Counseling Center

The Training Program:

Internship Seminars

Clinical and Professional Issues Seminar

This seminar meets for one and one-half hours per week. Senior staff alternate presenting information on topics of professional interest. In addition to presentations on clinical topics (e.g., treatment of trauma disorders, group treatment issues, multicultural therapy, emotionally focused therapy), there are also presentations on interns' professional development (e.g., job search tips, dual role relationships). Senior staff present information to the interns, but there is also time for questions and discussion.

In the fall semester, senior staff present didactic information to the interns and provide a supportive environment for questions and discussion. In the spring semester, the seminar focuses on clinical case presentations by senior staff and interns on topics introduced in the fall (e.g., efficient and effective therapy, trauma, emotionally focused therapy, multicultural counseling). During the summer, the focus is on the professional transition from pre-doctoral intern to independent practitioner and the professional development issues faced within the first few years of practice.

Supervision Seminar

This seminar meets for two hours per week. During the first month of internship, interns read and discuss theories of supervision. Starting in the second month, interns begin supervising practicum students, and the seminar switches from the theoretical to the practical. Interns bring in questions, comments, and feelings about their role as supervisors, their relationships to their supervisees, their supervisees' work, and their supervisees' clients. Interns give each other feedback and share common experiences. Seminar leaders also make suggestions and give feedback. Each intern gets some time each week to discuss issues of interest or concern, and interns rotate being the primary focus of discussion and feedback.

Community Interventions Seminar
This seminar begins in August and meets for one and a half hours during the August Intern Orientation. When fall semester classes begin, the seminar will meet for one hour per week and continue through the end of October. In this seminar, interns will learn about approaches and processes for providing psychological consultation and community-based interventions. Developing collaborative working relationships with other university professionals to address mental health, diversity and social justice/advocacy issues that are relevant to the university community are emphasized. Interns will serve as liaisons working in collaboration with University Housing staff to address resident and staff needs and will serve on Counseling Center community intervention teams addressing needs of the larger campus community. Interns' participation in the seminar includes discussing their working relationships with Housing staff, applying didactic knowledge to the experiential “learning in the field” that takes place in providing community interventions, and demonstrating awareness of diversity and social justice issues as they pertain to all aspects of one’s work in providing consultation and community intervention services. The seminar concludes with all interns submitting a written report on their involvement in community intervention teams where they will demonstrate their knowledge of the process of consultation/community intervention and the evaluation of these services.

Diversity/Social Justice Seminar

The seminar meets for one hour per week for the first six weeks of the fall semester. The two senior staff facilitators work hard to create a safe environment which allows each of us the opportunity to increase our knowledge and self-awareness regarding world view, power, privilege, oppression and social justice. The seminar consists of experiential activities, sharing of anecdotes and case scenarios/examples, processing of dilemmas, and personal sharing regarding use of self in a multi-culturally informed therapy. The goal of the seminar is to set the stage for the year long process of engagement to meet the following objectives for both ourselves and our clients: ongoing self-examination, sharing of power, giving voice to self, facilitating consciousness-raising, building on strengths, and creating tools for change.

Clinical Assessment Seminar

This seminar meets for one hour per week at the beginning of fall semester, typically ending by October. This seminar provides an opportunity for interns to ask questions and receive feedback concerning policy, procedures, assessment, and resources in providing ongoing and crisis counseling to SIUC students.

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