Bridget's Internship at Rogers Behavioral Health

Bridget O'Brien

As a Mental Health Intern at Rogers Behavioral Health this summer, Bridget learned about many therapy methods for children and adolescents receiving treatment for OCD, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Through this internship, she was able to work under many therapists, behavior specialists, and doctors. These treatment teams allowed her to learn about the many different pathways a psychology undergraduate student could go and inspired her to apply for PhD programs in psychology around Milwaukee.

As an intern, Bridget had many responsibilities, some of which included checking over 15 patients in and out every day, virtually supporting meetings by calling patients/families when the patient was absent,  and contacting treatment teams when a patient communicated safety concerns. Due to the pandemic, this internship was 100% virtual which allowed Bridget to familiarize herself with teletherapy treatment modalities, which are becoming very popular nowadays.

Bridget learned about hands-on therapy methods in this internship which paralleled the content about different treatment plans (CBT, DBT, ERP) and emotion theories she learned in classes at Marquette, specifically Abnormal Psychology and Cognition. This internship also helped Bridget land a job as a residential care specialist at a Rogers location in Wisconsin.

Bridget encourages as many other undergraduates to complete an internship when possible. She thinks it is a highly valuable experience to be able to apply the skills students learn in class to real-life experiences. As depicted with Bridget, it is not uncommon for an internship to lead to a job offer down the road.