Counseling Center

The Training Program:

Competency Areas

Legal and Ethical Issues.

Interns are expected to know and apply the professional ethical principles and mental health and legal statutes governing the practice of psychology in the State of Illinois. This is supported by individual consultation with Center staff, and by presentations and discussions in the weekly Clinical and Professional Issues Seminar. Presentation of seminar topics involves various members of the senior staff, depending on their areas of expertise.

Professional Behavior.

This competency area includes awareness of professional issues, capacity for self-direction, professional identity, effective interpersonal functioning as a staff member, and contribution to maintenance of agency records and evaluation and accountability data. The development of this competency area is also supported through consultation with all training staff and through presentations in Clinical and Professional Issues Seminar.

Individual Psychotherapy.

Interns provide 14-16 hours/week of individual therapy. The intern's individual caseload will represent a wide range of diversity both in presenting issues and in client demographic characteristics. While we have a 15-session limit for most individual cases, interns may designate up to 50% of their caseload for longer-term therapy. Training for this competency includes 3 hours a week of individual supervision and presentations in Clinical and Professional Issues Seminar and the Staff Development Series.

Couples Psychotherapy.

Interns provide 1-3 hours/week of couples therapy. Depending on prior training and experience in couples work, interns will provide couples therapy with a senior staff co-therapist, an intern co-therapist, or will see the couple by him/herself. Training for this competency includes weekly supervision and presentations in Clinical and Professional Issues Seminar and the Staff Development Series.

Group Psychotherapy.

Interns will co-facilitate a process-oriented psychotherapy group or a skills-based group with a senior staff member. The groups begin early in the fall semester and continue through the spring semester. Process-oriented groups that are offered include general co-ed, women's, and ACOA/dysfunctional family. The skills-based groups include the Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Skills Group, the ADHD support group, and a Body Image Experiential group. The senior staff co-facilitator provides supervision.

Clinical Assessment.

This competency includes three components: one hour per week of intake interviewing, four hours per week of crisis coverage, and active participation in the weekly Clinical Assessment Seminar. The Chief Psychologist and other senior staff members will provide consultation and facilitate the seminar.

Providing Supervision.

Interns will supervise one practicum student each semester of the regular academic year. A two-hour weekly Supervision Seminar supports this activity.

Consultation.

This area involves demonstrating knowledge of and ability to implement models of consultation. Interns will serve as liaisons to the University Housing staff throughout the year. These activities are led by Dr. Joy in the weekly Consultation Seminar.

Outreach.

Interns will be asked to co-facilitate a minimum of three outreach presentations per semester and design an original outreach workshop. Supervision is provided by Dr. Vesciglio in the weekly Outreach seminar.

Receiving Supervision.

More than anything else, we are looking for interns who have a genuine desire to learn and grow on internship. This competency area centers on professional behavior in supervisory activities, motivation for learning, awareness of strengths and limitations, capacity for self-supervision, openness to feedback and exploration of issues, and a capacity to be appropriately assertive with supervisors.

The 2002 APA Ethics Code addresses “Student Disclosure of Personal Information within Training and Supervision”. The Training Staff at the SIUC Counseling Center want to clarify our position regarding self disclosure within supervision. We believe that the clinician uses him or herself as a therapeutic tool. Therefore, we place a high value on trainees’ self-awareness regarding their own belief system, values, needs, limitations and the effect of these on their professional performance. Our experience is that when interns are engaged in the process of supervision, they often choose to share self-reflections with the clinical supervisor. This process can generate conversations within supervision regarding personal reactions toward clients and also counter therapeutic/counter transference reactions. As the intern engages in this process of self-exploration, he or she may choose to share personal or historical information as it relates to his/her clinical work. Similarly, if a supervisor observes an intern having difficulty or having strong emotional reactions toward a particular client, a supervisor may inquire about the intern’s experience with that client. These conversations may also lead to an intern’s disclosure of personal or historical information. Interns will find that such conversations occur within the natural rhythm of supervision and are always clearly tied to the intern’s clinical work or professional functioning.

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