CHWS takes the safety and health of our staff and students seriously, as does our university. You can learn more about the university’s response to the pandemic by reviewing the COVID-19 webpages.  

As of July 1, 2021, all faculty and staff members must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment at the University of Puget Sound; this also applies to psychology interns.  Exemptions will be made for individuals with approved medical or religious accommodations.  Please note that if you are not fully vaccinated, there may be additional expectations, such as frequent COVID-19 testing or restricted in-person work.  This could result in participation in telesupervision, telehealth visits, etc, that would impact the internship training experience and could  impact licensure applications. We will be following ongoing direction from the Pierce County Department of Health and the Governor’s office. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Within CHWS our counseling staff responded to the pandemic in March 2020 by rapidly and flexibly learning to function remotely. The university provided laptops to all staff and CHWS was able to continue with counseling services by utilizing a secure videoconference platform via TAO (Therapist Assistant Online). We remained fully remote from March 2020 to the summer of 2021.

Beginning in the late summer 2021 our counseling staff returned to campus. The combination of the vast majority of staff, faculty and students being vaccinated (see the dashboard for current vaccination rates), social distancing, mask wearing, and testing availability have resulted in the 2021-2022 internship year being conducted in a hybrid model. The majority of our time is on campus, yet some meetings are held remotely. We are seeing some students/clients remotely and other we meet with in person.

Each staff and intern office has a heap filter. Clinicians currently choose whether to wear a surgical or N95 mask and clients must wear a surgical mask that is provided for them when being seen in our office. Students must also be asymptomatic at the time of a therapy session. If as student or a clinician is not feeling well we can utilize remote teleconferencing to maintain continuity of care. Currently we are offering our groups remotely.

The WA Board of Psychology is permitting telehealth and telesupervision for licensure purposes during the pandemic and the governor’s state of emergency. Details can be found at:

Additionally, on August 20, 2021 Governor Jay Inslee issued a proclamation requiring all health care providers be vaccinated against COVID-19. COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement (Proclamation 21-14.1) for health care providers, workers and settings (wa.gov)