Training Activities

Training Activities

Interns at the CCSD are employed on a 40-hour-a-week basis. It is expected that, on occasion, there will be work that must be completed outside of the 40-hour work week including readings for seminars, some outreach, and some note writing. Interns are required to participate in the following training programs:

Assessment/Triage: The assessment of incoming clients is a part of the triage/intake interview procedure. All staff members participate in the triage system. The triage counselor is responsible for clarifying the presenting problem, assessing the severity of the problem, judging the need for timely interventions, and discussing with the client the treatment alternatives that are available to them. Interns are responsible for five hours of triage coverage per week. At triage, a disposition decision is required. Following the initial intake session, a treatment plan is required as part of the documentation. While CCSD has no formal policy at this time regarding formal diagnosis, it is expected that interns will be having regular conversations about this in supervision and develop diagnostic impressions.

Rotation with the psychiatric providers on staff: Each intern will have a two-hour bi-weekly rotation working with the CCSD psychiatric providers in either the fall or spring semester. This rotation provides some exposure to a medical model of diagnosis and psychopharmacology. Activities during this time may include observation of psychiatric providers conducting medication evaluation or medication checks with students; discussion of diagnosis, psychopharmacology, or other relevant issues; clinical consultation; or related readings.

Counseling and Psychotherapy: Direct counseling and psychotherapy is one of the major emphases of the internship program. The internship experience is viewed as one of the best opportunities for the developing psychologist to gain a broad range of experience with clients while receiving intensive supervision. Interns will have experience with a number of different kinds of cases, requiring different interventions and lengths of treatment, and will designate 12–15 hours per week for individual counseling in the CCSD. While there are no formal session limits, CCSD primarily offers time-limited/goal directed therapy. Therefore, the program focuses upon effective use of therapy within a brief model. Interns have exposure to a variety of perspectives to consider in this process, including developmental theory, diagnoses, and different theoretical approaches to therapy. Interns do have the opportunity to select 1–2 clients to experience a longer course of therapy.

Crisis Intervention: It is reasonable to assume that individuals who are involved in providing counseling services will develop skills in crisis intervention. Interns are expected to be able to respond to the crises experienced by their own clientele and students seen for triages. In addition, interns will provide assessment and service to students on a walk-in basis. Assistance is available for the intern, or any staff member, in those instances where an emergency situation may require a referral for a higher level of care assessment or other atypical measures. 

Consultation and Outreach: Interns are required to initiate and implement at least six outreaches over the course of the training year. A max of two of these outreaches can be tabling, and one of which must be a consultation project targeted at prevention (detailed below). Examples of outreach requests we respond to include, stress management, grief/loss issues, eating disorders, suicide prevention, needs of international students or responding to crises.

Outside of participation in six outreaches, interns are required to participate in an consultation project under the supervision and support of a CCSD staff member. While we see many students at CCSD, we cannot assume that all the students in need of our services are entering our office. Therefore, the prevention-related consultation project provides an opportunity to reach out to students we might not otherwise interact with. Recent consultation projects have included: developing materials and a video to instruct faculty on making classrooms for inclusive for LGBTQIA+ students, assessing efficacy of after-hours group programming and outreach via survey and interview, developing training curriculum for peer mentors, researching and implementing an assessment tool regarding sport anxiety and developing short term team interventions in response to elevation, and to name a few. The consultation project will involve collaboration with a constituent, department, or area on campus. At completion of the consultation project, it is expected that the intern will have a tangible demonstration of their project (i.e., a resource sheet developed for a particular office, written content for the website specific to a student group, a recorded video for upload to the website about a particular mental health concern, etc.). At the end of internship, interns will provide a brief presentation to staff regarding the nature of their project. Interns will meet with their consultation mentor for one hour per month, though this time may be divided as appropriate.

Group Counseling: The CCSD offers several different counseling groups each year. These include process groups, psychoeducational groups, and support groups. Some examples of process groups include Graduate Student Process Group, Making Sense of it All (an existential group), and Family Business. Psychoeducational groups have included Can’t Stop the Feeling (DBT), Living with Loss, and Anxiety groups. Support groups have included ASD, ADHD, and LGBTQIA+. Group activities are preferred modes of treatment in many situations. Interns should plan to process observe or co-lead at least one multiple-session group and participate in screening prospective group members beginning in the fall semester. If an intern’s group fails to recruit enough eligible group members to run, the intern will attempt to run a process group again in the spring semester, or, as a last option, may fulfill this requirement by serving as a process observer for another group. The CCSD staff works collaboratively to provide opportunities for interns to co-lead a group, ideally a process group.

Supervision of Other Trainees: Interns will have the opportunity to engage in supervision of an extern in the spring semester. Depending on the number of trainees present at the site, they may supervise the whole semester, or half of the semester. Interns will participate as a group in a weekly supervision of supervision seminar in the spring to oversee this process.

Supervision: Interns receive supervision in several ways. Each intern meets with a staff member for at least two hours a week to supervise their individual counseling caseload and related activities. Supervision of group counseling is provided in weekly one-hour meetings with the intern’s co-leader. In addition, interns meet regularly as a group with two staff members for peer supervision during Case Group, which provides opportunities for in-depth case presentations and discussion. Lastly, interns often work with staff members in a few other areas such as outreach programs, consultation, occasional teaching, etc., and will be supervised by the participating staff member for those activities.

Case Group: Interns will meet weekly for 60 minutes with two staff members to provide ongoing consultation about and development of their clinical skills. This group supervision time can include both formal and informal case presentations at the discretion of the case group facilitators. Video review is utilized as well.

Personal and Professional Development: The CCSD staff engage in regularly scheduled professional development programs, and interns are invited to participate in many of these activities. In recent years, CCSD has sponsored training on: Trauma Treatment, Multicultural Supervision, Neurodiversity Treatment, DBT Skills, Working with Gender Diverse Students, and Risk Assessment, Documentation, and Mandatory Reporting, for example. Interns also are encouraged to participate in their own personal and professional growth as an integral part of the internship and are typically provided with funds for this purpose. Interns may use these funds for conferences or purchase of professional books.

Internship Seminars: Two formal seminars for interns are scheduled on a weekly basis. One two-hour seminar covers a variety of topics relevant for developing therapists, including brief treatment, clinical decision-making, diagnosis, assessment, and treatment planning, leadership, communication, and specific presenting concerns, for example. A second seminar focuses on group therapy, multicultural issues, and outreach/consultation in alternating weeks in the fall semester, and supervision of supervision in the spring semester.

Multicultural Training: Training in multicultural competence is integrated throughout all aspects of the training program; however, there are several training courses specifically devoted to multicultural growth over the course of the year. Multicultural training is divided into two types: Multicultural Lab and Application.

• Multicultural Labs: These are an experiential exercise derived from Carter’s (2003) Racial-Cultural Lab Course and University of Maryland multicultural lab structure. This invites trainees to integrate counseling skills and considerations with cultural factors that impact both clinical and professional contexts. With support of staff co-facilitators, interns participate in guided exploration of their identities in order to better understand themselves as both people and professionals.
• Application: As part of the broader training seminars, there are several seminars specific to multicultural considerations. Each is topically focused. We recognize and acknowledge that the application-based seminars are not all-encompassing of all identities and does/will leave out certain identities. This is not done lightly or without thoughtful intention. The identity groups represented in the application seminars are based on representation of clients who present to CCSD and staff specialty areas. The seminars should NOT be seen as exhaustive of the identities to consider or of importance in clinical work; rather, it is the hope that it will be used as a model for the type of information interns are encouraged to seek out and utilize throughout their career as they pursue multiculturally competent practice independently.

Administration: Interns participate in weekly staff meetings, at which time relevant updates and center-wide concerns are discussed. Interns also meet regularly, as a group, with the Associate Director of Training to receive ongoing orientation and/or for discussion of administrative issues. 

Intern Lunch: Every other week, psychology interns will have 1.5–2 hours of protected time set aside for an intern-only lunch. The internship year is a unique experience and CCSD sees it as important to allow intentional time for internship cohort relationship development apart from the more ‘formal’ internship activities. This time can be spent on campus (such as eating lunch in Warner Hall) or can be spent exploring restaurants in Newark. While it is the intention of this time to be used for connection and bonding, CCSD also recognizes that there are points in the semester that are busier, so interns may also use this time to write notes or catch up on other responsibilities, though this is not the expectation. 

Optional Research: Interns are given up to two hours per week of research time during the training year. Research time should be devoted to the dissertation, with the expectation that the intern will demonstrate movement towards completion over the course of the year. When interns have defended their dissertations, research time should not be considered automatic, and is most typically utilized for the provision of clinical services. Research time will need to be negotiated with the Associate Director for Training.

Optional Concentrations: Starting in the spring semester, interns will have the opportunity to participate in a clinical concentration. This can be completed in the spring semester or extended into the summer semester, if agreed upon by the trainee, Training Director, and concentration supervisor. This is NOT a requirement for successful completion of internship. Concentration availability is dependent upon supervisor availability and specialty, and therefore will change year-to-year. Participation in a concentration is dependent upon the intern meeting expectations over the course of the fall semester. Specific requirements of the concentration are developed and determined by the intern-supervisor pair in a supervision contract; however, concentrations typically involve meeting bi-weekly for one hour of supervision and involves a reading component, a clinical component (2–3 clients specific to the concentration), and an outreach component. Sample concentrations include working with clients of specific identity groups, DBT, eating disorders, sport psychology, outreach, etc.