The doctoral internship is designed to provide practical training in clinical/counseling psychology. The internship is composed of one 12-month primary and one secondary placements of 6-months. Within these settings adults receive individual, couples/partnered, and group therapy, and psychological assessment. Placement at two sites provides a diversity of socio-cultural experience and additional supervisors.
Each full-time intern is required to participate 42 hours per week, 50 weeks per year. The internship program provides a planned sequence of weekly training seminars. By the end of internship, each intern is required to have a minimum of 500 hours of direct client contact, 100 hours of regularly scheduled individual supervision, 100 hours of group or additional individual supervision, and 2000 hours of formal training.
These requirements enable the intern to meet or exceed all standards for APA, APPIC, the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB); and licensure requirements in all 50 states, and the Canadian Provinces.
The program is designed to address the needs of the intern so that upon completion of the internship, the intern can function as a professional psychologist. Work assignments, consultations, supervision, staffing, and all other decisions regarding the utilization of time will be made with careful consideration of the intern's training needs. All activities of the internship training program are coordinated by the Clinical Training Committee (CTC). This committee consists of the Training Director and all psychologists who assume supervisory responsibility for the interns.
Doctoral internships are for twelve months and involve considerable individual and group consultation and supervision. The intern will receive experience and training in a variety of areas including: 1) psychological assessment and diagnosis, 2) therapeutic intervention, 3) psychological consultation and community education, and 4) evaluation of the applications of psychological procedures and techniques. The level of responsibility that the intern assumes in all of the areas of training will increase throughout the internship appropriate to the intern's development.
As a flexible approach in training must emphasize each individual's needs, professional goals, and interests, each intern and their primary and secondary supervisors develop an Individual Training Plan (ITP) (within the context of the overall training program). The process of developing the ITP begins when the interns complete a self-assessment. The purpose of the ITP is to identify the specific experiences desired by each intern to strengthen their professional development.
Supervision of all activities is an integral part of the internship. Supervision will consist of approximately three hours of individual supervision per week and will allow for evaluation of all aspects of the intern's progress. The intern is assigned a primary supervisor, a licensed psychologist, who will supervise the intern throughout the year. Each intern will receive individual supervision from the primary supervisor, and from a minimum of two other supervisors who are also licensed psychologists (one from each of the intern's secondary site). Additional group supervision and case consultation is also provided. Supervision will also include continued systematic evaluation and feedback from all supervisors. Written evaluations will be completed quarterly, or as necessary to meet requirements of the degree granting institution.
