Book I: Getting The Internship You Want: How to write APPIC essays that get you noticed . . . without completely losing your sanity (Essay 1: Your Autobiographical Statement)

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 I: What Makes an Autobiographical Statement
Really Work?

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

Chapter 1:

What Makes an Autobiographical Statement R eally Work?

The secret to writing an effective autobiographical statement is actually quite
simple: You need to say enough about yourself to spark your readers’ interest, but
not so much that they can make a selection decision about you simply based on a
few pieces of paper. This means you need to make such a strong - and
memorable - impression that you stand out from your competition and make them
want to learn more about you in person, ideally by offering you an interview.
Without the benefit of first meeting you in person, they must rely exclusively on the
power of your written words.

So, these words have to perform their task especially well.

The key to capturing your readers’ interest right away consists of giving them
something delicious to know about you - right away - while you still have their
attention. As a writer, you probably have your readers full attention for only the
first few seconds - especially if they are plowing through something as daunting as
a stack of internship applications. You thus cannot afford to squander this priceless
opportunity by filling your first few sentences with irrelevant junk. If you want to
keep your readers’ attention until your final sentence, you must give them some
genuine satisfaction and fulfillment - right from the start.

Unfortunately, most applicants take the safe and boring route. Having
procrastinated until the last possible minute, they have to scramble to fill the page
with something, anything, just to make sure they get their applications into the mail
before the deadlines. They start, predictably, by telling a sterile, chronological
story of facts about themselves and their backgrounds: "I was born on ___ in the
town of ____. I went to _____ high school and __________ college, where I
majored in psychology." Then, while fighting of overwhelming pressure, they
wonder why they become stuck, feel so flat about what they have said, and have
no idea where to go with their writing. Make no mistake about it: If you start
feeling bored while writing your essays, I can almost guarantee that your selection
committees will want to head for the nearest couch within minutes of starting to
read them.

Ultimately, your opening sentences must perform their task especially well: They
have to capture your readers’ interest and cultivate it until they have reached your
final sentence. That is the central theme of this essay: I want you to find a way of
engaging your readers immediately and holding on to their attention until you want
to let it go.

Copyright © 2008-11 by Dr. John T. Carlsen. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited.

CHAPTER I: WHAT MAKES AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY R EALLY WORK ?

Take just a moment to pause and think: Notice your reaction to my use of
"delicious" in that earlier paragraph. The word - and its associations - are probably
still lingering in your mind. My using it could have caught you off guard a little bit.
You might, even, have found yourself wondering where I got the audacity to
suggest using such a provocative word in the first place . . . especially in writing
something so “serious” as internship applications. After all, who expects to read
something "delicious" in an autobiographical essay about a training therapist? Isn’t
that a little too personal? Isn’t it a bit provocative and, maybe even,
inappropriate?

Actually, your autobiographical essay is probably the best place to make such a
strong first impression on your readers. Think about it: Psychologists, by nature,
are curious about people. And, those on your selection committee are probably
most curious about what you believe is important enough to say about yourself.
So, they are very likely to turn to this essay before reading any other parts of your
application. They can always look back at what you say about your training goals
and your previous experience. But, in a profession where your self is your primary
working tool, don’t you think they want to know what you would say about it from
your own perspective? And, what better place is there to do that thank in your
autobiographical essay?

It’s Not What You’ve Done. . . . It’s Who You Have Become

Actually, I believe this first essay is one of the most important parts of your entire
application packet. As I said earlier, this is true primarily because of your audience -
they are psychologists who are interested in what makes human beings tick and
why. So, they will, naturally, want to know the same things about you. Remember,
they are not primarily historians or business executives who want you to trace the
chronology of your work history or prove what you can do already. Rather, they
probably want to know how you became who you are now and what makes you an
appealing applicant and a good fit for their training programs.

When I review applications, the autobiography is generally the first essay I read.
As a clinical supervisor, I do not care where this person trained or went to school,
at least, not initially. I want to see who I am reading about and what this person
believes about who he or she has become. Clinical psychology is a profession that
relies heavily on using the Self as a therapeutic tool, so I want to see what that tool
is made of internally and how I, as a supervisor, could work with this applicant to
develop it.


CHAPTER I: WHAT MAKES AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY R EALLY WORK ?

More importantly, your personal story is one place where you face no real
competition from other applicants. That is, while others might share similar
educational backgrounds or training circumstances, no one has had - or been
shaped by - exactly the same experiences as you have. So, this essay offers you
numerous chances to highlight your distinctiveness with much less effort than you
might have to use in other parts of your application, where you might worry about
having as much practical experience as others have.

Oh, and my use of that word, “delicious”? Being provocative is exactly what I
intended. It caused you to finish this essay . . . and maybe even to consider
offering me an interview so you can learn more about me..

So, was I right?


Chapter 2:

Develop a Strategic Mind Set

Never underestimate the power of the prim acy and recency effects, probably
two of the first concepts you learned in Psychology 101: People tend to remember
the first and last ideas they come across, better than anything else they read. So,
you will certainly want to put your strongest, most compelling ideas at the
beginning - and the end - of your writing. As my 7th grade speech teacher always
said, “Tell them what you are going to say; say it; and then tell them what you’ve
said.” Use a clear introduction, body, and conclusion. This strategy gives you three
chances to regain your readers’ attention (knowing how quickly you will lose it to
distractions) and, as a result, three chances to make the points you want them to
remember.

If I am right, I still have your attention...and have raised your curiosity about what
else I might say. So, you are likely to keep reading, at least until I answer
whatever questions still linger in your mind about what I meant. Of course, what I
was referring to is the personal details that make you a real person to your
readers, that will remind them of why they became psychologists who get to taste -
and savor - the quirkiness of human beings every day in their work. You might not
even care what I meant by “delicious;” in fact, you probably wanted to keep
wondering, at least until you could meet me in person and see for yourself. Yet, as
I said, the term intrigued you enough so that you have continued to pay attention
and tried to understand what I meant.

I certainly do not mean to play games with you or suggest that you do so with
selection committees. I simply want to emphasize the point that you need to show
your real self in your essays, especially this one, and make a personal connection
with your readers - not follow the academic writing practice of leaving yourself out
of your writing as you would in articles or papers for your coursework. And, you
must do it as soon as possible, to establish a strong personal tone. This approach
will engage and keep their attention as well as provide you with the freedom you
need to talk about yourself honestly.

Some applicants worry a great deal about how personal they should get in their
essays. If you are one of these people, I encourage you to read the following
essay: “How Personal is Too Personal?”

“How Personal is ‘Too Personal’?”


CHAPTER II: DEVELOP A STRATEGIC MINDSET

Many applicants ask me how "personal" they should be in their application essays.
As I stated earlier, usually this question arises out of their discomfort with changing
(and challenging) tradition: They have been taught to take themselves out of their
writing, especially papers and essays they write for classes, ever since high school
or college. And, they are often held back by their advisors, who, themselves, have
not figured out a satisfactory answer to this question.

As a professional writer, I take a somewhat radical position on this issue (as
illustrated above). That is, I believe that writers need to go out on a limb and reveal
something a bit vulnerable in order to arouse their readers’ interest. So, I challenge
applicants to say something provocative about themselves right from the beginning.
They can always tone it down as their writing unfolds.

Balance “Too Much Information” with “Just The Right Information”

Of course, your first priority is maintaining a strong boundary between “too much
information” and professionally-relevant personal information. My professional rule
of thumb is that internship applicants (and anyone else applying and interviewing
for a professional position) should bring up the subject of only those personal
experiences and individual characteristics that have become historical facts they can
talk about objectively rather than something they continue to struggle with
subjectively and emotionally For example, a gay, lesbian, or bisexual person who
has fully integrated his/her sexuality and adopted a public persona as an "out"
member of the community can comfortably share this information in describing his
or her development.

On the other hand, someone involved in the throes of the coming out process
would have much more difficulty navigating these treacherous waters. Similarly, an
applicant who is coming to terms with her identity as a woman, managing his role
as a representative "straight white male" in a non-traditional profession, or
exploring the meaning of his or her racial/ethnic identity on becoming a therapist
needs to clarify the contributions of these individual differences to his or her
emerging identity. And he or she needs to do so without overemphasizing them at
the expense of his or her clinical background and training.

In some cases, this information will enhance the applicant’s chances of matching
with certain sites. In other cases, it might actually reduce or eliminate them. The
same is true for applicants who might choose to discuss other facets of their
personal or social backgrounds, spiritual/religious influences, or disability/ability



status as factors that influenced their professional development. Of course, it
makes sense to address some of these personal realities that will be obvious once
selection committees meet you in person, especially if they provide insight into how
you have developed more empathy for clients who share this personal
characteristic. For example, if you use a wheelchair, you might lose a wonderful
opportunity to describe how you view the world that might educate and enlighten
your readers while also providing a glimpse into your worldview.

Ultimately, each writer must make this personal choice only after talking with a
variety of people who know him or her well and are in positions where they can
provide meaningful guidance to the applicant about how to handle these issues
well. As you consider these choices, it is important to realize that you would
probably not be happy training at a place where you would constantly feel
uncomfortable or unwelcome, regardless of the quality of their training or
professional reputation.

Let me offer one word of caution about being more personal than you usually are in
your writing: Take your biggest risks while writing rough drafts. Then, ask a
variety of people - professors, supervisors, professionals, family members - to give
you feedback about what you have said in these drafts and help you filter out
anything that crosses appropriate professional or personal boundaries. Do not
simply take this suggestion as a ultimate truth and risk your future by going
overboard in making your essay too personal. Ultimately, this is a question of
judgment that you cannot afford to make in isolation from people who know you
well.

Chart Your Own Path

At the same time, do not simply rely on the feedback of your supervisors or
academic advisors. Remember that they once applied for internship and might only
pass along their own fears and ambivalence about being too personal. So, are
probably no more comfortable taking risks than you are, and they might hold you
back unnecessarily from using this very effective personal marketing strategy.
Listen well and take what they say with a grain of salt. Just be sure to push the
envelope a little, especially with this autobiographical essay, to make yourself stand
out, and don’t be afraid to do something you believe is in your best interest even if
it goes against some of their advice. After all, this is your authentic presentation
of who you are, so it needs most to fit your own priorities.

In summary, take time to establish this solid foundation for your internship
applications. Give yourself permission to write a compelling, polished



autobiographical statement. Shift your focus from obsessing about what you do not
know or what skills you have not mastered to describing the fascinating person
inside who wants to become a therapist. You will wind up creating a theme that
you can use throughout the rest of your essays and your cover letters. Use your
autobiographical essay to introduce yourself and connect more personally and
emotionally with your readers. You will be amazed at how much it will free you up
to integrate everything else you say about yourself in the rest of your application
essays and your cover letter.

Uncover Your Own “Deliciousness”

To illustrate this point further, the following principles will guide you as you search
for similarly distinctive - and compelling - things to say about yourself:

1.Start with something thought-provoking, a sentence or two that captures
your readers’ interest right away and holds it throughout your writing. The
best way you can start working toward this goal is to think of something distinctive
to say about yourself as an applicant (e.g., why you are becoming a therapist, what
led you initially to consider a career in psychology, how you look at the world and
your place in it, what kinds of contributions you want to make to the profession,
etc.) that sets you apart from other applicants. Say it up front in such a way that
you arouse your readers’ curiosity about you. For example, in my own applications
for internship, I started my personal statement with the delicious declaration: "I
was my family’s therapist." Most mental health professionals, I believe, would want
to meet someone who admits something so provocative right up front. And, I
purposely evoked the controversial associations with the ethical questions about
doing therapy with my own family members. As I told my story, however, I
gradually provided illustrations of how my in-born gifts as a helper/healer interacted
with the influences of my family as they molded and shaped my professional
identity. Yet, all the while, my readers got to enjoy the other provocative - and
even somewhat racy - connotations of my statement.

Similarly, as you continue writing this essay, you can unfold your story in ways that
sustain your readers’ interest and feed their curiosity. Give them something to
think about and mull over as they get acquainted with you, preferably an image
that captures who you are as a training therapist that distinguishes you from other
applicants. Gradually, you can show them why you chose to say what you said and
why you believe they needed to know it in considering you as a possible match for
their training program. And, if you choose this image carefully, you can come up
with something distinctive and intriguing enough to keep their attention throughout



the rest of your essays as well.

2. Say something even more specific about who you are now as a training
professional and how you have become that person: What has shaped your
development the most? Why are you becoming a psychologist? How long have you
known that this is what you want/were meant to become? Did the world (your
family or community) indirectly call you to pursue the vocation of becoming a
therapist? If so, how did that happen? What qualities did they see in you that led
them to encourage you in pursuing this profession? Was there a way in which you
feel that you had no other choice but to become a psychologist? Did you choose
psychology or did it choose you? Did you consider or pursue any other career
interests along the way? What experiences have engaged you in the continuing
struggle to sort out where - and whether - you belong in psychology? Any of these
questions might help you zero in on something worth saying about yourself.

In my own essay, after claiming that “I was my family’s therapist,” I immediately
moved to telling the story about how I believe I actually had no other choice but to
become a therapist until I was old enough to start sorting out various career
options myself. By that time, however, the inborn therapist was well-established
inside me. My family had started relying on me from a young age to carry and
express their collective emotions so very early in my life that I fulfilled this role
unconsciously until I was old enough to set firmer boundaries. Along the way, I
developed my natural gifts for listening and providing empathy, but I had to work
hard at separating my own identity from the expectations of others. (If you would
like to know more about how I accomplished this goal, please feel free to contact
me with your questions.)

3. Remember clearly who your audience is and what they are interested
in reading.. As you write your rough drafts and final editing, keep in mind that
you are writing for psychologists and other mental health professionals, not
business people or lawyers. Try to put yourself in their shoes as you edit your
drafts. What are clinical psychologists primarily interested in? Individual differences
and how they lead a person to interact with him- or herself and the external
environment. Whether interpreting psychological test results or refining DSM
diagnoses, psychologists want to formulate an understanding of what accounts for
the these differences.

So, you want to make sure that you describe something that makes you distinctive
helps you to stand out from other psychology students. One effective way to
accomplish this goal is to prepare for your autobiography as though you were the
subject of a case study or intake assessment and organize your material using this



framework. This perspective enables you to become more objective about your
background and zero in more clearly on the focus of what you want to say about
yourself. Sample intake questions to stimulate your thinking include: Why are you
applying for internship? Why now? What “precipitating factors” led to your
decision to submit your applications at this time? Do you (the "client") have any
previous history of interest in becoming a psychologist (comparable to history of
previous treatment in an intake)? What family/developmental history factors might
have led to this decision? For additional ideas, consult the intake forms you used at
your practicum or in class assignments for presenting a case study. Ultimately, as
you think through your answers, you will probably uncover much more interesting
and relevant information to present and benefit from using a framework for
organizing your thoughts that is familiar to your readers.

4. Counteract the tendency to sell yourself short by focusing only on
external factors that shaped your professional identity or trying to be
someone you are not. Avoid trying to prove how much better qualified you are
than your fellow applicants. Equally important, avoid becoming lost in the collective
beliefs and anxieties of your fellow applicants by spending too much time in the
student lounge talking about the application process. One of the most common
questions I hear among applicants is: "What is (internship site name) looking for in
its ideal applicants?" This is kind of anxiety-provoking question that bounces
around student lounges and practicum offices at this time of year.

If you are like many of the applicants who keep asking one another this
unanswerable question, you will stay equally trapped in their mind set throughout
the application and interviewing processes. That is, you will spend the majority of
your essay writing time trying to shape yourself to fit yourself into these imagined
expectations rather than describing who you actually are and what you want from
your training. Your goal is not, however, simply to be “the most popular” and
“most desirable” applicant. And, it is not, “getting an internship, any internship”.
Rather, your goal is to match with the training you need to become the
professional you are capable of becom ing, not simply to “jump through another
hoop” on your way to graduation.

Invite them Into Your World to Learn More About You

Also, if you are like most budding therapists, you are already somewhat
uncomfortable with talking about yourself publicly. As a result, you might feel
embarrassed about your trumpeting your strengths and gifts. Instead, you are
probably more comfortable simply disappearing into the background. My solution



to this dilemma, then, is suggesting that you start by telling your personal story,
knowing that you can always edit out “too personal” details later. You might start
by describing your personal, historical experiences from your heart. Flesh them out
using more of your emotional reactions (i.e., how you feel about what happened)
than thoughts.

This approach invites your readers in to learn more about you in your private,
personal space. Remember that you internship supervisors will spend a great deal
of time in this personal space anyway, so you might as well get comfortable with
inviting them in at the outset. Then, as you revise and polish your rough drafts,
you can frame the stories in terms of your personal developmental milestones and
begin to tone down some of the emotions by externalizing and conceptualizing
them. In other words, you can move from the more subjective and personal to the
more objective and descriptive. Remember that the experience of writing is very
personal. So, your essays are an environment you can control by choosing what
you want to include and what you want to leave out. Also, rather than having to
trumpet your experience blatantly to stand out from your competition, you can
simply introduce what you want to say about yourself. It will stand alone as part of
your overall application package.



Method #1: The Story of You as a Natural-Born Therapist

Phase 1: The Natural-Born Therapist Begins to Emerge into Your
Consciousness

1. What are your earliest memories of acting as a “helper,” a “great listener,”or a
“natural-born therapist”?

2. How old were you when you started acting in these roles?

3. What did you do as a helper/healer?



4. Who did you help?

5. How did the person or people benefit from your help?

6. What were the motivations that led you to help this person or these people?

Internal motivations:

External motivations:



7. How did you feel about helping this person or these people?

8. How did this experience begin shaping your view of yourself, your role(s), and
your emerging identity?

9. What happened as a result of the help you provided this person or these
people?



10. How soon and how often did this person or these people return to ask for
more help from you?

Phase 2: The Natural-Born Therapist Recognizes That Some People
Help Others as a Profession

1. When did you first start thinking about becoming a psychologist?

2. What did you imagine you would do as a psychologist?



3. Who were your early psychologist role models (famous psychologists whose
books you read or whom you saw on television, relatives, friends of your
family, etc.)

4. What captured your interest as you learned more about what psychologists
do?

5. How did people (teachers, family members, friends) respond to these early
interests? Did they encourage you to pursue them or provide you with early
learning experiences to test out your interests?


Getting the Internship You Get the full book
W ant: (or the entire set) at:

How to write APPIC essays The
that get you noticed . . . without Internship Resource
completely losing your sanity Center Store

Dr. John T. Carlsen
Your Internship Coach

Book I: What Makes an Autobiographical
Statement Really 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.

Book I: Getting The Internship You Want: How to write APPIC essays that get you noticed . . . without completely losing your sanity (Essay 1: Your Autobiographical Statement)

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