Doctoral Interns at Counseling, Health, and Wellness Services provide intake assessments, carry an interesting and complex therapy caseload, consult as appropriate with faculty and parents, respond to crises during and potentially after office hours, conduct semi-structured suicide and self-harm risk assessments. Each intern participates in a supervision rotation and a substance abuse prevention rotation. Interns have an opportunity to co-lead a support or therapy group, to provide a range of outreach programs/presentations, and assist with the intern selection process. Psychology Interns are also involved in department and division meetings and may serve on University committees. For complete descriptions of all the training our interns engage in, click on Training Content. The amount of time devoted to these activities each week appears as the Training Activity Plan.
Several aspects of the training environment make CHWS a unique site. Our site is integrated with our medical colleagues. Thus interns develop close working relationships that are truly multidisciplinary. We have a strong commitment to diversity - we're genuine, inclusive, and curious in our exploration of differences. We have a powerful alliance with the LGBTQIA students on campus. Our interns supervise practicum counselors and receive supervision-of-supervision. Interns frequently report that learning to supervise is one of the most profound and satisfying ways to learn about therapy. Interns also receive training and supervision in substance abuse prevention. We offer motivational enhancement and harm reduction approaches to substance abuse education, prevention, and intervention.
Being part of a smaller organization often means the opportunity to wear multiple hats. Puget Sound is a perfect internship for trainees who want to supervise and advise, to design and implement, to analyze and collaborate --- in addition to the psychologist's clinical role, which is our bread and butter. To help trainees nurture a distinctive (and marketable) professional identity, we help them choose activities to support a Developing Specialty. Lastly, we are part of the Division of Student Affairs. Interns have opportunities to collaborate on outreach programs with colleagues from different departments and/or to serve on university committees.
As an internship, our theoretical orientation is integrative, with Licensed psychologists call primarily upon cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal/relational, and person-in-context/multicultural/feminist orientations. We also integrate Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Mindfulness skills into our clinical work, supervision, and training. Check our CHWS Staff bios for fuller descriptions of our approaches to psychotherapy and clinical supervision. We certainly don't need our interns to identify their orientation as “Integrative.” However, we are the best fit for interns who seek the deepening of skills by exploring intervention from multiple perspectives rather than by pursuing a single-theory orientation to treatment. Above all, this internship is about becoming an outstanding clinician, and we value-focused supervision a great deal.
Most clients are seen at CHWS for brief therapy (5 sessions on average). When we each look at our continuing caseload, it is common for our ongoing clients to be seen for 8-12 sessions. A few clients are seen for longer-term care. Moderate to moderately severe psychopathology is the norm (ex: mood and anxiety disorders, eating disorders, suicidal ideation, trauma, borderline features) though we all have a few clients working on purely adjustment issues and a few with serious mental illness. We have no session limit, but we typically see our ongoing clients every 2 weeks. Thus sessions are spread out during the semester. Interns learn to manage their caseload by determining the appropriate frequency and duration of treatment, ending treatment when appropriate, or referring clients off-campus. Even students with profound issues may appear for just a few sessions; thus, quickly establishing rapport and navigating the art of an intake are essential skills.
We don't offer career assessments or employment counseling at CHWS, although academic and career concerns are a natural part of our psychotherapy with students. We also engage in minimal objective testing at CHWS, with no projective or neuropsychological instruments utilized. Interns learn specific assessment protocols for suicide/self-harm and substance abuse.
Some of the details about our internship
Counseling, Health, & Wellness Services is an APA accredited, APPIC-member internship.
Interns who have attended our program have gone on to careers in university counseling centers, private practice, hospitals, clinical faculty, and associate directors of clinics. You can read a bit about our beloved alums on the Our Interns page.
The internship begins Tuesday, August 1, 2023; it is a year-long, 2,000-hour training experience completed in 12 consecutive months. The first four weeks are devoted to a wide-ranging orientation to intern roles and responsibilities. Please visit the Expectations section for more insight into the flow of our year and our expectations for the quality and quantity of intern contribution/learning please visit the Expectations section.
The intern stipend is $35,984. Interns are classified as non-exempt (hourly) employees and are eligible for the flexible benefits program. Interns also have up to $200 each to spend on professional training or conferences. Please visit the Stipend & Benefits section to view the considerable quality-of-life perks associated with our program, too.
Applications must be submitted through the on-line APPIC portal, utilizing the Online APPI. Details abound under the Application Process. There you'll also find information about our selection process.
Our application deadline is November 6, 2022. We will let you know if we'd like to invite you to interview no later than December 13. To be fair to applicants throughout the U.S. and Canada, all formal interviews are conducted by video conference or telephone. Interviews will be held in late December 2022 and/or early January, approximately December 12-16 and /or January 4-13, 2023.
Our National Matching Service (NMS) Program Code is # 175111.
Our internship program is APA accredited. Our program was awarded accreditation on March 8, 2016. Any questions related to the program's status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation:
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202.336.5979
Email: apaaccred@apa.org