Doctoral Internship in PSYCHOLOGY
2007-2008
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Doctoral Internship in PSYCHOLOGY 2007-2008 |
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INTRODUCTION TO THE PROGRAM
Our training program is built on the premise that the internship year marks the period during which a student's previous theoretical, experiential, and personal learnings are consolidated, amplified, and increasingly integrated into an evolving professional identity. Our goal, therefore, is to provide a setting in which the potential for such integration is maximized. To this end, we have constructed a program in which interns are given both responsibility and support in an atmosphere of respect, collegiality, and professionalism. By responsibility, we mean that interns are expected to participate in the same range of services and activities in which the professional staff are engaged: counseling, psychotherapy, psychological assessment, evaluation, consultation, and continuing education. By support, we mean that interns can expect to receive intensive individual and group supervision, in-service education, and the kind of attention and regard that promote intellectual, professional, and personal growth.
Interns are a central component of the Agency. Their training is not a task relegated to a few, but an enterprise in which all of our professional staff are engaged. We look forward to each year's new interns as a source of intellectual and professional stimulation that we welcome and value.
Also part of our philosophy is our commitment to diversity and human dignity. As individuals and as an organization, we embrace the ideals of a campus striving toward multicultural, multiethnic, and multiracial richness.
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Our philosophy and goals and their implementation are all understood in the context of our commitment to the ethical principles and standards of the American Psychological Association. We take it as our mission to train interns whose resulting sense of personal and professional integrity is such that they will contribute to the health and well-being of future clients and will honor and enhance the profession.
The application of ethical standards is taught to interns both through our weekly clinical training meeting and through staff example. Special sessions, at least one per year, are devoted to the discussion of ethical issues. APA guidelines related to such issues are included in the training materials, and discussion of the ethical dimensions of clinical work is a regular part of case reviews and supervision.
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Counseling and Assessment Services has two major direct service functions: psychological counseling and psychological assessment. Interns receive training in the multiple competency areas each function entails.
Psychological counseling has been a central function of CAS for over 47 years. Counseling services are provided to individuals, couples, and on occasion, families. We do not offer group psychotherapy, but do have several thematic groups during the year. Undergraduate and graduate students are the major consumers of our service. Faculty and citizens of the Commonwealth may be seen on an intake basis and referred to appropriate campus or community resources. The range of problem concerns for which students seek intervention include the normal developmental issues characteristic of the traditional age college student. Clients also present with depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, academic problems, eating disorders, issues of abuse, etc. Interns have the opportunity to work with a diverse client population. Interns devote approximately one third of their time to therapy/counseling for which they receive two hours of individual supervision each week by a licensed psychologist.
Psychological assessment services have been an integral part of the clinical work of CAS since 1988 and has evolved into a major component of the internship training experience. Our assessment clients, all of whom are students of the University, are referred into the assessment process for a variety of learning-related concerns and represent a broad spectrum of abilities, as well as a range of clinical issues involving cognition, emotion, and behavior. In order to target our assessment efforts to each student's specific situation, students may be referred for testing to address diagnostic questions of Learning Disability, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and/or psychological disorder.
Most recently, a new service has been added. In keeping with the University's commitment to enhance the retention of students with disabilities (physical, learning, medical, and psychological), we have created the Program for Students with Psychological Disabilities. This program provides clinical case management for students with documented psychological (e.g., diagnosis of a mental illness, history of psychiatric hospitalization, prescription of psychotropic medications) and/or medical (e.g. ADHD, Tourette's Disorder, closed head injury) disabilities. Interns have the opportunity to carry some of these clients on their therapy caseload.
In the context of these service functions, interns are exposed to a variety of theoretical and treatment approaches both to human development and to psychopathology. They receive primary experience and supervision in such areas as psychotherapy, family system thinking, career counseling, and psychological assessment. As time and occasion permit they may also receive secondary experience in biofeedback and stress management, workshop planning and implementation, and community consultation.
The service activities and training function of the Agency emphasize preparation for dealing both with problems of normative human development and with the treatment of psychopathology.
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Our staff is diverse both in areas of personal interest and concern as well as in theoretical and clinical orientation. Some have adjunct faculty appointments and are involved in a wide range of academic activities on campus. Staff discussions of human behavior incorporate developmental, client-centered, behavioral, family systems, psychodynamic, and cognitive perspectives.
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Each week, interns are engaged in extensive supervision of their psychotherapy and psychological assessment work. Both individual and group supervision is integrated into the training model. Two hours of individual psychotherapy supervision, two hours of group supervision on psychological assessment cases, and two hours of group supervision in which therapy cases are viewed from a family systems perspective are provided on a weekly basis. The family systems supervision utilizes a peer consultation model that incorporates the use of reflecting team ideas and social construction theory.
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Further training is provided in weekly three-hour clinical meetings with the staff (details ahead) and in monthly two-hour seminars. In the recent past, these seminars have included topics such as psychodynamics of racism, mental health and the law, eating disorders, multicultural assessment issues, cultural competence in clinical practice, cross-cultural issues in therapy and assessment, empirically validated treatments, clinical biofeedback, spiritual dimensions of psychotherapy, risk management, sexual feelings in psychotherapy, child sexual abuse, and short term psychodynamic psychotherapy. Seminars are offered by individuals from our staff as well as by distinguished faculty and practitioners, both from our own campus and from other universities or treatment facilities. Interns can participate in the selection of seminar topics for the second half of the internship year.
Interns also have the opportunity to attend a series of continuing education experiences sponsored each year by Everywoman's Center. The series is entitled "Women and Psychotherapy." Recent topics have included: "Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Women," "Exploring the Dynamics of Diversity and Multiculturalism in Transference and Countertransference," "Self Injury: Understanding the Epidemic on College Campuses and Exploring Treatment Issues," and "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Anxiety Disorders."
In addition, interns have the opportunity to work with staff members in designing and co-facilitating group experiences. Such groups are skill-centered, and some of the topics that have been addressed in the past are interest assessment and career development, math anxiety, stress management, and time management. Our experience in the recent past indicates that topic-focused workshops rather than therapy-focused groups have been more in keeping with client interest.
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Interns take part in a comprehensive orientation program during their first two weeks at CAS. All major services and training activities of the Agency are discussed, and opportunities to interact with all staff members are provided. In addition, interns are introduced to other key staff, both within the Agency and across the campus.
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Our internship program is full and requires a time commitment that generally does not exceed the forty hour work week. There will be some weeks early in the first semester and during school breaks and summer session when the work load may be relatively light. There are other peak periods when the work demand is greater. The assessment portion of the internship typically demands the most time. Individual differences among the interns of report writing (e.g., style, ease, speed) may impact the differential number of hours required by the internship.
The internship experience begins approximately August 31, 2007 and ends August 31, 2008. As the demand for psychotherapy and assessment services decrease somewhat during the summer months, interns may engage in a variety of alternative activities during this period. Participation in orientation for new students, dissertation research and writing, reading and bibliography development, and viewing and discussing films pertinent to enhancing knowledge and professional development as a psychologist are examples of the types of opportunities that are available.
Individuals interested in applying to the program may do so by using the APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI) and by answering the "Agency Specific Questions" in the Appendix of this online brochure. The standard APPIC application can be downloaded from the APPIC web page.
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Last updated July 24, 2006