Our Philosophy of Training
- To offer supervised experiences to doctoral interns who come from counseling or clinical psychology programs.
- To support the development of solid clinical and professional skills in working with the university student population.
- To infuse sensitivity to issues of diversity throughout the training program.
- To allow for an unfolding exploration of identities and how our various identities and experiences interplay with professional activities.
Our Training Model is an Identity Development Model.
Within this model, we conceptualize interns as:
- Engaging in an ongoing process of identity development
- Clarifying and articulating what is encompassed in an identity as a psychologist
- Integrating various other dimensions of experience (e.g., gender, culture, race, etc.) into their identity as psychologists
- Moving through developmental stages and tasks both in a larger lifelong process and in the process contained within the internship year
- Increasing self-awareness and other-awareness over time with critical junctures and challenges, which result in a movement to another stage
- Moving toward increasing complexity in worldview
We are further directed by the Local Clinical Scientist model posited by Trierweiler and Stricker (1998). “The focal point of the model is the image of the professional standing alone amid an ambiguous reality that must be explored, understood, and influenced positively by professional action” (p. 25). On this more specific level, we focus on the development of:
- Attitude and judgment skills which allow discerning psychologists to base interventions on clinical evidence, to be open to information from a variety of perspectives, to be aware of how one’s own biases might affect interpretation of information, and to develop a “professional voice”
- Critical thinking skills which challenge psychologists to continuously seek new ways of understanding the information before them, to recognize the complexities of the realities they explore, and to attend to the interdependent connections within those realities
- Methodological skills which center around thoughtfully implementing specific interventions, personal inquiry, remaining open about potential clinical hypothesis, and entering therapeutic relationships with care
In accordance with an identity development approach, we provide:
- Opportunities that stretch interns beyond their current developmental stage.
- The support necessary to address critical transition points and tensions in their development.
- A range of supervisory experiences so interns can explore approaches taken by professionals who are at various stages of their own identity development.
- An increasing level of autonomy as the year progresses.
Our Training Goals are to provide training and experience in
- Planning and delivering high quality direct clinical services to clients to individuals and groups.
- Outreach and consultation services and activities associated with university counseling centers.
- Planning and delivering quality supervision to clinicians in training.
- Forming an integrated professional identity as knowledgeable, skilled, and ethical psychologists.