Gail

Hi class! I recognize some students from previous classes here! I don’t have my books yet, but I concur that this will be an exciting short semester about social psychology and how the Covid-19 crisis is playing out!
I am starting my second semester in Ph.D. Clinical Psychology and have enjoyed the challenging, yet enjoyable work it entails. I have been a clinical counselor for 22 years (LPCC) in three different states, and still licensed in Colorado and newly licensed in California. I lived most of my life on the east coast, in New England, but 6 years ago relocated to the Denver area for my youngest daughter’s college (art degree, which she did earn) and because my eldest daughter was living out there with her significant other. I had an excellent experience with clients over the years in the Denver area and miss them tremendously.  I wanted to get away from the snow and the elevation (6000′) was daunting for me, as well as my youngest daughter wanted to try to work with animation companies in California, so we moved here 6 months ago.  I’m glad we didn’t move to the LA region just now, as it has been a hot center of coronavirus since February or so. We are in Bakersfield, for now, and it is pretty good here, but has HOT weather.
My hobbies are gardening, gardening, gardening! I have two raised bed gardens on my patio, as that is the best I can do for planting right now. It is what has been keeping me sane during the shut down, along with my two adult daughters who live with me, baking, reading, walking on safe paths around our complex, and netflix. Therefore, I was getting a little bored and wanted to take two classes online and communicate with our community! Glad to be here!
I am generally most fascinated by personality disorders, but I am looking with great interest into “microaggressions.” I want to learn more about them in several ways: how they are used toward people of color and am I doing it too?; how women of any race get microaggressions on a pretty regular basis; how republicans and democrats are throwing microaggressions (as well as macro-aggressions) at each other during the coronavirus crisis. There is a lot of social psychology themes going on in our world right now!
The syllabus looks fair and straightforward. I’m very glad to be here! Be safe, everyone!