I began my internship this week. The first of 900 hours I must accumulate to reach my master’s degree. Being completely honest, I was looking at this pile of hours rather ominously. I’ve already come so far in my degree and yet the impending effort and time crunch of a 30-hour weekly internship made my graduation day seem so far away.

I’m working at a men’s residential drug treatment center. When I stated my internship site to my supervising professor, she said, “Wow, that’s hardcore.” Talk about a scary way to start the semester.

I went into my first day with a mix of optimism and impending doom. My mind had been swirling all week with worries about how “hardcore” the population would be. As we’ve been told repeatedly in our program, addictions counseling isn’t really known for being a cakewalk.

Fast-forward one week, I remember my heart racing and feeling the emotion of a man sitting across from me as he explained his reasons for use. Reasons so deeply enrapt in grief and loss, that I couldn’t help but reach that place and understand his addiction. I remember my feelings of elation as I sat with my peers, leading a group of 30 or so men through a music therapy group. The enthusiasm a large majority of the men had to use music to speak to their addiction was refreshing.

I had gone in with such low expectations for my population because of everything I had learned about counseling addicts. I had been told to not get my hopes up and to celebrate the good news, but not wait for anything to happen. While I see the wisdom in this statement, especially as a new counselor, I can’t help but feel that would be the wrong mentality.

Being a counselor means having a belief people can change. Being an addictions counselor should be no different. I’m looking forward to plowing through those remaining 800 or so hours. I won’t expect my clients to change, but I will continue to believe they can.

Jennifer Bingaman is a counselor-in-training and freelance writer. She blogs about her experiences as a client and a counselor with a few life musings thrown into the mix at http://www.thepursuitofsassiness.com/.