The SJSU student population is highly diverse (e.g., Asian being the highest majority group, Latinx, white, Other, Black and more; See here for more information of racial/ethnic breakdown: http://www.iea.sjsu.edu/Students/QuickFacts/). In addition, there is huge diversity around age, immigration status/background, first generation college student identity, socioeconomic class, ability/disability, religious identity, sexual orientation, value systems and lifestyles and more. Interns participate in the following: Didactic Training Seminar with rotating topics (e.g., cultural double-bind, working with different racial/ethnic groups, assessment tools - suicide assessment, trauma assessment, CCAPS, supervision skills, professional development, etc.), Diversity Discussion Group, and Social Justice and Outreach Seminar. Interns provide individual, group, and couple's psychotherapy, crisis response, consultations and outreach/social justice work. Interns are asked to conduct 2 case presentations, 2 outreach workshops, and do a summer supervision module where they practice mock supervision with their peers during the span of a year. Interns also get the opportunity to learn about various clinical assessment tools in the Didactic Seminar, use these with a client, and present on this in the Spring semester as part of their Didactic Seminar (The clinical assessment experience is a minor part of our program). Interns also attend clinical consultation meetings, staff meetings, and various university events. Interns receive 2 hours of primary individual supervision every week, 1hr of secondary individual supervision from a postdoctoral resident every other week (*if we have postdoctoral residents that year), and 1.5 hours of group supervision every week. Interns attend a minimum of 2 conferences: 1.) Multicultural Training Day (hosted by CAPS) and 2) Northern CA Training Directors Conference. Interns have opportunities to get involved with campus organizations or student groups (e.g., Mosaic Cross Cultural Center, LGBT Resource Center, Latinx Student Success Center, Black Leadership and Opportunity Center, International Student and Scholar Services and more) by providing themed groups (e.g., LGBT Discussion Group) or outreach presentations (e.g., time management, LGBTQ+ mental health, Asian/Asian American mental health, healthy relationships, stress management, coping with COVID-19, etc). Interns also may become involved in ongoing university initiatives or programs collaborated with other campus partners, such as: Eating Disorder Awareness Week, Transgender Awareness Week, Global Connections (outreach program for international students), the LGBT Peer Mentor Program (Peers In Pride), or Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
The major goal of our program is to provide high quality, multicultural-focused learning experiences to psychology interns. To help attain this goal, the counseling faculty has a strong commitment to supervise, teach, and mentor our trainees. Our training is guided by a Practitioner-Scholar model in which we train clinicians to be informed of theory and research in the science of Psychology. Our supervisors represent a broad base of theoretical backgrounds, thus trainees are exposed to various models. We emphasize short-term treatment approaches that meet the needs of a diverse college and graduate student body. We also strongly acknowledge that we live in a diverse world with continued ongoing diversity-related issues and injustices. We thus believe in the utmost importance of being dedicated to multicultural awareness and humility. We believe in the need to engage in this process daily by being aware of our multiple social identities and interactions with others, acknowledging our biases, being aware of societal contexts that impact us on a constant basis, and advocating for various marginalized populations. Thus, efforts are made to embed these beliefs and values into all elements of our training program.
*Currently all elements of the training program experience are being conducted in a hybrid model. Our center is also currently operating on a hybrid model (going to the office 4 days a week for Fall 2025). This is subject to change in the future.
*Please note that preference will be given to those with 450 intervention hours by October 1st while those with less are welcome to apply.
