Saturday (20/02), the Faculty of Psychology UGM held an online Graduation Ceremony for Period II of 2020/2021. This event is basically open to non-graduates but mostly dominated by prospective graduates of the Bachelor of Psychology program. In this debriefing event, the speaker was Widya S Sari, M.Psi., A psychologist who is an alumni of Bachelor and Master of Professional Psychology from the Faculty of Psychology, Gadjah Mada University who is currently working as a Clinical Psychologist. This event takes place from 09.00 s.d. 10.30 and opened by Galang Lufityanto, M.Psi., Ph.D. as the Head of the UGM Psychology Faculty Undergraduate Study Program. Through his remarks, Galang advised the graduates that the graduates had been equipped with psychological skills and knowledge and the most important thing was that the attitude as a graduate of a psychology graduate needed to be maintained. This is related to the graduates who carry the name of the UGM Faculty of Psychology alma mater.
This event was held to provide debriefing to prospective graduates in preparing themselves for post-learning in the completed undergraduate program. Widya, as a speaker, shared her experiences after graduating from college and what she does as a clinical psychologist. As a clinical psychologist, Widya has done and is currently serving clients in the hospital, visiting inpatients, participating in community events at home and abroad, accompanying athletes during the 2018 Asian Para Games, and collaborative research.
The speaker explained that the tasks he received as an assistant when he became a student made him curious about the journal and enjoyed reading it. Seeing the findings and explanations presented in the journal has attracted him to continue his studies and it is still something that is currently being done. In addition, the role of the lecturers, according to Widya, was extraordinary with their respective teaching styles which made Widya learn many things while in college.
When asked about the challenges faced as a clinical psychologist, Widya answered that there were five things, namely ourselves, the stigma, the work field, collaborative work, and the changing world. Widya admits that to be ourselves is not an easy thing, let alone empathize. Therefore, self becomes the main challenge faced by a psychologist. In addition, the stigma that someone who comes to a psychologist is only for people with problems is another challenge for a psychologist. According to Widya, the existence of this stigma arises from the habits of people who are reluctant to learn without judgment. Even so, don’t let judgment come from the psychologist himself.
Then, according to Widya, there is no ideal work area because every type of work field has its own challenges and we are required to adapt. Furthermore, another challenge faced by clinical psychologists is working as a team and it surprised him because he was asked to explain psychological issues that exist to people who do not have a background in psychology education. Until now, Widya acknowledged that this was still a challenge. Finally, world conditions that are not stagnant, such as the current pandemic, require online counseling sessions. This requires Widya to learn how to serve clients through an online system, especially chat. Conducting online counseling sessions, Widya admitted, is not easy because of limitations in capturing expressions and gestures, both of which are included in the observation process which is the strength of a psychologist.
At the end of the presentation session, the speaker conveyed three things as a message for the graduates, namely let yourself grow, let yourself grow by nourishing yourself through various experiences which will later help in making mature decisions. Second, be prepared for the challenge, must be prepared with various challenges. Opportunities don’t come twice, but many times and it only happens to people who are able to see things that don’t go their way as challenges. Lastly, be the best version of you, because in essence, a person does not grow to be compared to other people, but compares himself to our former self.