What's New at the Counseling Center
Counseling Center
Pre-Doctoral Internship in Professional Psychology: APPIC Program Code Number 125311
The Setting:SIUC and the Southern Illinois Area
Living in Carbondale, Illinois
Eligibility and Application Procedures
Each year the Counseling Center at SIUC offers full-time, twelve-month internships to five doctoral-level graduate students from Counseling Psychology and Clinical Psychology programs. These internship positions begin August 1, 2010, carry a minimum salary of $24,384 per annum, and include all University benefits (i.e., vacation, holidays, sick leave, retirement plan, medical, dental, life insurance, as well as domestic partner benefits).
Application Process: We will be continuing to use the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) standard application form, which can filled out online from their website. Click here to go to that site and download the application form.
To apply to our internship, please submit the following online: a current vita, graduate transcripts, a completed copy of the APPIC application form, and three letters of reference. Please note that we will not accept more than three letters of reference. Applications are due by Monday, November 16, 2009.
There is no need to write to us for information or materials; click here to check out the Counseling Center page for more information about our Center, or click here for more information about SIU. Since the application form is available from APPIC and all of our internship information is available on our web site, you will not need to contact us for materials in order to apply here.
SIUC will be participating in the APPIC Internship Matching Program. The Program Code Number for SIUC is 125311. All applicants must obtain an Applicant Agreement Package from National Matching Services (NMS) and register for the Matching Program in order to be eligible for our internship program. Click here to go to the site of the National Matching Services, where you may request a registration packet.
The Setting: SIUC and the Southern Illinois Area
The internship is located on the beautiful campus of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. The University has a total enrollment of about 20,000 students and offers a large selection of graduate and undergraduate majors, including professional schools of law and medicine. The Department of Psychology offers APA-approved programs in both counseling and clinical psychology. The student body is diverse: about a quarter of the undergraduate students and about 14% of graduate and professional students are American minorities or international students. The University ranks fourth among the country's traditionally white institutions in the total number of undergraduate diplomas awarded to black students.
Carbondale is located 96 miles southeast of St. Louis and within a half-day's drive of several major Midwestern and Southern cities. Carbondale has about 26,000 residents and is surrounded by rolling hills, beautiful lakes, and deciduous forests. The history of the region is well preserved in the many small towns in our area. Carbondale borders the Shawnee National Forest, whose cliffs, forests, lakes, and parks offer abundant opportunities to enjoy outdoor life. Carbondale is served by Amtrak, Greyhound, and local buses, as well as by two small local airports with connections to larger cities.
Living in Carbondale, Illinois
Many pre-doctoral intern applicants have never visited southern Illinois and want to know what it is like to live in Carbondale. Carbondale is a town of around 26,000 people. SIUC is the largest employer in southern Illinois and therefore has many influences on the area. Over the years many interns have commented that the pace in Carbondale is slower and that the people are very friendly. Interns have been surprised that people say "hi" to them as they walk down the side walk or that they can drive to work in 10 minutes. This slower pace allows for each of us to have more time to enjoy the beautiful outdoors of southern Illinois, the restaurants, cultural activities, and shopping. For more information about living in Carbondale, click here.
The Counseling Center
The Counseling Center's primary mission is to provide therapeutic, training, consultative, and outreach services to the University community. We sponsor the Eating Disorders Outpatient Program (EDOP) in coordination with the Wellness Center and the Health Service.
As of January, 2006, The Counseling Center is located in the Student Health Center which adjoins the Student Recreation Center. The Student Health Center was newly constructed in 2005 and is occupied by the Counseling Center, Medical Clinic, Mental Health Clinic (i.e., psychiatry), Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, Sport Medicine, Student Emergency Dental Service, Student Insurance, and the Wellness Center. The Counseling Center facility includes two group rooms, training suites for practicum students, and secured, networked computers for electronic scheduling and clinical record keeping.
Each intern has his or her own fully equipped office, including a computer with internet access and a digital video camera.
The Clientele
Our clients are undergraduate and graduate students whose concerns range from acute situational stress and adjustment reactions to more severe trauma reactions and long-standing psychological problems. Our student body includes many non-traditional, minority, and international students. Approximately twenty seven percent of our clients are members of racial/ethnic minorities. A fourth of our clients have previously received psychological services in another setting, and the average age of our clients is 25 years old. Consultation and outreach services are available to students, faculty, and staff.
The Staff
Our training staff is friendly, enthusiastic, and committed to diverse professional interests and involvements. Currently, the staff includes five counseling psychologists and three clinical psychologists. Psychiatric services are provided at the University Health Service. We consult closely with the psychiatrist, nurse, and psychologist who work there.
Our staff is experienced in both brief and long-term therapy, and we strive to model integrative eclecticism and the application of the practitioner-scholar model to a practice setting. No single theoretical orientation characterizes us; we strive to be open to a variety of approaches. We also value expertise in the provision of therapy services to special populations. Staff are involved in professional associations and work collaboratively with the Psychology graduate programs.
To read descriptions of our training staff members' theoretical orientations, clinical interests, and supervision styles, click here. To read less formal descriptions of us as clinicians and people, click here.
The Training Program
A brief overview of the training program is given below. If you are seriously interested in this internship, we encourage you to find out more by following the links to the more detailed information we've provided on additional pages.
Mission Statement for Pre-Doctoral Internship in Professional Psychology
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale has a long history of and firm commitment to training pre-doctoral interns. The SIUC internship was initially accredited by APA in 1974, becoming the sixth Counseling Center training program to receive accreditation. The primary goal of the pre-doctoral internship in professional psychology is to provide generalist training to interns in preparation for practice in an applied setting. We view the internship year as a capstone to training in the scientist-practitioner model, which is embraced by the majority of the academic programs from which we recruit interns. The internship year is an opportunity for interns to immerse themselves fully in the practitioner role. In order to achieve our over-arching goal of preparing interns to practice as generalist psychologists, the training program is founded on a practitioner-scholar model and is based on the following philosophical principles.
A core belief of the training staff is that the element distinguishing psychologists from other mental health practitioners is the large body of knowledge derived from scholarly research regarding human behavior and psychological functioning. Additionally, we believe in the integration of this knowledge received during the years of academic training into clinical practice. The internship year is, in our belief, the best time for this integration to be accomplished. We provide opportunities for this consolidation through the experiential learning gained from managing a large and diverse caseload and through supervision, the forum for discussion and integration of practice and scholarly writing.
The second principle is the belief that broad exposure to the multiple roles of the psychologist prepares our interns to be generalist practitioners, able to respond to the quickly changing marketplace within the field of professional psychology. The training program provides training in a broad range of basic competency skills, including brief and long-term individual psychotherapy, group therapy, crisis counseling, clinical assessment, community intervention, social justice/diversity skills, and providing supervision. The training curriculum provides both didactic and experiential training opportunities in all of these areas during the internship year.
Valuing multicultural understanding, social justice advocacy, and ethical behavior in all aspects of psychological practice is the third principle of the training program. The Counseling Center and Training Staff embrace multicultural awareness in all aspects of our work. The Counseling Center administration is committed to maintaining a staff that is diverse in individual differences and in theoretical orientation. We expect all staff members to provide services to and advocacy for students who are members of oppressed or minority groups. We believe that individuals from all groups (age, disability, gender/gender identity, race/ethnicity, religion/spiritual beliefs, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status) are needed to create an affirming campus environment for students, faculty, and staff. The Training Staff believe that the integration of cultural context into every competency area is crucial. It is our hope that interns will not only gain skills in working with multicultural populations and in advocating for social justice, but will grow in their own awareness about multiculturalism. The training program addresses issues of diversity and social justice within didactic and experiential seminars, the various supervision modalities, and through the provision of role models. Similarly, we are committed to reviewing the ethical standards of the field of psychology with interns and assisting them in interpreting and integrating those standards into their daily work. Ethical issues are raised in a seminar series, supervision time is devoted to ethical issues, and staff members serve as role models to the interns.
The fourth principle is the importance of developing each intern’s individual identity and interests within the field of professional psychology. We attempt to provide a caring and supportive environment for interns to explore and integrate more fully their personal and professional identities. We believe that a climate of mutual respect and compassion is essential to an optimum learning environment. We acknowledge the skills and knowledge interns bring with them, and interns engage in the same work activities as the senior staff. The Director of Training and all Training Staff make themselves readily available to interns. We have an “open door policy”. We encourage the interns to seek consultation, mentoring, and support from the senior staff, often in addition to the more formal supervisory relationships. Finally, the training program is designed to allow the interns to create individualized training components. This is accomplished through the Area of Concentration. Each semester the interns meet with the Director of Training to create individualized training contracts based on their interests and the training opportunities within the Counseling Center or the larger university community.
Finally, the training program acknowledges the changing environment in which psychologists are functioning. Our training program is designed to assist the interns in acquiring the skills and knowledge they will need to be professional psychologists in a changing marketplace. The training curriculum is designed to prepare the interns to assume the responsibilities of an entry-level position within an outpatient mental health facility. We see this preparation occurring on three levels. Two of these levels have already been addressed: training interns in a broad range of competencies and assisting them in integrating multicultural context/ social justice advocacy, and ethical behavior into the development of these competencies. The last is to heighten the interns’ awareness of the current and possible future trends in the field of psychology. Through the various intern seminars, interns are exposed to professional issues, present and future trends in psychology, and are introduced to the professional organizations through which they may keep professionally current and through which they may express their opinions on professional matters.
The Practitioner-Scholar Model
We use the practitioner-scholar model in designing our curriculum and training experience. Interns engage in all the activities of a licensed psychologist employed in a university counseling center setting, but to a lesser extent. Interns spend approximately twenty percent of their time in supervision and training as a means to support the learning process. Because we view interns’ growth during the internship year as a developmental process, interns are expected to operate with an increasing level of autonomy as the year progresses. Interns’ skills and knowledge in each competency area (excluding legal and ethical, professional identity and behavior, and receiving supervision) are assessed upon entering the internship program. Interns are formally evaluated four times per year. At the first quarter evaluation meeting, each intern is given written evaluations for four competency areas (legal and ethical behavior, professional identity and behavior, individual psychotherapy, and receiving supervision) and is given verbal feedback for the remaining competency areas. At midyear, written evaluations are provided to the intern on all nine competency areas. The Director of Training writes a summary of the nine evaluations, which is sent to each intern’s home department. At the third quarter evaluation meeting, interns are again provided with verbal feedback in all of the competency areas. Written feedback is given only if there is a problem that may prevent an intern from passing the internship, or if some type of remediation is needed. At the fourth quarter evaluation, written feedback is provided for all competency areas. A summary of these evaluations and a letter documenting successful completion of the internship program is forwarded to the intern’s home department. Interns are given additional informal/verbal feedback throughout the year regarding strengths, areas which need continued focus, and areas which need improvement.
The Practitioner Role: The internship year is seen as an opportunity for the interns to immerse themselves fully in the practitioner role. In keeping with this philosophy, sixty to seventy percent of the interns’ time is spent in direct clinical service, community intervention and social justice advocacy, and providing supervision. All intern activities are supervised in one-on-one supervision, group supervision, seminars, or apprenticeship with a Training Staff member. Interns are encouraged to use supervision, seminars, and mentoring relationships with the Training Staff to increase their knowledge of themselves and to integrate this self-knowledge into their identity as psychologists. Just as we value the cultural contexts from which our clients come, so do we value and acknowledge the importance of the intern’s worldview. The Training Staff believes this worldview influences the structure of the intern’s belief system about personal change, growth, and impairment. The Training Staff strive to create an intentionally nurturing and accepting environment where interns can explore their professional and personal belief system and can develop a professional identity that is congruent with their personal identity. Given these goals, the ability to self-reflect and self-supervise is also seen as essential for a successful intern and for a competent and ethical professional psychologist. It is hoped that interns will embrace the internship year as a time to challenge and push themselves to new levels of skill and knowledge and use this time to solidify their professional identity. The internship year is a time for the interns to learn how to practice independently, with the security provided by the assistance of more seasoned professionals as they confront obstacles to effective and efficient practice.
The Scholar Role: Since the majority of the intern’s time is spent in practitioner activities, the practitioner-scholar model is used to describe our training program. However, we view the practitioner’s work as being informed by scholarly writings and research within the field of psychology. The scholarly component of the program is supported in four ways. The first component is the provision of training seminars, which consist of didactic presentations by the Training Staff based on scholarly writings and research in specific areas of treatment. The information presented in these seminars is expected to be integrated into the current clinical work of the interns. The second area of support is supervision. Clinical assessment, diagnosis, conceptualization, treatment planning, and interventions are based on knowledge gained from scholarly readings and discussions of those readings. Interns are encouraged in the use of the scientific method in their clinical work. Interns formulate clinical hypotheses, gather data, accept/reject the hypotheses, and develop treatment plans to inform interventions. The third area of support is dissertation release time. Interns are given this time each semester to complete their dissertations or, if the dissertation is complete, to engage in a professional area of concentration. The Training Staff also provides support for data collection, data analysis and interpretation, and conceptual feedback as requested by interns. Finally, interns may pursue additional research experience by engaging in program evaluation through their professional area of concentration.
Competency Areas
The internship is organized around nine competency areas, each of which is supported by individual and/or group supervision and by ongoing seminars. These areas include: Psychotherapy (individual and group), Clinical Assessment, Diversity/Social Justice, Providing Supervision, Community Intervention, Receiving Supervision, Legal and Ethical Issues, and Professional Behavior. To learn more about each of these competency areas, click here.
Seminars
We offer five seminars to assist interns in developing proficiency in the competency areas: Clinical and Professional Issues Seminar, Supervision of Supervision Seminar, Community Intervention Seminar, Clinical Assessment Seminar, and Diversity/Social Justice Seminar. To find out more about our training seminars, click here.
Areas of Concentration
While we believe in offering broad, generalist training, we also believe in offering an internship that interns can tailor to their specific needs and interests. Interns may designate a portion of their training time for special interest areas, which we call areas of concentration. Interns may choose from a variety of different professional topics for their area(s) of concentration, and they may keep the same area for the entire year or may rotate areas from semester to semester. To view Areas of Concentration, click here.
Professional Development Activities
We encourage interns to further their professional development. This support comes in the form of dissertation release time and also in the form of support for attendance at conferences and training meetings. To learn more about our support for professional development activities, click here.
Internship Schedule/Contract
How much time will you spend on each of these activities? How do we fit all of this into a standard 40-hour week? To see a sample intern schedule, click here.
Administrative Policy and Procedures
To learn more about Counseling Center policies regarding intern contracts (work week, vacation, illness, professional development) and office functions and responsibilities (accountability procedures, student affairs involvement, office resources, and administrative policies), click here .
Intern Evaluation Procedures
On a quarterly basis, interns meet with their supervisors, the training director, and others who have worked closely with them to participate in a competency-based evaluation process. We view evaluation and feedback as important parts of the learning process; our emphasis is on assisting interns in increasing their mastery of skills necessary for independent functioning as a professional psychologist, and assisting them in continuing to identify their professional interests and goals.
Internship Evaluation Procedures
Interns are encouraged to give us feedback about the internship program. Interns are asked to provide written evaluations of supervisors at the end of supervisory relationships, and to provide a written evaluation of the entire internship at the midpoint and at the end of the internship year. The training staff is continuously involved in program development and review via training staff meetings.
Eligibility and Application Procedures
If this sounds like the kind of internship experience you are looking for, please read the sections below on requirements and applications.
In order to apply for the internship, candidates must have passed their qualifying examinations for a doctorate in Counseling or Clinical Psychology by January of 2010 and must have completed their coursework by the beginning of the internship. Prospective interns must also have completed a minimum of 400 hours of supervised direct service practicum experience and 200 hours of indirect practicum experience. Only applicants from programs accredited by the American Psychological Association will be considered.
Interested candidates must submit the following online: a completed application form available from APPIC (see the announcement at the top of this page); a completed current vita; official transcripts of their graduate work; and three letters of recommendation from supervisors or faculty who can evaluate the candidate's academic and applied performance. To go to the applicant portal for APPIC, click here.
The internship program adheres to the Match Policies established by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). Specifically, SIUC agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person in this agency will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant. Click here to view the APPIC Match Policies. Applications are due by November 16, 2009.
The internship is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association. Please address any comments, concerns or complaints regarding the SIUC Counseling Center Pre-doctoral Internship Program to:
American Psychological Association
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
750 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
(202) 336-5979
(202)336-5979
http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/intern.html
If you have any questions, please write or call:
Jaime Clark , Ph.D.
Director of Training
Counseling Center
374 East Grand Avenue
Mailcode 4715
Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
Carbondale, IL 62901-4715
phone (618) 453-5371
fax (618) 453-6151
e-mail:Jaime Clark
Post-Doctoral Residency
SIUC Counseling Center is not able to offer a paid post-doctoral residency at this time. On occasion, post-doctoral individuals are interested in volunteering at the Counseling Center. Please contact the Director of Training if you are interested in such an opportunity.
Jaime Clark , Ph.D.
Director of Training
618-453-5371
Past Interns
2008-2009
Paula Emke-Francis, M.A.
University of Nevada-Las Vegas
Abby Gaffey, M.A.
Southern Illinois University
Scott Kaplan, M.S.
Iowa State University
Susan Ramirez , M.A.
Southern Illinois University
Leslie Skaistis, M.A.
Illinois School of Professional Psychology
Christina Wendel, M.A.
Spalding University
2007-2008
Melissa Beare, M.A.
Spalding University
Emily Hamilton , M.A.
University of Missouri-Columbia
Paul Hewitt, M.A.
Biola University
Tawny Hiatt, M.A.
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Brad Rockafellow, M.S.
Eastern Michigan University
2006-2007
Jaime Clark, M.A.
University of Denver
Jared Outcalt, M.A.
Southern Illinois University
Ashley Ross, M.S.
Tennessee State University
Melany Tromba, M.A.
Nova Southeastern University
Baozhen Xie, M.A.
University of Minnesota
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