Gap Year: Reframing Time Spent In Treatment & the Opportunity for Exploration
One of the biggest challenges that our participants face while in treatment is what to say when someone asks where they have been and what have they been doing. While some are comfortable sharing their personal stories, most are not ready to disclose this information to prospective employers, college review boards, and even close friends and family members. Since our participants are focused on working on themselves, we started incorporating the idea of the gap year with them.
According to the American Gap Association, “A gap year is a structured period of time when students take a break from formal education to increase self-awareness, challenge comfort zones, and experiment with possible careers. Typically these are achieved by a combination of traveling, volunteering, interning, or working. A gap year experience can last from two months up to two years and is taken between high school graduation and the junior year of their higher degree.”
Because we encourage participants to take advantage of this time in treatment to learn more about themselves, we are essentially offering a gap year experience at OPI. Using the Career and Volunteer Department as an example, we work with each participant in creating experiences based on their interests and career paths. All OPI participants volunteer and attend monthly community service which promotes community, confidence, self-esteem and supports developing transferable skills, resume building, and networking.
We further support the connection between the time off and the opportunity for exploration in the career workshop and other in-office activities. We offer suggestions on how to cultivate a gap year experience and advice on how to utilize these experiences for future planning. We started creating graphic organizers and visual representations of what a gap year looks like from past participants to help incoming clients plan their own experience. We also rehearse this language while mock interviewing.
We encourage participants to fully engage in all that OPI has to offer with the various departments in order for them to get the most out of their gap year.
For more information, call us at (888) 814-5985 or click HERE to submit an online form. We’ll be in touch promptly.