Health Service Psychology Internship

The Training Seminar meets for 2hrs (mostly every other week in the Fall and weekly in Winter/Spring/Summer) and is coordinated by a CAPS staff clinician in consultation with the Intern Training Coordinator. The weekly seminar encompasses 3 large components: clinical topics, psychological testing topics, and professional development topics. First, various clinical topics are presented and discussed by a variety of presenters at CAPS and outside presenters. Common training topics include: how to work with trauma survivors, cultural double-bind, working with specific cultural populations (e.g., ethnic groups, international students, LGBTQ populations), conducting various modes of therapy, learning how to do supervision and more. Second, the seminar includes training on psychological assessment (e.g., CCAPS, CAMS, trauma assessment) in which interns will be trained on (in Fall) and asked to use with a client and report on (in Spring). This is a small component of the training experience. Furthermore, the seminar will also include training coordinated by a licensed psychologist on professional development topics (e.g., applying for next training positions, preparation for licensure in psychology, job interviews) throughout the year. As part of the professional development experience, interns also receive a summer module on Conducting Supervision, and practice mock peer supervision experiences that they will be evaluated on before internship ends.

This group/seminar is an opportunity for trainees to develop their awareness and knowledge in diversity through discussion and is led by counselor faculty. It is conducted for about 1 hour every week in the Fall or Spring Semester. Our agency believes that self-awareness is vital to the development of a competent practitioner. Thus, trainees will be invited to deeply examine their own cultural identities and assumptions, discuss diversity issues that arise in the everyday setting and larger society, and reflect on how these impact interpersonal and relational dynamics in providing therapy and healing, and within interpersonal and systemic dynamics. The purpose of this is to help trainees advance their multicultural awareness and cultural humility in order to improve mental health for their clients and the community. Although this group serves clinical work, it is not supervision or about specific cases.    

The Social Justice and Outreach Seminar occurs weekly during the Fall semester and is led by a licensed psychologist. Interns will discuss the role of psychologists in addressing social justice issues that may prevent or alleviate mental health struggles; explore the relationship between social justice and the development of outreach services and programs; and may help in developing specialization areas in which they focus their outreach and group efforts (e.g., LGBTQ students, racial/ethnic minority students, international students, first generation college students). It is the Training Committee’s philosophy that including a diverse group of individuals (including diversity in training levels) enriches the discussion in this seminar and thus psychology interns and postdoctoral residents are both included in this seminar (some years post-doctoral residents are not included if they were interns in previous years and took this seminar-in this case the post-doctoral residents come to present on their plans for their multicultural postdoc project during one of the seminar times). Information regarding performance in this seminar may be provided to the individual supervisor for inclusion in the semester evaluation process.

CAPS meets or exceeds the supervision requirement in the CA Board of Psychology’s Supervised Professional Experience (SPE) regulation. Each intern/postdoctoral resident will be provided with supervision for at least 10% of the total time worked each week.

At least one hour per week of individual face-to-face supervision is provided each week. This is in accordance with APA and the CA Board of Psychology guidelines. This is subject to change in accordance with APA and the CA Board of Psychology, and interns and postdoctoral residents will continue to be updated about this during the year. Please note that some states still require in person supervision and that it is advised to check state licensure requirements at the beginning of the year to make sure hours accrued in your training year suffice. Please also note that certain states have different requirements for supervisors (i.e., need to be licensed 3 years out to supervise) and that it is advised to again check licensure requirements.

Supervisor assignments for the Fall semester are made by the Training Committee. Interns/Postdoctoral residents are required to change supervisors during the second semester to obtain a breadth of orientations, techniques, and styles. For the second semester, trainees’ preferences for supervisors are solicited and considered in assignments made by the Training Committee. Every effort is made to match requests. Supervisors during the Winter and Summer semesters tend to be randomized given the smaller number of supervisors available during those semesters. Thus, interns and postdoctoral residents get a chance to work with a wide range of and several supervisors throughout the year.

In addition to primary supervision received above from a licensed psychologist, interns will receive an hour of secondary supervision once in two weeks from a post-doctoral resident for one semester (either Fall or Spring semester). A few cases will be assigned for this supervision process and the post-doctoral supervisor will receive supervision from a licensed psychologist for this experience.

Group supervision occurs 1.5 hours per week. Group supervision is led by the Intern Training Coordinator and a Post-doctoral Resident (that rotates each semester). Group supervision provides a forum for discussing clinical work and improving clinical skills as well as professional development.  Case presentations will be conducted during this time in the fall and spring semesters.

This one hour weekly meeting is for counselor faculty, interns and postdoctoral residents to present cases to one another and engage in consultation. The emphasis in this meeting is to view our work as a team effort to provide the best possible and most clinically appropriate and ethical service to our SJSU students.

Interns have the opportunity to co-lead a group or workshop in the fall and spring semesters. They receive 30 min weekly supervision from their supervisor whom they co-facilitate the group or workshop with.

In order to provide specific and in-depth feedback, supervisors require psychology interns to video-record all client sessions. Recorded sessions are provided to the trainees’ supervisor and may be reviewed with the trainee during supervision or outside of supervision times. Recordings may also be accessed by other training staff due to training purposes (i.e. showing in group supervision). Trainees inform clients of the recording requirements at the same time they inform clients of their supervision, which is usually during the first session. Should a client not want to be recorded, the client will be reassigned to a non-recording counselor within the agency. Sessions are digitally recorded and stored on a secure server for at least 1 month. Recorded sessions are for training purposes only and are not available for use outside of CAPS. If a client wishes to obtain recorded sessions, the trainee must consult with their primary supervisor. Any recording taken out of CAPS is a violation of this policy and subject to disciplinary actions.

Psychology interns are expected to accrue the majority of the direct service hours through work with individual clients. The size of the caseload varies considerably depending on whether clients are seen weekly or less often. Clinical load may also vary during slower times of the year, such as winter break and the beginning of fall semester, and higher during peak times such as midterms and finals.

Psychology interns may have opportunities to provide group counseling with another staff or post-doctoral resident (tends to usually be a staff member in the Fall semester). Formation of groups will be discussed during orientation, individual supervision, and in meetings with Intern Training Coordinator. *The groups that are offered tends to change each semester dependent on permanent staff members’ choices. While opportunities may also be available at times to co-lead with another post-doctoral resident or an intern counselor, this must always be discussed with their primary supervisor, training coordinator(s), and Associate Director and the intern/post-doctoral resident(s) leading the group must also be supervised by a licensed psychologist. 

Psychology interns are also required to complete two outreach presentations (1 per semester) for the training year. In general, trainees are free to partake in tabling events in the beginning of the semester. When conducting a presentation at CAPS for the first time since their arrival, they are asked to co-lead their presentation at CAPS with a counselor faculty. After this first outreach, trainees may take on other outreach presentations freely. They are welcome to partake in outreach requests that CAPS gets from the SJSU community and programs presented during re-occurring campus events such as Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Sexual Assault Awareness Week, or African American History month. Trainees may also establish consultation relationships with any number of student organizations or offices, including: Gender Equity Center, MOSAIC Cross-Cultural Center, Athletics Department, Residence Life, Accessible Education Center, The Greek System, Mental Health Ambassadors (student group de-stigmatizing mental health services), and Peers In Pride (LGBTQ mentoring program) or the larger Pride Center after consulting with their supervisor and training coordinator. Time spent on these projects varies widely. Psychology interns are welcome to suggest programs based on their interest areas. 

CAPS offers some but not comprehensive training in collecting quantitative outcome data on the psychological services provided to clients. This work is conducted as part of their didactic seminar where they receive training on different types of psychological assessments and they are expected to conduct an assessment with a client and present a testing report in the Spring semester. Trainees will consult with the Intern Training Coordinator who is in charge of the didactic seminar, their supervisors, and psychologists providing training on the outcome assessments for their assessment project. Trainees will also assume the responsibility of consulting with their academic training programs to determine if at all they need to deliver outcome measures during the training year and may need to acquire those measures through the doctorate program. Any measures administered at CAPS will remain part of the client’s file and that data cannot leave CAPS

Psychology Interns will be required to have 2 ICON appointments per week; ICON appointments are generally the entry point for our students and are scheduled appointments that last approximately 45-50 minutes and are designed to “assess” the student’s reason for wanting personal counseling and assess for risk. After the assessment, if determined to be appropriate for our services, the student will be scheuduled for a personal returning appointment.

CAPS generally provides crisis services between 8am and 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8am to 4:30pm on Fridays. Each semester, a variety of students come in with various needs. These include walk-in clients who seem to be in crisis, calls from staff in the residence halls, requests from faculty or staff to consult about troubled students, or others. Interns are required to have 2 hours of Same Day Primary 1 coverage and 2 hours of Same Day Primary 2 coverage per week, during which they manage any situation that arise/come into the center (paired with another staff member at the same time to assist with busyness of this coverage). In addition to the assigned shift, from time to time all counselors may be called on to assist with crisis situations.

Psychology interns have weekly 30 minute meetings with their training coordinator in the Fall and a bi-weekly 30 minute meeting in Winter-Summer. This time is used to check-in, go over administrative tasks, and to help the interns adjust to the agency and to their internship program.

Psychology interns are encouraged to attend a weekly lunch meeting to support each other and process their unique developmental experiences. Meetings may focus on supporting each other through transitions, increasing accountability regarding progress on dissertations, discussing issues that come up around working in CAPS, and processing the dynamics within the cohort. These are scheduled into their weekly schedule.

Psychology interns schedule time into their weekly schedules to complete their case records, review session recordings, and attend to other administrative tasks.  In addition, certain blocks of free time for this will present themselves from time to time (e.g., cancellations, no-shows).

In the past, trainees have become involved with other organizations that correspond to their own interests. These have included the Career Services; Health Services; MOSAIC Cross-cultural Center; Cesar Chavez Community Action Center; Pride Center; Gender Equity Center; Athletic Department, etc.

CAPS values ongoing trainings for all levels of trainees and faculty and staff. Thus, CAPS provides trainings for all clinical staff, including trainees, each academic year. These presentations may be provided by staff/faculty within the Department or by outside presenters. 

Our program values exposure to the larger picture of university functions and collaboration with other campus units. Thus, psychology interns attend various meetings throughout the year that involve the larger staff and faculty of San José State University. These include: CAPS staff meeting, SWC staff meeting, Division of Student Affairs Professional Development Day, Division of Student Affairs Meetings, and various university social functions or celebrations. 

In addition, psychology interns attend an outside function titled, the Northern California Training Day conference, that is a yearly conference organized by the Training Directors at university counseling centers in the Northern CA bay area. The conference entails clinical- and diversity-related training for trainees, opportunities to meet fellow trainees, and opportunities to get to know Training Directors at various universities.

Psychology interns are required to give one formal case presentation each semester (Fall and Spring). Case presentations are delivered during the Intern Group Supervision meetings. Supervisors may assist trainees in any manner they wish with case presentations (e.g., review write-up, attend presentation). The psychology intern will receive written feedback from the group supervision leaders and this information may be provided to the primary supervisor for inclusion in semester evaluations.

Psychology interns are required to give one outreach presentation each semester (Fall and Spring).  As mentioned above, each intern is required to have one workshop/outreach presentation (minimum of 1hr) evaluated per semester (2 total per year). Interns are allowed to do one outreach presentation with a co-presenter but the intern must contribute to at least half of the creation of the material and present at least half of the material. For the second outreach presentation, each intern must both create and present the material fully by themselves. Evaluations can be completed by a counselor faculty. Interns will need to ask the counselor faculty to conduct these evaluations and provide them with these rating forms.

As part of the fall/spring didactic seminar, interns will learn about various clinical assessment tools in the Fall semester and be asked to use one of these and present on a client in the Spring semester. This will be presented in the didactic seminar and the seminar leader will evaluate these presentations and feedback will be provided to the intern’s supervisor for inclusion in the spring semester evaluation.

During the summer didactic series, interns will be asked to attend the supervision module and conduct a mock experience that is recorded with their cohort to learn about and practice conducting clinical supervision.This will be presented in the didactic seminar and the seminar leader will evaluate these presentations and feedback will be provided to the intern’s supervisor for inclusion in the spring semester evaluation.