Counseling and Human Development Center : Student Health Services

Philosophy | Program Goals | Training Roles and Structure | Expectations of Interns | Facilities and Equipment | Current APA Interns

Philosophy
The philosophy of the CHDC’s psychology internship program is Developmental-Apprentice-Practitioner (DAP) Model. Our mission is to provide a training environment that facilitates interns’ transition from graduate students to professional psychologists. CHDC’s internship program builds upon the theoretical, empirical, and clinical foundations that interns receive from their respective academic psychology programs. We provide a comprehensive practice environment that offers high quality services to students and staff of the University of South Carolina. Since our ethical mandate is for interns to provide professional services to our clientele, the training staff at CHDC offers a comprehensive training program that attends to conceptual, methodological, personal, and creative skills necessary for the practice of psychology. The goals of our training program go far beyond the ethical responsibility of providing a reasonable standard of care to providing an environment that promotes a high level of clinical service and professional expertise.

A university counseling center provides a natural setting for a developmental framework. The University of South Carolina’s Mission Statement clearly articulates the value placed on a learning environment:

"USC Columbia seeks to attract inquisitive, energetic people who are
committed to learning, who are capable of self-discipline, and who wish
to benefit from the variety of experiences provided by a major
university with students, faculty, and staff drawn from throughout
South Carolina, the nation, and the world. The University strives to
educate graduates who are capable of excelling in their chosen fields,
who are dedicated to learning throughout their lives, and who are
responsible citizens in a complex society requiring difficult ethical and
value-related decisions"

Program Goals
The Clients-Interns-Trainers form an inextricable alliance that guides the content and quantity of developmental, apprentice, and practice approaches in our training goals and objectives. These goals are developed in our dedication to provide quality care and quality training in an atmosphere of respect and consideration. Since our context is to provide a comprehensive array of psychological services for the university community, we initially require that interns demonstrate competence in the clinical areas of assessment/crisis intervention and psychotherapy. Assessment supervision meets weekly as a group during the fall semester and culminates with a psychological report and presentation that illustrates an ability to integrate assessment information into a cogent treatment plan. Assessment skills also are continually addressed in individual and group supervision. Similarly, seminars, individual supervision, consultation and group supervision each address the issue of crisis intervention, but the individual supervisor is clearly defined as the case manager. Interns need to get the approval of a training psychologist in order to refer clients for services that cannot be handled at CHDC. Our on-site psychiatrist is an invaluable resource for promptly addressing crisis concerns with our clientele. Psychotherapy is the goal that receives the most attention at our center and is covered in all phases of our training program. Our objectives are calibrated in developmental complexity that will be enumerated in the following section.

Supervision is another important goal in our program and each intern is assigned a social work field placement student during the fall and spring semesters. Supervision activities are monitored in a weekly supervision-of-supervision group co-led by a Psychologist and Staff Social Worker. Group Therapy is initially addressed through co-facilitation and processing with a senior staff member in the fall. Interns are encouraged to offer their own groups in the spring semester. Individual supervision provides time each week to supervise group work in the spring semester. Interns are immediately involved in several aspects of our Outreach/Administration activities. Interns work on committees, participate fully in staff meetings and retreats, and help in the selection process of future interns. In this capacity, interns work as colleagues for the goal of improving our organization. They also are required to give at least five presentations to the university community. A seminar addresses the content and process skill necessary to give effective presentations. Mentoring relationships also provide help with outreach presentations. Finally, Professional Development should be every psychologist’s life-long goal and one that we address at CHDC. Each intern chooses a mentor who focuses on his or her goals for professional development. We schedule research time each week (at least two hours) and provide consultative support for dilemmas that arise in the dissertation process or other research endeavors. After spring semester, interns present an area of expertise to the staff.

Since multicultural appreciation pervades all aspects of the professional roles of a psychologist, we address it in all aspects of our training program. We attend to sensitivity to and knowledge of multiculturalism in our educational, supervisory, mentoring, and administrative relationships.

These six competency areas provide a sharp focus of concentration for the interns and training staff. Our Developmental-Apprentice-Practitioner model aptly guides our training program to provide the support and challenge necessary for psychology interns to meet these goals. We believe that the attainment of competency in these areas will allow interns to feel very confident in their future practice as psychologists. Each of these six goals contribute to our overall purpose to enhance a formidable ethical concern for clientele and an inquiring mind that continually pursues and contributes knowledge to the field of psychology. The following objectives from the six aforementioned goals represent our current design to sufficiently prepare interns for an acceptable entry level of practice.

Goal I. Psychotherapy
1. Establish a therapeutic alliance.
2. Define and prioritize clients' problems and therapeutic goals.
3. Diagnose and evaluate clients' symptoms.
4. Utilize referral sources as appropriate.
5. Seek and utilize supervisory and consultative input in clinical impasses.
6. Conceptualize cases according to a theoretical perspective.
7. Use therapeutic techniques that are coherent with theory and specific clients.
8. Practice effective case management.
9. Conduct effective case management.
10. Recognize and build on clients' strengths and perspective.
11. Address differences, values, or issues that impact process of therapeutic relationships.
12. Develop theoretical/clinical coherence.
13. Develop a therapeutic style and a flexible use of self.
14. Develop a theory of couple therapy.
15. Employ therapeutic consultation to empower the therapeutic system.

Goal II. Assessment/Crisis Intervention
1. Complete an adequate verbal assessment of clients' problems and concerns.
2. Use psychometrics appropriately.
3. Discern and handle client crisis.

Goal III. Supervision
1. Formulate a supervisory alliance.
2. Demonstrate knowledge about needs and concerns of a beginner counselor.
3. Formulate clear and attainable supervisory goals.
4. Demonstrate flexibility in roles of a supervisor.
5. Build on strengths and theoretical perspective.
6. Respect personhood and individual differences in both therapeutic and supervisory systems.
7. Articulate a theory of supervision and rationale for supervisory intervention.
8. Employ multiple intervention modalities.
9. Identify and intervene in parallel processes between client, therapeutic, and supervisory systems.
10. Maintain clear and ethical boundaries in therapeutic and supervisory relationships.

Goal IV. Group Work
1. Learn a group modality under tutelage of senior staff supervisor.
2. Identify group dynamics.
3. Prepare content and process of a therapy or psychoeducational group by spring semester.

Goal V. Administration and Outreach
1. Become fully integrated into the operation and administration of CHDC.
2. Become familiar with organizational structure of the university community.
3. Develop and deliver outreach activities.

Goal VI. Professional Development
1. Demonstrate commitment to research.
2. Demonstrate competence in professional presentation to CHDC staff.
3. Transition from intern to professional.

Training Roles and Structure
During orientation, interns begin meeting with their individual supervisors, group supervisor, assessment supervisor, supervisors of supervision, seminar leaders, and mentors. Besides co-therapy and consultative relationships with interdisciplinary staff members, these six relationships with supervisory staff provide support and resources to help the intern evolve in our DAP model. Each member of the supervisory staff is intricately involved in the training program and collectively meets throughout the year to review the training program’s ability to respond to the professional needs of the interns.

Following is a brief description of training roles and structure in our DAP model.

Individual Supervision. Interns receive two hours of individual supervision each week. The individual supervisor functions as the case manager and determines the intern’s ability to meet the demands of his/her caseload. Besides case management, individual supervisors will also utilize live supervision, consultation, and videotaped supervision for skill development. In the first semester, individual supervision emphasizes assessment, interviewing skills, and theoretical coherence. Supervision in the second semester emphasizes the integration of theoretical modalities with attention to the intentional use of the interpersonal process in the psychotherapy relationship.

Group Supervision. The intern group meets for three hours each week. Live supervision, consultation, and videotaped supervision provide ample opportunities to address areas of growth and uncertainty. Group process offers diverse perspectives. During the fall semester, there is an emphasis of linking theory with the pragmatics of providing psychotherapy. Throughout both semesters, group supervision emphasizes work with couple and family systems. In the summer session, interns provide therapeutic consultations for one another.

Supervision of Supervision. This group meets for 75 minutes weekly during fall and spring semesters. Each intern is responsible for supervising social work field placement students. They are taught a developmental model of supervision and learn to utilize experiential, educational, case consultation, live supervision, videotaped supervision, and consultative interventions.

Assessment Supervision. This group meets one hour each week during the fall semester to review and discuss several objective and projective instruments. This group provides a forum to conceptualize the use of psychometrics with continuing therapy clients.

Seminars. Seminars occur 2 hours each week throughout the year. During the fall, seminars emphasize issues and skills needed to work at a university counseling center. Fall seminars might include topics such as: crisis intervention, ethics, legal & professional issues, intakes, outreach, genograms, family life-cycle, diversity appreciation, referral sources, psychopharmacology, multicultural counseling, Gay and Lesbian issues, gender issues, eating disorders, African American family systems, and consultation. Spring seminars include multiple theoretical presentations by each professional staff member. Interns develop and organize seminars during the summer.

Mentor. We initially assigned a mentor for each intern. In addition, interns develop mentor relationships on their own with other staff members. This relationship encourages the interns to get to know staff psychologists in a different, more personal level, with no direct supervision or evaluation. The mentor relationship flexibly develops between the intern and staff member and can offer many possibilities for professional development. One hour per week may be set aside for this activity.

Expectations of Interns
Interns are expected to reach a level of proficiency of the 6 goals that is commensurate with expectations of professional services by a psychology intern. Interns will make 3 presentations to the staff: an assessment presentation in the fall semester, a therapy presentation in the spring semester, and a research presentation during the summer session. In addition, interns must attain a minimum of 550 hours of direct service delivery (including therapy clients, group work, and provision of supervision) and 5 outreach presentations to the university community. An Internship Contract and formal evaluations are presented to interns during the course of the year.

Facilities and Equipment
The facility of the Counseling and Human Development Center is well suited for an internship training program. Each intern has a spacious office located in its own wing on our floor. Interns have frequently commented that proximity to one another has facilitated impromptu conversations and peer supervision. Each intern office has a camcorder and a one-way mirror for observational and supervision purposes. Three video playbacks provide ample opportunity for videotaped supervision. The Center has a collection of bibliotherapy titles, professional books, and psychological tests. CHDC has a large conference room for formal meetings and groups and a more informal group room plus access to another group room when needed. In addition, interns also have access to USC’s library, which is nationally recognized as one of the tope 50 libraries in the nation. There is a kitchen area that includes a coffee machine, refrigerator, and microwave and staff frequently gather informally for lunch in one of the conference rooms.

Training equipment at the Center includes the following:

VCR and DVD Cameras with wide angle and zoom lenses
VCR DVD Players and Monitors
Copying Machine
Desk top computers and printers
Biofeedback Equipment

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
THE TRAINING PROGRAM
INTERNSHIP WEEKLY SCHEDULE
THE STAFF
BENEFITS
QUALIFICATIONS AND APPLICATIONS PROCEDURE

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