Doctoral Internship in Psychology

The doctoral internship program is an integral part of the mission of the University of Florida Counseling and Wellness Center (CWC), and the entire professional and support staff is involved in the supervision and training of our interns.  The training program’s aim is to prepare interns to function competently and independently as psychologists. We aim to graduate interns who are clinically competent, highly ethical, culturally sensitive, and who have developed a well-defined professional identity.

The program follows a practitioner-scholar model of professional training for psychologists, which emphasizes experiential learning.  As a practitioner, the intern applies the knowledge gained from scholarly and scientific evidence to clinical practice. As a scholar, the intern is engaged in study of the science of psychology and mental health, and is encouraged to contribute to the profession through involvement in scholarly activities. In addition, the training staff provides a wide variety of clinical and supervision orientations used in training.

Internship is a time to continue the development of professional skills and to make the transition from graduate student to professional. The internship program offers training in a variety of areas related to the health field of psychology. We attempt to create an atmosphere that is conducive to learning by providing interns with an appropriate blend of support and challenge. We see interns as emerging professionals and treat them accordingly, giving a great deal of autonomy and responsibility. At the same time, we try to provide the professional and emotional support necessary to allow for growth and development. We focus on interns’ “growth edges” and attempt to facilitate positive change throughout the course of the year.

While there is a basic “core” program of training, interns are encouraged to tailor-make their intern experience to meet their specific needs. Interns have the opportunity to customize their training in terms of the types of clients that they work with, the types of outreach programs and consultation projects they undertake, and the types of groups they run.

Evaluation and feedback is an important part of the internship experience. Clinical supervisors, group supervisors, and members of the training staff evaluate and provide feedback to interns twice each semester (at mid-term and again at the end of the semester). This feedback focuses on the development and progress of each intern, with the intention always being to help interns strengthen professional competencies and identify areas of strength and areas for growth. Interns, in turn, evaluate their clinical supervisors and the training program once each semester.

Interns are expected to fulfill the multiple roles of a university psychologist, which includes counseling services (individual, couples, and group counseling), assessment, crisis intervention, referral, consultation, outreach, providing clinical supervision, participation in training seminars and professional development activities, and participation in administrative functions.  Interns are encouraged to present at regional and national conferences, to complete work on their dissertation research, and to pursue projects (e.g., writing for publication) for their professional development as psychologists.

Intern training in the applied areas is sequenced in an apprenticeship type model, and throughout the year the complexity and difficulty of responsibilities gradually increase. The internship year provides training in a comprehensive developmental manner, that is, comprehensive by including all of the functions of a university psychologist and developmental in that the tasks are sequenced in level of difficulty and degree of independence.

The components of intern training include:

• supervision (individual and group)
• weekly seminars
• informal consultation (with the training director and clinicians)
• co-therapy arrangements (individual, couples, and group)
• co-presentations of workshops

In terms of the sequencing of training, in the fall semester interns initially apprentice with clinicians in doing client brief consultations and new client sessions. Following 2-3 weeks of this training, interns are ready to do these assessments independently. Emergency on call begins mid to late fall after apprenticing with staff.  In addition, fall activities usually include interns doing group co-therapy with clinicians, and co-presenting outreach workshops with clinicians. Supervision of interns takes into account developmental stages of professional identity development and confidence levels. The intern consultation activities are also developmentally sequenced. Supervision of practicum trainees is scheduled in the spring term. Dissertation research is strongly supported here and interns are encouraged to spend up to 4 hours per week on the same. There is also support for job search and other professional development activities.