You should be a student or graduate in psychology.

The exact start date is flexible and can be arranged once the psychologist has confirmed availability.

Review of Sonja, psychology intern

I am doing a 50% internship with Dr. Bhansali and spend the rest of the time volunteering in the different projects of Sambhali Trust. There is plenty of work for psychologists and Dr. Bhansali is kindly giving me advice on how to address the specific issues of the children and women in the projects. Also, I am working on the Sambhali No Bad Touch Project which is a prevention campaign dealing with sexual child abuse. This covers a standard 8 hour work day.

At her clinic, Dr. Bhansali treats children with learning disabilities and she is a counselor for private clients with diverse psychological issues. Interns are not able to sit in with the therapy sessions as this disturbs the privacy policy of her practice. However, she will discuss her cases with the intern and provide interesting writing tasks. I am doing this internship right now and I strongly recommend it for psychology students who are interested in learning about the life of a psychologist working in a private practice in India. It was very inspiring to meet Dr. Bhansali and I thoroughly enjoy the professional and cultural exchange with her. In spite of this, interns who specifically want to do direct practical work with psychological clients (in the way it is done in psychiatric hospitals) should choose another internship as this is not possible with Dr. Bhansali.

I am gaining very valuable working experiences here and I am very thankful to have found this internship with Sambhali. I hope that future psychology interns will be able to go through the same experiences thanks to the support from World Unite. Kindest regards and thank you very much for bringing me to this wonderful organization.

Internship report by Nicole

For my Masters degree in Psychology I needed to do an internship under the supervision of a Psychologist. As I am very interested in getting to know new cultures, I thought I might as well go to India for this purpose – and wasn’t that just the best I could do!

Via the website world-unite.de, I found Dr. Bhansali and learned about her practice and work at Smile Junction. During the five weeks of working for her, I gained an important insight of her work as a counselor. I was mostly working on case studies, which was very helpful in understanding the psychological issues of her clients. In this context, I also had the opportunity of talking to some of them, which helped in getting a better insight of their issues. During my final week I helped in compiling a list of symptoms of psychological disorders for Dr. Bhansali’s work as a teacher for students who want to become a counselor.

I am very thankful that Dr. Bhansali trusted me with the tasks given as this way I could reach a great understanding not only about general psychology, but also a lot about the Indian culture and its social structures. I really enjoyed working at Smile Junction and always felt very welcomed.

Unfortunately time flew by way too fast and as soon as I felt familiarized not only with living in India but also with the daily routine at Smile Junction, I already had to say good bye and had to leave this world, in which there are still so many things to discover.

To sum up the experiences of my intership at Smile Junction, I’d like to say, that I had a fantastic time and learned a lot about the Indian culture, global psychological issues and how to properly bargain with a rickshaw driver. As a recommendation for any successional interns: stay at least for two months (if not even longer...it’s definitely worth it!). Many thanks to Dr. Bhansali and Sapna! It was great working with you!

Internship report by Sarah

I am in my last week of volunteering with Sambhali Trust. I am sad that my time here is almost over and I wish I could stay longer! Even so, I am happy with what I was able to accomplish while I was here. I didn’t imagine before I arrived that so much could be done in only two short months!

I worked on three projects during my stay in Jodhpur. The first one was Sisters for Sisters, a project at a local home for girls age 0-18 who are orphaned or come from troubled families. This project was the most emotional for me because the living situation for the girls is very difficult. The hygiene and general health conditions of the home are poor. There are also several girls who struggle with undiagnosed learning disabilities and mental illness. As a psychology student I wanted to do more to help these girls but the project is limited in its outreach because it is a government-run home and Sambhali is not allowed to provide this type of service for the children. However, I think the volunteers’ presence in the home has a positive impact on the girls. Sambhali provides a Hindi speaking staff member to help the older girls with their homework and the foreign volunteers help the younger ones with basic English and math. We also play games and do arts and crafts with the girls after their lessons are complete. Lice treatments were also given to the girls, which is a challenging but necessary task. The girls continue to ask for these treatments, so even though it is difficult, it is good to know they appreciate what we are doing for them. The Sambhali volunteers have also given hygiene and cultural workshops for the girls, although we did not do one in the two months I was here. I would encourage the current and future volunteers to plan more workshops and creative arts and crafts activities for the girls because it will teach them skills that they are not learning at the home. Despite the difficulties and strong emotions involved with the Sisters for Sisters project, I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with these girls and will miss seeing them every day!

The second project I worked on was “No Bad Touch – Child Abuse Awareness and Education”, which is a new Sambhali project to fight against child sexual abuse. This project was created this summer and I am very proud to have been a part of launching this exciting campaign! Govind, the founder and managing trustee of Sambhali pitched the idea to me on my first night in Jodhpur and I was in awe at how quickly the project developed. We had a community wide workshop on July 17 with many local dignitaries and community leaders in attendance. Our goal for the workshop was to raise awareness, discuss the issue, and gather support for the campaign, which will bring workshops to schools and children’s homes to teach children how to be safe from sexual abuse. The workshops will teach kids about good and bad touch, that is, which parts of their bodies are private and what to do if someone touches them inappropriately. The campaign also has the goal to train teachers how to talk to children and their parents so that the No Bad Touch workshops can be repeated in schools and at home every six months. The third goal for the No Bad Touch project is to bring regular workshops to government leaders and dignitaries so that there will be support to implement workshops in schools and children’s homes across Rajasthan. We did three workshops at the Sambhali projects in the last two months, the first one at the Sambhali Sheerni Educational Centre boarding home for girls age 6-12, then two workshops at the Jodhpur Empowerment Center for teenage girls and women of all ages.

Another exciting part of the No Bad Touch project was just created last week. Sambhali will also open a phone helpline for families whose children have suffered from sexual abuse. Families will be able to call and get medical, psychological, legal, and other professional help as needed to treat and bring justice to their children who have been abused. Such a resource will be invaluable to many families who cannot afford professional help. I created several administrative documents for the helpline, including a client intake questionnaire, call-in log, client confidentiality and consent form, and employee confidentiality agreement. These forms will be used by Sambhali staff to gather information from people who call the helpline and come to the office for assistance. The staff will then have a thorough package of information and can refer clients to professionals in the community for help.

Sambhali plans to continue the No Bad Touch campaign as a permanent Sambhali project and is currently seeking funding to run the project full time. I have also been responsible for researching funding sources and grant writing for No Bad Touch. This is easily the most boring work I’ve done here, but it is also one of the most important tasks! Without funding it will be difficult for this project to develop and make a strong impact. I am confident that Sambhali will be able to find donors to support such an important campaign! It is exciting to see a new project develop and grow in my time here. I’m looking forward to hearing how this project progresses in the future because so many children and families can benefit from this project.

During my time with Sambhali, I was officially a psychology intern not a regular volunteer. This means that I had the chance to do work related to psychology that was separate from the other volunteer projects. I worked with a local psychologist, Dr. Reena Bhansali, on the No Bad Touch project and spent time at her office several nights a week. While at her office I had the opportunity to work with one of her clients, a nine-year-old girl. I had four sessions, three with the child and one with her mother. Dr. Bhansali introduced me to the client, then I spent some time researching and planning a strategy for the sessions before I met with them again. Dr. Bhansali gave me the freedom to plan and hold the sessions independently, which was valuable because I could give therapy like I will in the future as a licensed psychologist. Since Dr. Bhansali did not sit in on the sessions, I felt more comfortable and was more relaxed than I might have been under close supervision. However, this internship was much different than internships in Western countries. Most interns in the West on more closely supervised, interact with more clients and have more structured responsibilities in the office. These differences were an adjustment at first, but my interaction with Dr. Bhansali was always positive and I learned a lot from our meetings together and my experience working with her client.

I am glad I chose to spend my summer in Jodhpur with Sambhali Trust. I have had a more amazing experience than I even anticipated! The staff and volunteers with the trust have become good friends and I am continually inspired by their hard work and dedication to women’s empowerment in India. I am honored to have met the girls and women of the projects who are working so hard to improve their lives. I would recommend that everyone try volunteering abroad and this organization is a great place to do it. I hope to return some time in the future and will continue to support the work of Sambhali Trust in any way I can from abroad.