Book III helps you to describe your experience and training with diverse populations and articulate multicultural and individual differences influence your approach to case conceptualization and therapeutic intervention.

1. Getting the Internship You
Want:
How to write APPIC
essays that get you
noticed . . . without
completely losing your
sanity
Dr. John T. Carlsen
Your Internship Coach
Book III: How Do I Incorporate Cultural and Individual
Differences into My Clinical Work?

2. Copyright © 2008, 2011
John T. Carlsen, Psy.D.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
EXCEPT FOR USE IN A REVIEW, THE REPRODUCTION OR USE OF THIS WORK
IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY ELECTRONIC, MECHANICAL, OR OTHER MEANS,
NOW KNOWN OR HEREAFTER INVENTED, INCLUDING PHOTOCOPYING,
RECORDING, AND IN ANY INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM
IS FORBIDDEN WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE WRITER AND
PUBLISHER
PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOR ORDERING INFORMATION, CONTACT:
John T. Carlsen, Psy.D.
(773) 975-4297
DrCarlsen@PDI-online.com
www.PDI-online.com

3. Chapter 1: Make Sure You Do Not Sell Yourself Short
Having introduced yourself as the budding therapist in Essay 1 and described how
your in-born theoretical orientation helps you understand and treat your clients, you
are now ready to show how you tailor your approach to working with particular
clients.
This essay invites you to show how you have not only learned the importance of
recognizing and acknowledging multicultural differences, but demonstrated how
applying this knowledge can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your work as
a clinician.
Unfortunately, in writing this essay, many internship applicants
sell themselves short - as they did with Essay 2. Without
spending enough time to read the question carefully and
understand what it is asking, they simply launch into a
historical description of the diversity classes they have taken
and start listing the racial/ethnic backgrounds, ages, sexual
orientations, and socio-economic circumstances of the clients
they have seen. Or, having stopped after reading the first
sentence in the question, they simply summarize their
experience and training with diverse populations and move on
to the next essay, thinking they have provided what selection
committees want. As a result, they wind up squandering one
of their best opportunities to promote their qualifications.
If only life were so simple.
If you stop long enough to read the entire question, you will see that it actually
addresses two rather sophisticated issues: 1) how you incorporate diversity factors
into your understanding of clients and 2) how this understanding influences the
treatment you provide them.
Instead, it seems that many applicants take a much more haphazard approach
because either they 1) failed to read (and comprehend) the entire question or 2)
they find the question so complex that they rationalize simply answering the part
they do understand and moving on to the next question, hoping for the best.
Having waited until the last minute to write their essays, many of them simply want
to get through the essay questions as quickly as possible so they can send their
applications by overnight mail and hope they arrive at sites under the wire, before
their deadlines.
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

4. CHAPTER I: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT
Can you imagine how this approach comes across to the selection committees who
read their applications? What kind of impression do you think they make when
they fail to answer the question as written?
What might this approach suggest about their attitude toward thoroughness and
accuracy?
Fortunately, after reading this chapter, you are very unlikely to make the same
mistakes. You do not have to follow their lead. Instead, having made the
commitment to use this guide, you can take the time you need now to make the
most of this opportunity for distinguishing yourself from the crowd of other
applicants.
Ultimately, by investing the time and energy
necessary to find some worthwhile things to
say about your background and experience in
working with diverse clients. . . and saying
them concisely within the limited space
allotted. . . you can make a very strong, and
solid, impression on your readers.
From my perspective as a writing coach, this
question goes far beyond asking you to
describe your superficial exposure to diversity/ individual differences. It asks you
to do more than simply reiterate the importance of using the multicultural/diversity
theories that you read for your cross-cultural issues class. Specifically, it invites you
to demonstrate how you have tak en ow nership of your knowledge and
experience so you can apply them in practical - and meaningful - ways. In short,
it offers you a very powerful way of gaining a competitive edge in the competition
for quality internship training. By describing some actual examples of how you
have used these theories to understand your clients and plan your treatment, you
can easily stand out from among your more-scattered, less-motivated peers.
As a Caucasian male psychologist with many years of direct experience in both
providing and supervising cross-cultural clinical assessment and treatment, I have
very strong feelings about the importance this essay in your application for
internship. Having graduated from a program that emphasized cross-cultural
awareness and sensitivity (The Chicago School of Professional Psychology), I know
how easily therapists (especially training clinicians) can “pay lip service” to the idea
of diversity - by simply learning the theories and applying “cookbook” approaches
to working with clients different from themselves - rather than actually tailoring
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

5. CHAPTER I: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT
their interventions to specific individuals.
Unfortunately, as our profession has paid increased attention to awareness of
individual and cultural differences, most psychology students have only learned to
use “cross-cultural” as a “buzz word” to gain a listener’s attention. Yet, very few
internship applicants actually know how (or, at least, take the time) to discuss their
cross-cultural treatment experiences in-depth. (For a better understanding of what
I mean, I invite you to read the following essay.
Avoid Paying Lip Service to Individual Differences
“Let’s take this from the top so you can show me what you are capable of doing.”
“You’re just paying lip service”.
For those of us playing in George Regis’ Stillwater High School jazz band, this was
the ultimate humiliation. As he took off his black-framed glasses, set them on his
music stand, and stared straight ahead, we all felt our muscles tighten and our
cheeks flush red.
For the benefit of non-musicians, let me explain that “paying lip service,” is an
expression directors use when band members simply play the notes on a piece of
sheet music as written. Rather than injecting their own creative passion into the
music - and using the notes and pauses to create a
unique interpretation for their audiences - the
performers simply follow the literal musical
directions. In other words, they settle for a routine,
mechanical, by-the-book performance.
Under a director who got his start during the Big Band era in New Orleans, we had
no such luxury. Instead, we learned early how to gauge the authenticity of a
musician’s performance - to know when someone was truly playing “music” - and to
take our instrumental practice seriously enough that we would never be accused of
impersonating a Real Musician. The musical standards in our band program were
too Old School to risk that kind of ridicule and damage to our school’s public
reputation.
As a supervising psychologist, I frequently have an internal reaction that is similar
to that of our esteemed director. As I listen to applicants’ discussing their interest
in individual and cultural differences. They make sure to sprinkle the buzz words
"culturally-diverse population" and "individual differences" liberally throughout their
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

6. CHAPTER I: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT
written applications and interviews. But, instead of telling me how they apply what
they have learned in their work with clients, they simply start doing the equivalent
of playing scales and calling them “music”. In other words, they act as if culturally-
sensitive assessment and therapy is something they know they are “supposed to
do" rather than something they have committed themselves to learning by plunging
in with both feet. And most of them have no idea how naive they sound,
especially when they come from a background of cultural privilege and cannot
move beyond talking in cliches.
Fortunately, you can take a different path.
“Singing Scales with Well-Intentioned Student Therapists”
As I mentioned earlier, many graduate programs these days require that students
take one or more courses in cross-cultural psychology or diversity studies. The well-
intentioned students then buy a book or two on doing psychotherapy with the
“culturally-different" or "racial and ethnic differences in family therapy" and think
they have developed a solid foundation for their competent clinical work.
But, as a supervisor (and writing coach) I want more.
That is, I want to hear how these applicants have started
using their scales to play a concerto or a waltz with their
clients, even improvising a jazz solo that is based only on
chord changes rather than a written melody line. (For you
non-musicians, improvisation is the ultimate expression of
musical talent because it shows the performer’s mastery
of the music and catches everyone by surprise - the
listeners have the experience of hearing music as the
performer is actually creating it from scratch. Can you see how exciting it would be
for your therapy clients if you spontaneously started
framing their problems and solutions in terms that
they found personally-relevant? And, imagine how
proud much you would impress your supervisor.)
Moreover, I want to know, specifically, what
challenges they have faced in the process of learning
to work across cultures. I want to imagine how they
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

7. CHAPTER I: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT
plan to broaden their knowledge and expertise in working with individual and
cultural differences by having them describe the challenges they have already faced
in their training. I want them to make their training needs and interests explicit in
their applications and interviews and to hear how their chosen training program
could help them make progress in this important domain.
To gain maximum exposure and experience with diversity in clinical work, I
encourage you to choose settings and populations that differ from those with whom
you have previously worked. And, to consider choosing populations that would
provide you with new cultural awareness and opportunities to broaden your
understanding of the influences of culture and individual differences on mental
health.
Before you begin writing applications and while preparing to conduct your
interviews, clarify in your mind what you already know and what you still need to
learn. Be specific with selection committees about how they could fill in the gaps of
your knowledge and experience. Because you have been fore-warned by this
chapter, I hope you will be different from these applicants. Please:
Stop and think.
Take some time to reflect on your own actual experiences. Make sure that you find
ways to describe them that create the professional impression you want to make.
Even if you do not use this material in your essay, it will enable you to approach
writing your essay with stronger self-understanding and greater depth.
Ask yourself:
1. What kinds of diversity interest me?
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

8. CHAPTER I: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT
2. Which cultural backgrounds and which individual differences would challenge
personally and stretch me to develop my best skills?
3. What are my personal and professional interests in gaining experience with
these particular populations?
While they are not directly related to the question in Essay 3, the responses you
come up with after considering these questions will help you to have a much better
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

9. CHAPTER I: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT
understanding of your approach to multicultural/diversity issues. The more
specifically you answer these questions, the more likely you are to come across as
someone who has considered this question in depth. And, the more likely you will
appear as someone who takes the issues of individual difference seriously - rather
than as someone who knows simply how to do w hat is ex pected of you.
Start Carving Out Your Own Professional Values and Experiences
Remember, you are training to become an independent professional. So, now is
the time to start actually thinking more independently about why you have the
interests you have and value the approaches you choose to take in your
professional work.
Remember, also, to pay close attention in how you define diversity. Most applicants
think about diversity primarily in terms of clients’ racial/ethnic cultural background
rather than recognizing the wide range of individual differences that can influence
how a particular client experiences emotional or behavioral problems. You would
be wise to remember that the term actually refers to many characteristics beyond
the racial and ethnic origins, including socioeconomic status, spiritual/religious
background, gender, sexual orientation, ability/disability, and age. Furthermore, it
applies to differences between you and each of your clients. So, for example, as an
Asian-American lesbian therapist working primarily with Caucasian heterosexual
male and female clients, you - rather than your clients - would be in the cultural
minority group according to our society’s current makeup.
As a result, you would benefit from considering issues related to diversity in your
work with every client, since the majority of them would be different from you in
terms of your both racial/ethnic background and your sexual orientation .
An excellent example of this comes from one
of my previous internship coaching clients, a
Caucasian male who grew up in a primarily
African-American neighborhood. For him,
cultural differences were a way of life in a
way that is very atypical from the growing-up
experience of most Caucasians. As the only
member of the societal majority population in
his neighborhood, he grew up understanding
cultural minority experiences very personally from his daily interactions. Yet, from
outward appearances, many African-Americans might not expect him to understand
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

10. CHAPTER I: MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT SELL YOURSELF SHORT
their experiences at all. This example demonstrates how appearances can be very
deceiving - that our ability as therapists to have empathy for our clients might not
be obvious to others - yet still be very strong and deep. It also illustrates how we -
not only our clients - might need to consider our own multicultural/diversity
characteristics and their effects on how we understand the treatment relationship
and choose the appropriate interventions.
In short, as you prepare to write this essay on multicultural/diversity issues, take
some time to think of specific examples that illustrate your experience with
individual and cultural differences. Use illustrations from your practicum training
and from your other life experiences. This habit will help you avoid speaking in
generalities - and coming across sounding like every other internship applicant.
And, as a result, you will no longer risk “paying lip service to cultural differences”
because you will have shown that you know how to play real music, and that you
insist on playing it every time you perform publicly.
Copyright © 2008 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

11. Getting the Internship You Get the full book
W ant: (or the entire set) at:
The
How to write APPIC essays Internship Resource
that get you noticed . . . without Center Store
completely losing your sanity
Dr. John T. Carlsen
Your Internship Coach
Book III: How Do I Incorporate Cultural and
Individual Differences into My Clinical
Work?
About the book
Finally, for a generation of doctoral students who are dedicated to becoming highly-
competent psychologists but facing unprecedented competition for internship
positions comes Getting the Internship You Want, Dr. John T. Carlsen’s proven
approach to distinguishing yourself from your fellow applicants. A completely
practical approach to marketing your qualifications that not only tells you what to
do, but also shows you how to do it.