The Counseling Center at UMBC offers an APA-accredited, one-year, full-time internship within a highly diverse university in a suburban setting close to both Baltimore and Washington DC. Based on the Practitioner-Scholar model, the internship offers training and experience in initial consultation, brief individual therapy, group therapy, crisis intervention, outreach, consultation, and supervision. The primary focus of the internship is on solidifying advanced clinical skills for short-term individual and group therapy with an emphasis on enhancing multicultural competency. Our multi-disciplinary staff includes 7 full-time psychologists, 2 full-time social workers, a part-time psychiatrist, 3 doctoral interns, and 2 psychology externs. We have 2 administrative staff members. We are integrated with University Health Services.
During the semesters, interns can expect to have 4-6 intakes, 12-16 individual sessions, and co-lead 1~2 therapy groups per week. They cover 2-3 daytime urgent initial consultation hours; later in the Fall semester and throughout the Spring semester, they will provide after-hours emergency consultation. While we do not offer formal psychological testing at our center, we monitor treatment progress through the use of the CCAPS at each session. In the Spring semester, interns provide individual clinical supervision for externs, under the supevision of a licensed psychologist.
Outreach is a major component of the internship and may include tabling events, training of Resident Assistants (RA's), mental health screenings, and presentations to campus groups on topics related to mental health and wellness. Interns are required to complete a minimum of 20 hours of Outreach programs or consultation. Opportunities to provide consultation with faculty, staff, family members, and concerned students may also be available.
Interns are required to complete an Intern Project, which presents an opportunity to further develop a particular area of interest for each intern. The Intern Project should reflect the needs and mission of the Counseling Center and the Division of Student Affairs and should be designed to be sustained by the Counseling Center in the future; this will be an important legacy of each intern.
Coming from a developmental perspective, interns are given progressively more challenging clinical responsibilities and autonomy over the course of the internship. For example, interns begin covering day-time emergencies and providing consultation to parents, faculty and staff early in the Fall semester. By the middle of the Fall semester, they cover after-hours emergencies; consultation with a senior staff psychologist is provided. After didactic seminars on supervision, interns have the opportunity to clinically supervise an extern in the Spring semester.
Interns receive 4-5 hours of supervision per week by licensed clinical staff. This includes 2 hours of individual supervision by a licensed psychologist, 1 hour of peer group supervision facilitated by a licensed psychologist, and 1 hour of supervision of group therapy with the group co-leader. In the spring semester, interns have one hour of Supervision of Supervision with a licensed psychologist instead of peer group supervision. Interns will also meet with their supervisor for their Intern Project on a regular basis. Our multidiciplinary clinical staff participate in case consultation meetings on a weekly basis. Clinical staff, including interns, offer a case presentation monthly. An average of 2 hours of didactic training per week is provided, including a 90-minute Intern Seminar every week and a 1-hour professional development programs for all staff every other week.
Throughout training at the Counseling Center, there is an emphasis on developing and enhancing clinical and professional skills in an ethical, legal, and culturally competent manner. Our multi-disciplinary clinical staff work from a wide variety of theoretical orientations, including psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, humanistic, family systems, and integrative. Self-awareness and use of the self in clinical work are emphasized. Throughout all our work, we stress the importance of enhancing cultural awareness and multicultural competency to further our clinical skills & professional identity as a psychologist. Counseling Center staff strive to model that professional development extends well beyond the internship year, that lifelong learning and integration of theory and research are important components of our clinical work. We emphasize that collaboration with other mental health and health professionals as well as other campus partners is an important part of our professional work.