Job description: Occupational therapist
Company: Lichtblick day care centre – Volkshilfe Steyr
Place: Steyr, Austria
I did my internship from May to July 2015.
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What I did:

  • Carrying out diagnostic discussions and assessments
  • Individual and group therapy to work towards the client’s goals (in terms of independence in everyday life)
  • Supporting and encouraging clients at the dementia day-care centre in all areas

Why I enjoyed my internship:

Due to the different personalities I got to know and appreciate, the invaluable experience and impressions I gained and the joy of the clients when they achieved important goals as a result of their therapy.

What I learned:

To be open-minded towards all kinds of people and all personality types, to have empathy, to see the resources a person can offer and not the limitations, to motivate others, to enable others to live with the greatest level of independence in everyday life and to engage in self-reflection.

My biggest success/My greatest experience:

...was to see how the clients placed an unbelievable level of trust in us within a short space of time and to notice the positive effect this had on the success of their therapy.

How I secured the internship:

I secured the internship by sending an application email to the day-care centre. A year before starting my internship, I had a half-hour personal conversation with my future internship supervisor, who informed me about the day-care centre and asked a few questions about myself.

What I want to do in the future:

I know that I want to work as an occupational therapist all my life. The internship brought me one step closer to this goal and showed me that geriatrics is an area I would like to work in during my future career.