freaking out

I am coveting your prayers right now. I had a bit of a distressing afternoon.

With my MA program the end of the tunnel is a year of clinical work (16 wk practicum in fall, 16 wk practicum in spring). The job I haven now is an idea fit because I am able to apply everything I've been learning and really start to grow professionally. When I had asked if I could sneak into the practicum this fall when I got the job, I got a no but the Univ. of Maryland dept. chair said it sounded like I had an excellent fit for next fall. I've just been planning on having my practicum fufilled by my job right now and then having to figure out what on earth to do in the spring.

WELL, it's turning out that it may not be so easy to stay in my current position and do my practicum and I'm coming a bit unglued. You see, naturally, my supervisor on site has to have at least a Master's degree. Fair enough. However, in the UK certifications are very different and many people can work at a master's level without having a master's degree. I actually have more education than the Occupational Therapist that I work under due to the nature of certification and requirements here that's how it is (but she is so good at what she does I learn from her every single day). You can do more in mental health here without a Master's than you can do in the US. As I've been talking to the dept. chair at Maryland (who can really be a jerk in general) it is looking more and more difficult for me to use my current job simply because of this supervision thing.

The only two people *techincally* qualified in the entire clinic system would be one of the psychatrists (not even both. . . what the heck) and one of the therapists (again, not all. . . dumb). So I have to somehow talk to management and beg for them to give me supervision time from one of these people (I have to meet with them 1 hr wk/minimum). The therapists are contracted and paid per hour anyway, so the clinic would have to shell out extra for that time (as I am ethically not allowed to pay my supervisor) OR the super super super busy head psyciatrist has to agree to do this (and he very much intimidates me). It sucks for the clinic and it sucks for me. I'm so anxious about it and I just want to be able to have a meeting with management ASAP so that I can get some sort of idea of what we can do about the supervisor thing. I was thinking Friday, but I seriously am so preoccupied (my brain gets obsessional like this and it's hard to get it out of the hampster wheel) I am praying I can meet with the OT, nurse manager and clinic manager tomorrow to give me some idea of what possibilities are (but am not sure how it will go to coordinate all of those schedules!)

I know that I have to trust God's sovereignty. He will work it out academically and financially but I'm scared. I know that, like before, He will do exceedingly more than I asked for or dreamed of (as He already has with this job) - it's just feeling really stressful in the moment right now, so I know that the only thing that can chill me out and give me peace is prayer.