Psychology Internship Responsibilities

CSUSM SHCS has the following additional goals for interns:

1. To provide a wide array of experiences so that interns will be professionally “well rounded.”
2. To foster each intern’s professional growth.
3. To provide appropriate feedback via supervision in order to help interns refine professional skills.
4. To help interns clarify their plans in regard to securing future training opportunities or employment subsequent to completion of the CSUSM SHCS Internship Program.

Intern Activities and Responsibilities

Time Commitments

1. The internship is a 2000-hour, 12-month internship from July 31, 2025 - July 30, 2026 which meets APPIC requirements and supervised professional experience for licensure in California. 
2. Time-off includes vacation and sick time accrued monthly in accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement and major holidays observed by the University. Additional time off must be approved by the interns' individual primary supervisor and the SHCS Director of Counseling & Psychological Services. Vacation time must be requested at least 30 days in advance of time for approval to be considered.
   

Clinical Activities

1. Devote 55%-60% of time providing direct clinical services (average of 20-22 client contact hours/week), including psychotherapy (individuals, groups, and couple therapy), phone consultations, intake assessment, crisis intervention, and coping skills series.
2. Psychotherapy
   • Average of 15-17 face-to-face hours/week.
   • Although a brief therapy model is used with the majority of clients, interns are allowed to have 4-5 long-term clients.
   • Interns will co-facilitate at least one therapy group, with a senior staff member, during the first semester prior to facilitating or co-facilitating at least one psychotherapy group with another intern during the second semester. 
   • Provide multicultural competent services to the CSUSM student population and work with at least 5 clients from different ethnic backgrounds from that of the intern.
   • Provide individual primary supervisor with a minimum of ten recordings (concurrent audio and videotape or direct observation via Zoom) of therapy sessions each academic semester (total of 20 for training year).
3. Phone Consultations
   • Interns will be responsible for approximately 3-4 30-minute phone consultations each week. 
   • Interns may see up to 3-4 new clients during this time period. 
4. Crisis Interventions
   • Interns will be available for crisis services on an as needed basis. 
5. Case Presentations
   • Interns will make three case presentations: one in the Fall semester and one in the Spring semester during group supervision and one in the Summer during an all-counseling staff meeting.
   • Presentations are encouraged to make use of audiotape and videotape, unless unable due to technology (e.g., HIPAA Compliant Zoom does not allow for recording) or for clinical reasons.
6. Research Review and Presentation
   • Interns will complete a presentation of research material on their dissertation topic or another topic of their choosing as a didactic seminar presentation sometime during the training year. 
   • Interns will choose a topic relevant to their work at CSUSM near the end of the second semester; they will research the topic using available electronic and library resources on campus and provide a presentation during group supervision on the topic and the latest relevant research to that topic.
7.  Administrative
   • Maintain client charts and other clinical records as described in Clinical Policies & Procedures. 

Supervision & Training

1. Receive 2 hours of primary individual supervision per week.
2. Receive 2 hours of group supervision per week. Approximately 30 minutes per week of group supervision is devoted to supervision of group therapy during the spring and summer semesters. 
3. Receive 30 minutes weekly of supervision with the co-facilitator of their group.
4. Receive 1-hour, biweekly group supervision with Training Coordinator.
5. Receive 1-hour, weekly group supervision of supervision with CAPS Director May through July of the training year.
6. Secondary supervision will be as needed or required (as described in Internship Policies and Procedures: Secondary Supervision).
7. Receive 45-minute psychiatric consultation per week for clinical case consultation, training, and case assignment.
8. Attend weekly 2 hours training didactic seminars covering a range of topics presented by staff and community-based clinicians. A formal evaluation process, completed on Qualtrics, of the training seminars completed by the interns will help to provide regular feedback regarding the seminars and ensure the quality and integrity of the organized training curriculum. Evaluation links will be sent to the interns via email following the completion of the training seminar that week. Examples of didactic seminars offered during the training year:
   • Working with Latine/x Clients
   • Working with Asian-American Clients
   • Working with Black and African-American Clients
   • Working with Men & Masculinity
   • Working with LGBTQ Clients and the Coming Out Process
   • Short-Term Trauma Treatment
   • Treatment of Eating Disorders in the College Counseling Setting
   • Supporting Persons with a History of Criminal-Legal Involvement
   • OCD Treatment and Exposure Response Prevention (ERP)
   • Working with Undocumented and Mixed Status Clients
   • The Science of Mindfulness
   • Religious and Spiritual Diversity in Psychotherapy
   • Performance Psychology
   • MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy,
   • Preparing for Licensure
   • Loan Forgiveness
9. Attend monthly 1-hour Diversity Dialogues. This is a mandatory professional development and didactic requirement for all staff. This training series is aimed at supporting the development of multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills of all participants, by engaging participants in discussion, reflection, and integration of their learning into their work as clinicians. Interns will lead at least one Diversity Dialogue per school year focused on a topic around diversity of their choosing. Diversity is defined broadly and includes diversity in all contexts including race, gender, sexual orientation, social class, ability, language, documentation status etc. Interns can facilitate using a wide range of materials (e.g., journal articles, podcasts, videos, books, PowerPoint presentation) and facilitation styles (e.g., discussion, experiential, didactic, reflective). Examples of diversity dialogue presentations that have been provided in previous years:
   • Supporting Indigenous Clients and Reflecting on Settler Privilege
   • Restorative Policing and Cutting-Edge Mental Health Treatments
   • Working with Vets, Supporting Clients with Eating and Body Concerns and Exploring Body Liberation
   • Mental Health with Somali Refugee & Immigrants
   • Chronic Pain and Substance Use
   • A Discussion on Class, Grief and Culture
   • The Importance of Using Inclusive Language

View: Biographical Statements for clinical supervisors. The licensed supervisory staff for the Doctoral Internship Psychology Program includes Dr. Juan Alvarez*, Dr. Jay Howell*, Dr. Lissa Lim*, Dr. Allison Peters, Dr. Ryan Stevenson*, and Dr. Leah Tappero.

* Provides primary supervision

Education and Outreach

1. Participate in 2 campus screening days coordinated by SHCS (e.g., Depression Screening Day). These may be held outside of normal work hours to meet operational need. Hours will be flexed accordingly.
2. Participate in a minimum of 3 outreach events organized by campus partners (e.g., outreach liaisonships, tabling, counselor presence). These outreaches can include events run by Health Educator, Mental Health Educator, and/or Violence Prevention Educator and Advocate at SHCS.
3. Present/co-lead a minimum of 4 outreaches (2 per semester) where an intern is presenting a workshop, guest lecture, or other type of presentation to a class, students at one of our campus community centers, or other student led events.
4. Consults with University staff outside of SHCS pertaining to clinical knowledge and within HIPAA guidelines.

Outreach Liasonship

1. Interns will work with the Training Coordinator and/or Orientation and Didactic Training Coordinator to identify a student support services to develop an outreach liaisonship with for the training year. Past cohorts have developed a liason with APIDA Student Life, Women & Gender Equity Center, Black Student Center, LGBTQA Pride Center, ACE Scholars Services, and LatinX Center.
2. Group supervision time with the Training Coordinator will be used to check-in and process about the outreach liaisonship work. 
3. Interns will select one research article that focuses on the student population for their outreach liaisonship to discuss in supervision. 
4. Interns will develop and create a presentation to showcase their collaboration with their outreach liaisonship to the counseling center team during the summer.

Staff meetings

• Attend Counseling Services weekly staff meetings and monthly SHCS all-staff meeting.

University Meetings & Events

• Attend periodic Student Affairs and other University-wide meetings and events. An intern will not be required to attend events scheduled outside her/his/their work hours unless the SHCS Director of Counseling & Psychological Services/Training Director or other University administrator indicates that attendance is critical (e.g., emergency situation on campus).

Administrative Responsibilities

1. Complete clinical paperwork in the Point N Click system in a timely fashion.
2. Evaluations of supervisors are completed at the mid-year and end-of-year. (See Internship Policies and Procedures: Evaluations). Formal evaluations of the training program are completed at the mid-year and end-of-year.
3. Ongoing evaluation and feedback to supervisors is strongly encouraged throughout the year.
4. Complete regular evaluations of weekly didactic training seminars.
5. Complete various personnel forms as necessary.
6. Complete monthly SPE logs.
7. Maintain daily schedule on Point and Click scheduling software program used by Counseling Services and maintain consistent schedule on Outlook.
8. Use administrative time for scholarly activities and preparation for outreach, case presentations, and evaluation of articles.

Sample of Weekly Activities:

 Total Hours: 40 

*May vary week to week