Introduction
Thank you for your interest in the University of Florida Counseling and Wellness Center’s Doctoral Internship in Health Service Psychology.* Our training program is designed to facilitate the transition from student to professional through training seminars, supervision and clinical experiences.
Our goal is to create an atmosphere that is conducive to interns’ learning and development through an appropriate balance of support and challenge. We participate in the APPIC Match (Match Code 1206) and we use the APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI), which can be found at www.appic.org.
About Our Program
We have a culturally and professionally diverse training staff who are committed to providing you quality training. Our staff represents various theoretical orientations, and share a commitment to providing culturally sensitive and socially just training experiences.
Our center offers:
- individual counseling
- couples and group counseling
- outreach
- consultation
- crisis intervention
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.
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.
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.
Accreditation
The Internship training program at the Counseling and Wellness Center is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association. The Counseling and Wellness Center is accredited by the International Accreditation of Counseling Services (IACS). Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accredidation:
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336-5979 / E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org
Web: www.apa.org/ed/accreditation
If you have any questions about our program, please feel free to call me at (352) 392-1575 or preferably, email me at maynpem@ufl.edu. I look forward to receiving your application and wish you success in the internship application process.
*Resolution on Accreditation for Programs that Prepare Psychologists to Provide Health Services states:
“Psychologists are recognized as Health Service Providers if they are duly trained and experienced in the delivery of preventive, assessment, diagnostic and therapeutic intervention services relative to the psychological and physical health of consumers based on: 1) having completed scientific and professional training resulting in a doctoral degree in psychology; 2) having completed an internship and supervised experience in health care settings; and 3) having been licensed as psychologists at the independent practice level” (APA,1996; APA, 2011);