This report outlines my practicum experience as a Child and Youth Mental Health
(CYMH) counselor at Connexus Community Resources from July 2024 to February 2025. I
completed my practicum on the clinical services team at Connexus which allowed me to get a
sense of the different programs and services provided by the agency while focusing on clinical
counseling. The report outlines my learning goals, which include developing skills in different
therapeutic modalities (specifically Cognitive Behavioural Therapy [CBT] and play therapy) and
using these skills to address complex trauma, as well as to learn how to utilize different
counselling skills cross culturally; these goals are all pointed towards my overall goal, which was
to start developing my identity as a clinical social worker in the north. My personal positioning
and theoretical orientation, specifically how my social location shapes my current practice and
how I follow a social constructivist strengths-based approach, are explored. A literature review
highlights five topics that formed the foundation of my learning goals and shaped my practicum:
complex trauma, the therapeutic relationship and play therapy, CBT and Trauma-Focused CBT,
northern practice, and cross-cultural work with Indigenous children and youth. A discussion of
my learning experience highlights the progress I made in completing my learning goals as well
as demonstrates some of the challenges I encountered, such as in learning how to shift my lens
from a child welfare perspective to a clinical perspective.
