The Internship

BACKGROUND AND PHILOSOPHY

The University of Maryland Counseling Center internship has a long and respected tradition of excellence. Established in 1969, the intern training program sought and received full APA accreditation in 1985. This Center's excellence is founded upon and nurtured by the uniformly held belief that the training of emerging psychologists is one of the most important and valued activities we perform. As an agency and as individual supervisors, we see the Internship Program as central to the vitality and quality of our organization, and consequently, we invest much time and emotional energy in providing the highest quality training and supervision possible. In short, we truly enjoy and highly value our interns.

Our internship provides training to individuals pursuing professional career positions in college or university settings, primarily counseling centers, academic posts or a combination of both. As such, we provide experience and supervision in the job functions of individual and group counseling, consultation, supervision, research, administration, and program development with clientele who are primarily college students, faculty, staff, and administrators of the academic community.

Our program is primarily agency-oriented. In accordance with APA accreditation and specialty guidelines, we have defined a sequence of extensive and intensive professional experiences that are common and predictable for all interns. In addition to these common activities, there is some flexibility for each intern to build in individualized experiences that specifically address his or her needs. By and large, however, our program applies a uniform training model to all interns, which is in contrast to individualized training programs.

Our program seeks to develop broad-based, generalist-oriented professionals who will be prepared to function in any of the many roles assumed by counseling psychologists in university counseling centers. As such, the training program adheres to a scientist-practitioner philosophy with an apprentice-training model. Within this context, each intern has the latitude and is encouraged to develop specialty interests of her or his liking. However, as an agency and internship program, we formally emphasize a generalist orientation.

Although our Internship Program is uniform in structure and format, our appreciation of individual differences and awareness of uniqueness are expressed in important ways. In accordance with EEEO and Affirmative Action guidelines, we seek interns who reflect a range of cultural, racial, and demographic differences. We continue to add culturally sensitive individuals to our diverse staff as a way to provide appropriately varied role models. In addition, we strive to enhance in our interns what we hope is an already present appreciation for individual differences through formal training and informal weaving of these values into our everyday work life.

THE INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE

The internship experience at the University of Maryland Counseling Center can be divided into 4 components:

	Summer Orientation Activities								Supervision and Training Activities
	Service Activities								Administration/Professional Activities

At the start of the internship, the emphasis is on structured training and orientation. However, over the course of the year, it is expected that interns will assume more responsibility for their professional development.

Summer Orientation Activities

The Counseling Center's activities are much slower during the months of July and August. As such, they are ideal months to orient new intems and to provide structured, intensive training in important areas such as assessment, intake procedures and observation, cross-cultural counseling issues, consultation theory and skills, crisis intervention, and agency research and evaluation. The interns are introduced to all staff through formal presentations and informal social gatherings. They learn about campus offices and personnel including the Mental Health Service (psychiatric unit), Career Center, The Department of Resident Life, etc.

Early summer is a time for orientation, training, and the gradual introduction of individual counseling and supervision. Throughout August, however, training experiences are combined with increasing service-oriented responsibilities, including intake, emergency coverage, and counseling clients.

	Service Activities
	Direct Clinical Service Activities
	* Individual Counseling Interns carry an individual caseload of 10 clients per week. Care is taken to balance caseloads with educational-vocational and emotional-social problems, ethnic and life-style diversity, short-term and long-term cases, and cases that vary in difficulty from developmental problems to more serious psychopathology. As part of their caseload, each intern is encouraged to provide couples counseling, preferably conjoint counseling, and structured group counseling with a senior staff psychologist. * Intake/Emergency Service Activities Each intern performs 3 hours of intake per week. This activity provides experience in assessment, internal referral, outside referral, short-term treatment intervention, psychiatric consultation, and crisis intervention. * Group Counseling/Psychotherapy Interns are encouraged to co-lead a therapy group and a structured or theme-oriented group (usually 4-6 weeks in duration) over the course of the year. Most groups are co-led with a senior staff psychologist.
	Outreach and Consultation Activities
	A major component of the consultation experience is the agency contract with the Department of Resident Life. Each intern along with a senior staff supervisor provides consultation (up to 2 hours per week) to a community of residence halls. This may involve a variety of consultation activities including emergency mental health back-up, outreach programming, needs assessment, and/or organizational development. Other consultation/outreach activities include psychological-educational presentations in classrooms. Interns may elect to participate in other consultation and outreach contracts depending on time and interest.
	Practicum Supervision
	Supervision of a practicum student is a valued and desirable training opportunity. While this experience is not guaranteed, it is possible, and greatly depends on the availability of supervisees and the availability of practicum courses taught during the year. All interns who have expressed an interest in supervising have had an opportunity to engage in this training experience.
	Other Divisional Rotation/Placement
	While the intern's major involvement will be in the Counseling Service, we are committed to providing a breadth of training experiences. Therefore, interns are assigned to one of the other divisions of the Center (Learning Assistance Service; Disability Support Service; Testing, Research, & Data Processing Unit; University Parent Consultation and Child Evaluation Service). In addition, the Counseling Service offers an eating disorders placement within its division. Each rotation includes service, training and supervision time with the assistant director of that service or a designated staff member. Other campus agencies, such as the Career Center and the Office of Human Relations, have been frequent rotation options.

	Supervision and Training Activities
	Supervision
	The hallmark of the internship is the intensive, varied, and comprehensive supervision model. A primary goal is to expose interns to a range of quality supervisors who vary in training, demographics, style, and orientation. Typically, the intern will have one primary supervisor who will supervise him or her over the course of the year, and one supervisor who will change at mid-year. This arrangement allows for both continuity and breadth of experience. Supervision involves audiotape and videotape recording, sometimes direct observation, and co-leading conjoint or group work.
	* Individual Case Supervision (2 hours per week) Interns receive two hours per week of individual case supervision (including intake and assessment supervision) most often from two different licensed senior staff psychologists. Usually one of these assignments changes during the second semester. Assignments are made by the Training Director on the basis of intern needs, goals, personal preferences, and staff availability during the Fall semester. In the Spring, interns' preferences for supervision are given primary consideration and negotiated for them where possible. * Consultation Supervision (1 hour per week) Each intern is assigned to a senior staff consultation supervisor for the year who also serves as a consultation partner for the Resident Life contract. Additional consultation supervision may be provided by the Chair of the Consultation & Outreach Committee. * Research Consultation (variable) Interns are provided with an opportunity to consult with selected members of the Counseling staff on an "as needed" basis regarding his or her research activities at the Center. For example, the research consultant might help the intern negotiate a research proposal through the Human Subjects Committee. * Group Counseling Supervision (1 hour per week) The senior staff co-leader of the intern's therapy group provides supervision over the course of the group experience. In addition, time-limited supervision of structured group work and program development is provided by the senior staff co-leader over the period that the group is running. * Supervision of Practicum Supervision (1 hour per week) Interns who supervise practicum students receive 1 hour of group supervision per week, typically provided by a senior staff psychologist. * Case Conference (2 hours per week) Intern case conference (1 hour per week) provides interns the opportunity to formally and informally present case material and to discuss case management with each other and a senior staff case consultant. The senior staff consultant rotates on a monthly basis. Each intern is also assigned to a senior staff case conference group (1 hour per week) where formal case presentations are made by participants to each other and an outside case consultant (usually a prominent counseling psychologist or clinical psychologist from the campus or Washington, D.C. area).
	Intern Seminar (1 1/2 hours per week)
	During this year-long seminar, clinical, consultation, and professional/administrative topics are presented and/or discussed by interns, participating staff, and invited guests. Through this seminar, a variety of topics are presented by members of the Counseling Center staff, the Counseling Psychology faculty, and other professionals who have expertise in areas such as personality theory, sexual assault, cross-cultural issues, alcohol and drug addiction, career counseling, organizational consultation, etc. One seminar session per month is reserved for the Center director to meet with interns to discuss administrative and ethical concerns involved in university counseling centers' on-going operations, and to discuss professional issues relevant to intern development, such as the job search and starting professional careers.
	Staff Development (12-15 hours per year)
	Interns participate with senior staff in 3 to 4 staff development sessions during the year. In-house or off-campus experts present didactic and experiential training material in a variety of staff-selected areas. Topics from the recent past include psychopharmacology, biofeedback, adoption, supervision, cult awareness, anger management, violence, Imago relationship therapy, and legal/ethical dilemmas in counseling and consultation.

	Professional/Administrative Activities
	Administration
	* Staff Meetings (weekly) Interns participate in all Counseling Service staff meetings and Center-wide staff meetings (several times per year). * Committee Meetings (variable) If time permits, interns are encouraged to serve on at least one Counseling Service Committee such as Research, Consultation & Outreach, Direct Service, Career or Training. Participation may span the semester or the year, depending on the interests and schedules of the intern.
	Professional Activities
	* Research and Development Meetings (1 hour per week) Interns are expected to attend as many of the weekly lunch time Research and Development meetings as possible, during which time campus members (faculty, staff, academic administrators, and department chairs) present on a variety of psychological and administrative topics of interest to various segments of the College Park community.
	Research (4 hours per week)
	Interns are granted one-half day per week for dissertation research, program development activities, and other scholarly pursuits, such as their "small r" research project. This smaller project is designed to enable interns to complete an agency-based piece of research during their internship year.

University of Maryland Counseling Center
Doctoral Internship Information
and Application Webpages

Page 1 - Cover Page
Page 2 - Letter to Applicants
Page 3 - Internship Flyer
Page 4 - The Agency
Page 5 - The Internship Program
Page 6 - Application Requirements
Page 7 - Appointment Details
Page 8 - Counseling Center Staff
Page 9 - Instructions for APPIC Application and University of Maryland Application
Page 10 - University of Maryland Application
Page 11 - Message to Applicants
Page 12 - Primary Training Staff
Page 13 - Summary Data - Intern and Training Staff
Page 14 - University of Maryland Interns