SLV.Global Reviews 190

I took part in the 5-week placement to Sri Lanka with SLV Global and had the most amazing time. I really enjoyed living in another culture alongside other Psychology students and the sessions were really eye-opening.

One aspect I would say needs to be improved is session planning on a Monday morning. This was rather unorganised and we were only given 10 minutes to plan each session. I think this aspect could definitely be improved, as it is a very important part of the week.

Moreover, costs including transport and resources are not included within placement fees and many people did not realise this before going to Sri Lanka. Although both of these aspects are rather inexpensive in Sri Lanka, costs do still build up.

Overall, Sri Lanka was the most amazing experience and I really enjoyed the placement. Thank you SLV!

I completed the 5 week foundation mental health placement in Sri Lanka. Overall, I would say the experience was rewarding: I gained invaluable experience in a field I did not know much about before, while fully immersing myself in a new and exciting culture. I worked on many different projects with service users exhibiting a range of different disabilities, giving me a varied and well-rounded experience. I particularly enjoyed the field trip to a psychiatric facility - although it was difficult and emotionally taxing to see the state of the facility and the extreme dependence on drug therapy in Sri Lanka.

However, I only gave 3 stars because of two main limitations. Firstly, I wasn't entirely sure where my placement fees went, since there were quite a few additional costs. For example, attendance to the workshops, which were offered every Thursday, was strongly encouraged since after all, "it's what you paid for" (quoting a peer mentor). However, these workshops always came at an additional cost! They weren't expensive, yet it just made me wonder where all the money from the fees went (there were also additional transport costs to other compulsory activities)...

Moreover, the session planning hour on Mondays was my least favourite part of the week. It was very unorganized and held in a loud setting - hardly the right environment for thoughtful discussion and planning (maybe this was just the case in my placement area, Horana, since I heard that the volunteers in Kotte and Colombo did not have this problem). Each project only got 15min of planning dedicated to it, which sadly often led to rushed and "impromptu" session plans, which were not sufficiently tailored to the individual service users needs. I wish SLV had some sort of “masterplan” for each project, providing some sort of rough overview of what has been done in the past, and what should be focused on in the coming weeks – I feel like this would make session planning way more straightforward and ultimately give service users (and volunteers) a better experience.

That being said, I do not regret doing this placement, yet I would definitely encourage future applicants to take the above into consideration. It is an expensive placement and you should be very sure you are willing to pay the sort of money required for the experience.

My whole experience with SLV Global has been one of the best things I've ever done. I am so grateful to have been able to travel out to Sri Lanka for 5 weeks working on a variety of Mental Health and Community based projects in order to help to improve Mental Health in Sri Lanka.

You are not only provided with a wide range of invaluable psychological work-experience, but you also meet a variety of amazing people, travel during weekends and challenge yourself daily- therefore the whole experience is also an amazing personal experience- one which I will never forget and will continue to recommend to everyone!

Very fruitful and rewarding experience where you could get hands-on experience working with different service users. And as well, gain a broader view on global mental health issue.

The experience is a once in a life time opportunity. It gives you experience that will be useful for the rest of your life, and perfect to talk about in any form of interviews no matter what future job or experience you apply for. As well as this, the experience is exciting and gives you a chance to impact others and have your life changed in return! The company makes the transition into your experience smooth and enjoyable and everything is extremely well organised ensuring you can enjoy yourself stress free!

The most life changing and rewarding experience having the opportunity to work within an amazing team and in a field thaI I am most passionate upon. I did not realize how powerful non-verbal communication is until I joined the SLV.Global in Bali with the language barrier and the individuals who had severe mental health issues or hearing impairment; this is one of the valuable skills that I have developed for my future career in mental health A lot of the team had graduated or were graduating in psychology however this placement is beneficial for all areas working within mental health or individuals with learning disabilities. The weeks were occasionally challlenging from the heat and exhaustion yet it was definitely worth every minute of it by making that small yet significant differnce on the individual. SLV.Glbal were very supportive during the four weeks and I cannot thank them enough for the inspiring experience. Not only has this developed my skills for my career yet I have gained amazing friends and memories that will last a life time!

Because there is just one life, we need to make the most out of it. When I hear at first about SLV Global I thought it was one of those things only happened in dreams. But we are the owners of our lives, and we decide if we want to make our dreams become true. I completed the 5 weeks program in SL last year, and it was, apart from a significant working experience in my cv, such a life challenge. It was my first time out of Europe; I was traveling by myself to work and live with people I didn't know and it was in a faraway country. Sounds scary right? Well... I always said that I have my blood family back to my country, and I have my day a day family, the family that the life makes you cross with. I am lucky to say that I founded my family in SL who teach me to live, work and deal with so many different people every day. My ama and daughter (Sindu) who were my mom and sister and whose I loved to spend time plaiting their hair and playing the lottery every Sunday night; my roommates, colleges and mainly friends with who I got lost every weekend, got sick together and sweat together so much (because you will sweat a lot, LOL); and my "Despacito team" (Staffs) always laughing and mocking with me to make the most out of my smile, whose will join you all the time working, dancing or anything you need. I remember I came back last year after this project and I felt strange, couldn't believe all that I did in such a short time, and I knew I would do something like this again. Now I just completed the SLV India program. This time I thought I knew where I was going and what I was going to do but what the life is that it will never stop to surprise me. It is a completely different project and I still have literally no words to describe it. It was amazing, beautiful, wonderful, it is such a short project, so you think is not going to be as good as the previous one. But I found out how many things you can learn in just 2 weeks time. The first week is about workshops and clinics around India which surprisingly has so much to offer; you will learn and discover a new brutal cultural approach, I was fascinated about NIMHAS and all the temples you will visit too! It is just impressive!. And very important to point out, the second week: such an adventure, you will jump in the sea like a kid as well as hiking in between the clouds of mountains with the best team you could ever have! These guys looking after you in India will become your friends, your support to cry, laugh, eat a lot and jump to any adverse issue that you can approach being abroad. Even when a few people did not want to get involved in the activities and they were pushing the whole group down, the team did everything to find the best solution to help them. These guys became my family and I will always be so grateful to all of them. Because this is not a goodbye, this is a see you soon guys! The 2 weeks India program is full of awesome and also tricky experiences with lots of emotions of all sizes which will make you feel everything intensest than ever! I just came back and everything feels different at home, still processing that I am not there anymore and I need to get back to a world where nobody will really understand what those 2 weeks experience has been like to you. That's why it is a one life experience that nobody should miss because I can not explain it better, you should just go, try and live it....! that's all it is.

Thank you to the whole team.

Sonia Gascon

Amazing company offering such invaluable experiences that make such a difference to both service users and volunteer's lives. Thank you SLV.Global!

Volunteering with SLV. Global provided me with the most incredible experience from working with service users with a wide variety of mental health issues to being completely immersed into a new culture and way of life. I loved every second of this challenging but extremely rewarding placement and can only hope to continue work like this in the future.

5 week advanced placement, Sri Lanka

I have recently come back from my placement in Sri Lanka and it may just be one of the best things that I have ever done. The placement exceeded any expectations and gave me opportunities to work with a variety of service users whilst making friends that I consider family and experience an entirely different culture (which I miss so much). I didn't want to come home!

I have recently completed the 1week placement in India. Focusing on global mental health and cultural difficulties they face over in India when treating mental health.
I couldn't of asked for a more informative, supported and amazing experience than the one I got with SLV global.

I've recently completed my 1 week placement of the global and clinical psychology educational placement in India. I had a great time with 2 intensive days of learning about psychology at a national institute (NIMHANS), 2 days of learning about meditation, mindfulness and yoga at the School of Ancient Wisdom and a couple of days spent doing more cultural touristy things in Mysore (my favourite days were the ones spent at NIMHANS). Even though I wasn't able to visit the Brain museum as advertised, I found myself enjoying the new open top jeep tour a day later. The staff were incredibly accommodating and friendly, and the food was fantastic everywhere we went. Although I did not stay on for week 2, I had a great time in India.

Recently completed the 5 week advanced placement in Sri Lanka and had the best experience working with the service users and experiencing the culture out there. The people I met were all absolutely amazing and I am already looking into doing it again next year.

My time in Bali was absolutely incredible. The experiences I had during the month-long placement were so much more valuable than I had ever anticipated. The work is incredibly hands-on from the beginning since you are required to plan the sessions yourselves and the variety of projects meant we got to development a breadth of skills. I am pursuing school psychology so I had expected that the projects involving children and schools would prove to be the most useful to me but working with adults in highly clinical settings actually helped me develop many of the skills that I will need later on. Not to mention that you will so many incredible people who come from so many different parts of the world. It is an amazing way to get out of your comfort zone and become more knowledgeable about other parts of the world.

I've had such an incredible time in Sri Lanka and have learned so much during my time there!! No regrets choosing to spend my summer volunteering in Sri Lanka and I am extremely grateful for all the support that SLV has provided. It was amazing getting to immerse myself in a whole new culture while also spending time in a field that I'm passionate about.

My 5 week placement in Sri Lanka involved a rollercoaster of emotions. I may mention some negatives in this review, but this is what partly made the whole experience worth it.

As soon as I walked into my homestay, I was shocked and to be honest, I couldn't really believe what I was doing in Sri Lanka. Everything felt surreal. I soon became very comfortable and at home as the family members were so welcoming and comforting, as well as other volunteers that are staying with you in the homestay. The people you live with make your whole experience on this trip. You come back from a long day of sessions, and rant to the girls/boys in your homestay, but then mention all of the positives and how it's been an amazing day. I loved doing this when I came back from every session.

The thing that made this trip worth it for me were the sessions itself. I met the most lovely service users, some from very underprivileged backgrounds, yet still have a smile on their face when you visit them every week. You adjust to your early mornings and long journeys very quickly, and you also learn to bring headphones on the bus with you to put you in a good mood when you have a 1 hour journey! This was important.

I LOVED every single session I had. The staff, the volunteers, and the service users were always happy. Some sessions can get quite deep and emotional, but you learn to deal with this in the right way over time. I'll never forget the first time I walked into one of my sessions, with a lot of the service users looking disinterested. I'll also never forget walking away from the same session on my last week, seeing most of the service users excited and ready to do 'raindrops' and all of the other activities we had planned.

This is what made the whole experience worth it for me. You're helping and learning so much not just about mental health, but also about the culture in Sri Lanka and how they deal with certain things.

I also cannot go without thanking some of the SLV staff members. I had a very emotional time on this trip, as I sometimes found that I was putting more effort into some sessions than other people (which is inevitable when working with a group of people), but you walk out of the 5 weeks knowing that you put your all into it. I was always looked after by the staff, receiving frequent texts asking how I am, and also got some home visits in case I needed that little bit of extra support.

This trip was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I would recommend it to anyone, and I'm even more thankful that I came out of it with a lot of new friends, and an even bigger passion to fulfill my future dream career from this.

A once in a lifetime experience that will prove itself invaluable on your CV.
Hands on experience in combination with a group of amazing people and learning about new cultures as you work. Helping people and seeing the change you're making and being given the opportunity to become an ambassador the following year. Slv is full of opportunities and new experiences and friendships. I would recommend it to anyone in the field of mental health.

I completed the SLV India Program for 2 weeks and had a once in a life time experience.

SLV makes it so easy to gain clinical experience in a completely difference culture while exploring and immersing yourself within that culture.

I would recommend this to any one wanting to gain clinical psychology experience but also for people who are just interested in psychology and mental health and want to explore a new culture.

My experience at SLV Sri Lanka was amazing, although there were a few problems with the accommodation, i enjoyed living with a local family who cooked for us really nice food. The projects mostly involved giving creative therapeutic activities to people in psychiatric facilities and special needs schools, it was a wonderful opportunity to be a part of that. We also taught english in communities. They also have socials for the volunteers which i think really helped us work as a team. The program is well organised and the staff are very helpful !

I completed the 5-week Advanced Mental Health Placement in Sri Lanka, and it was an amazing experience, to say the least! One of which I know I will never forget! Throughout my work experience in Sri Lanka, I was fortunate enough to gain valuable insight into mental health services in Sri Lanka, and work on various projects in special needs schools, mental health hospitals, attend workshops for my own development as well as shadow psychiatrists during their days of work. I was able to plan valuable sessions to run every day, which allowed me to end each day at a project with a rewarding feeling, knowing that I was making a real difference to the mental health services in Sri Lanka.

This experience has taught me that there is so much more to what we are taught within the lecture halls at universities and what you may read in a textbook. The beliefs and cultural practices of individuals really have a huge effect on how people accept and cope with their illnesses, as well as which treatments may be best suited for such individuals.
Many of the projects forced me to come out of my comfort zone, think on my feet and improved my overall confidence in working with my peers as well as the service users.

SLV provides you with the opportunity to also live with a Sri Lankan family during your placement. Living with my Amma and Perera an experience in which I would never forget! They both will always have a special place in my heart. They took such good care of me during my time in Sri Lanka and always made me feel at home, which definitely made being so far away from home much easier.

In such a short space of time, I was able to learn so much about myself, others, and fall in love with the beautiful island Sri Lanka. I am very thankful for this experience and will definitely miss the smiles that I often saw on the service users faces as I arrived and left projects on a weekly basis. Thank you again to the SLV team for such an amazing experience.