A piece of cake!

I have one week left of my internship at NYSPI and I cannot even explain how much I have learned and experienced in the past ten weeks. Working on an inpatient psychiatric eating disorder unit is intense. Of course there is the shock factor of working with individuals that weigh 70-100 pounds. But, beyond that, working with the families of those individuals is a whole other story. I have sat through sessions full of anger, yelling, crying, laughter, and silence. You never know what to expect and what will come up. But, I do truly care for these women and I want to see them get well. I also want to support their families and help them understand this illness and know how to support their daughter/wife/sister.

One of my patients is a sixteen year old Chinese American. She is painfully shy and adorable. She was born in New York, but the mother grew up in China. They speak Cantonese at home and she speaks English at school. So this girl is living in two different cultures at the same time, trying to please both, fit in with both, and find her identity in both. How confusing for a growing, pubescent, teenage girl! The Chinese culture does not talk about feelings in an open and comfortable way, which makes our sessions quite interesting. I have to work much harder to get us anywhere. But, I know there is so much in there that she needs to express in order to get well. Her mother on the other hand, speaks constantly. Which is maybe why the daughter is so quiet! I have an interpreter sit in on the sessions to translate from Cantonese. To explain an eating disorder clinically, medically, mentally, and emotionally to someone that speaks a different language and comes from a completely different culture where self-esteem and body image issues are looked at differently than the US has been so difficult, and so rewarding. I have learned such an incredible amount from this family.

I will miss this internship. I have learned so much. And in my last session with the Chinese American family, the mother brought me this piece of cake as a thank you (a little ironic, no?). How sweet is that?! I guess not everything was getting lost in translation.