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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 beginning in August 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 Associate Director/Training Director.  Vacation time must be requested at least 30 days in advance of time for approval to be considered.

Clinical Activities

  1. Devote 40%-50% of time providing direct clinical services (average of 16-20 client contact hours/week), including psychotherapy (individuals, groups, and couple therapy), intakes, crisis intervention, psychological testing, and clinical consultation.
  2. Psychotherapy
    • Average of 16-20 face-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.
    • 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 five audiotapes and two videotapes of therapy sessions each semester (total of 10 audiotapes, 4 videotapes).
  3. Initial Consults
    • Interns will be responsible for one two-hour initial consult each week. 
    • Interns may see up to 3 new clients during this two-hour period. 
  4. Crisis Services
    • Interns will be available for crisis services on an as needed basis. 
  5. Psychological testing 
    • Administer a minimum of two psychological test batteries during the course of their internship year and complete accompanying testing reports under the supervision of the testing supervisor. Batteries must include both objective and projective tests.
  6. Case Presentations
    • Make two formal case presentations in group supervision, at least one of which includes use of an audiotape or videotape.
  7. Administrative
    • Maintain client charts and other clinical records as described in Clinical Policies & Procedures.

Supervision & Training

(also see Internship Policies & Procedures, section E: Supervision)

  1. Receive 2.5 hours of primary individual supervision per week.
  2. Receive one 1.5 hours of group supervision per week.
  3. Receive group testing supervision, and individual supervision as needed, from testing supervisor when cohort begins working on assessment batteries and written reports (approximately October of each training year).
  4. Secondary supervision will be as needed or required (as described in section E.5: Secondary Supervision).
  5. Receive  a 45 minutes psychiatric consultation/didactic per week with staff psychiatrist.
  6. Attend weekly 1.5-hour training seminars covering a range of topics presented by staff and community based psychologists.  A formal evaluation process of the training seminars by the interns will help to provide regular feedback regarding the seminars and ensure the quality and integrity of the organized training curriculum.

                          The most recent calendar of didactic training seminars can be located here.

View: Biographical Statements for clinical supervisors. The licensed supervisory staff for the Psychology Internship Program include Dr. Allison Peters, Dr. Tamara Savage, Dr. Jay Robertson-Howell, Dr. Kara Kornher, Dr. Lissa Lim, Dr. Ryan Stevenson and Dr. Juan Alvarez.

Education and Outreach

  1. Participate in a minimum of two special psycho-educational events per semester. Events may be coordinated by Counseling Services (e.g., Depression Screening Day) or other university departments (e.g. Health Fair).
  2.  Present/co-present at least one workshop, guest lecture, training seminar, or other type of presentation per semester for a total of two presentations for the year.

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 work hours unless the SHCS Associate Director/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 Titanium system in a timely fashion.
  2. Formal evaluations of supervisors and the training program are completed at the end of the internship year (see section F: Evaluations,) however, ongoing evaluation and feedback to supervisors is strongly encouraged throughout the year. 
  3. Complete regular evaluations of weekly didactic training seminars.
  4. Complete various personnel forms as necessary.
  5. Maintain daily schedule on Titanium scheduling software program used by Counseling Services.

Sample of Weekly Activities:

Clinical
Activity Hours/Week (Minimum)
Initial Consults  2
Therapy/Testing 16-18
Emergency Coverage (1)
Administrative - Clinical Paperwork 8
Supervision & Training
Activity Hours/Week (Minimum)
Individual Supervision 2.5
Group Supervision 1.5
Psychiatric Consultation 1
Testing Supervision As Needed
Didactic Training 3
Outreach & Education As Needed
Administrative
Activity Hours/Week (Minimum)
Staff Meeting 1
Miscellaneous Activities 2

 

Total Hours: 40