The Psychology Pre-Doctoral
Internship at UCSD

(For the 2008-09 internship year)

The Training Program at UCSD operates out of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), and it is an APA-accredited, full-time, twelve-month internship in Clinical and Counseling psychology. It offers the opportunity to gain a broad-based training experience and to work with staff that are highly trained and richly diverse in theoretical and cultural backgrounds. Over several decades, it has evolved into a program both dynamic and multifaceted in service delivery, and one that favors intern candidates who are not wedded to one theoretical model or treatment approach, but are willing to practice interventions that integrate concepts from the broader social and behavioral science disciplines.

As the only mental health service at UCSD for students, PCS provides individual, couples, and group counseling and psychotherapy, crisis intervention, psychological testing and assessment, paraprofessional training, and psychological consultation and outreach services.

NOTE! APPIC has an UPDATED internship application for those applying for internships for the 2008-09 year. There have been substantial revisions to the APPIC application for the 2008-09 internship year. To download the application, click here.

THE TRAINING PROGRAM

Program Philosophy

The training program at PCS is based on the belief that people are integral with the systems in which they function. It is vital for psychologists to understand the relationship between a client's capacity to cope and the environmental setting and social systems in which he or she functions. In addition to having a role in their family-of-origin, students usually function within several social networks which are nested within the larger academic institution. The training program prepares interns to address problems at all of these levels and to use system-oriented models of intervention as well as intrapsychic ones.

This philosophy leads to a program in which outreach services are integrated with the more traditional services. In support of this integration, the training program teaches both the use of proactive models, which lend themselves to preventive interventions, as well as remedial models of service delivery. Interns also develop flexibility in applying these models at the individual, group, and administrative levels of the system.

Use of developmental theory for both preventive and clinical work is another feature of the training program. At PCS, clinical work is often conceptualized as helping young adults reorganize their lives or their identities in the process of contending with developmental crises. Additionally, preventive as well as remedial work often involves the teaching and strengthening of cognitive, emotional or behavioral skills needed to successfully negotiate the current, pressing demands of the academic and social environment. In this regard, PCS has a particularly strong group program in which interns can proactively plan, design and implement workshops and outreach groups which focus on critical areas of self and relational development.

Finally, consistent with our commitment to multiculturalism and social justice, the training program is designed to help new professionals enhance sensitivity and respect for human diversity arising from gender, ethnic, and cultural membership. An integral part of this is learning about one's own uniqueness and its potential impact on others. Opportunities to receive personal feedback concerning one's own personality, gender, sexual orientation, and cultural identities have been built into the program.

THE GOALS

The goals of the training program are to:

• enhance conceptual flexibility and expertise in using a variety of models for the assessment, planning, and delivery stages of psychological services
• prepare interns to intervene at the individual, group, or organizational levels of the system
• provide training in the methods of both short and longer term models of therapy
• sensitize interns to the influence of human differences, both individual and cultural
• develop competent professional identities which integrate the unique needs and qualities of the individual with the standards of the profession.
• develop critical thinking about cases and evolve conceptual integration.

TRAINING STRUCTURES

Approximately 20 percent of the intern's time is spent in a variety of learning experiences which are designed to ensure that each receives intensive individual supervision, while getting experience with as many different professional staff as possible. Realization of the six training goals are accomplished by the following eight learning formats.

Primary Supervision

The training program is centered around primary supervision. Each intern is matched with a licensed psychologist with whom he or she meets for two-hour, individual sessions each week. The main task involves one-to-one supervision of the intern's overall professional development, with a special focus on individual therapy cases. New primary supervisors are chosen by the intern at mid-year.

Secondary Supervision

This format allows the intern to choose from a variety of orientations and approaches available within the professional staff. Secondary supervision can take four different forms:

• Co-Leadership Supervision is a type of experiential apprenticeship in which intern and supervisor co-lead a group, couple, or family therapy case
• College Outreach Supervision is designed for and focuses on the intern's role as college consultant
• Peer Program Supervision allows interns to be supervised on their supervision with a small group of peer educators in one of the Service's four peer education programs
• Special Purpose Supervision occurs when the intern selects a supervisor for the purpose of learning a particular theoretical model or approach to therapy or assessment

To guarantee exposure to a diversity of therapeutic approaches and supervisory styles, interns are expected to have at least four secondary supervisors during the year.

Intern Training Meeting

This is a year-long supervision group which is led by the training director. During the summer and fall quarters there are a series of didactic modules and workshops which prepare interns to work with the special issues and challenges presented by the UCSD population. These are followed by case presentations during the winter and spring quarters in which interns videotape several of their therapy sessions for group discussion and problem solving.

Case Review Team

These are small teams of senior staff and interns who meet one hour weekly to discuss new intakes, make case referrals, and receive consultation regarding ongoing cases. These teams represent another training format where interns are exposed to the different therapeutic styles and orientations of the professional staff.

In-Service Training

Every academic quarter the entire professional group meets for several two-hour training sessions plus one extended inservice which provides continuing education credits for professional licensing requirements. This is the most didactic component of the training program. Typically a professional from the community makes a presentation on ethical-legal issues, innovative therapies, or topics that can stimulate a re-examination of clinical methods or theoretical positions.

Group-on-Groups

Led by the service's group training coordinator, this is a nine-month supervision seminar designed to increase understanding of group functioning, and to develop leadership skills involved in the starting and running of therapy groups, support groups, as well as theme-oriented groups and workshops. In addition to didactic sessions, interns are trained to facilitate psychotherapy groups and receive live supervision and post-session feedback from the group training coordinator and fellow interns.

Core Training Seminars

There are at least five core psychotherapy seminars which are presented during the year. They are designed to stimulate an examination of one's theoretical assumptions and approaches to clinical work, and to increase personal efforts toward integration in both theory and method.

The series begins with a seminar on human diversity, with an emphasis on developing the knowledge, attitudes, and skill-base necessary for multicultural competency in working with a diverse population. A seminar on brief models of therapy is presented, which uses strategic and constructivist approaches for individual treatment planning, case management, and brief couples therapy. Also included are seminars on cognitive-behavioral approaches, interpersonal therapy, and a psychodynamic series that emphasizes self-psychology. Also, various training modules are designed to cover psychological assessment and diagnosis, system consultation, and special clinical problems and interventions.

Intern Evaluation

Since evaluation is considered an integral part of the intern's training experience, it is included as one of the eight learning formats. While several forms of supervision provide interns with ongoing feedback, a formal evaluation process takes place three times a year. These meetings include the performance of general training assignments, how well personal goals and objectives are being met, as well as feedback from secondary supervisors who have experienced the intern's work. The overall evaluation process is designed to provide interns with an understanding of their current level of performance, clinical skills that need strengthening, and ways to enhance professional identities.

CLINICAL SERVICE PROGRAM

The clinical services program advocates that a broad exposure to a variety of both clinical and preventive services is necessary for a strong clinical and counseling training experience. Because the service is the only mental health facility on the UCSD campus, a wide array of problems accompanied by varying degrees of dysfunctional behavior are presented by the students. Over the years this has required the development of an extensive menu of treatment resources and approaches.

Interns become involved with the following six areas of clinical service:

Intake Interviewing and Assessment

The psychosocial interview is used as the primary tool for initial screening and assessment. Interns learn to screen for suicidal, psychotic, and severe personality disorders, define treatment objectives, formulate therapy contracts, prepare clients for the therapy experience, and make appropriate referrals.

Individual Counseling and Psychotherapy

Interns gain experience in multicultural counseling, behavior modification, client-centered therapy, self psychology, cognitive-behavioral, and systems intervention approaches. Using a time-limited guideline for treatment, many individual clients are seen for 12 sessions or fewer, requiring skillful problem assessment, multi-modal interventions, and resourceful case management. Clients with more serious problems provide ample training opportunities for longer-term therapy.

Crisis Intervention

Acquiring the skills and competence necessary for responding to a psychological crisis is considered an essential aspect of the program. As a part of crisis intervention, interns learn to intervene not only with the presenting client, but also with the environmental, social, or institutional systems that may be integrally involved. In cases in which medication or hospitalization is required, the service utilizes a part-time psychiatrist as well as several community-based mental health professionals for consultation and referral.

Psychological and Vocational Testing

Psychological testing is used in situations which require more complex or refined clinical judgements regarding diagnosis, disposition, or treatment planning. Vocational testing is applied when clients need help in formulating educational, career and lifestyle objectives.

Group Work

One of the central features of the clinical services program is the emphasis on group intervention. Both remedial and proactive service-delivery modes are used in generating an extensive list of group offerings each quarter. These range from traditional process groups (e.g., undergraduate growth group) to support groups, (e.g., Outside the Box Forum) to psychoeducational workshops, including eating concerns, stress management, and social skills.The program affords interns one of the best arenas for trying out innovative approaches to service delivery.

Peer Education Programs

Interns can expect to provide supervision and program coordination in one of the service's four peer education programs. These are comprehensive treatment and outreach programs that utilize teams of trained and supervised peer counselors. They emphasize psychoeducational and group methods as the primary intervention of choice. The Peer counseling programs are Substance & Alcohol Feedback and Evaluation (SAFE) Program, Wellness Program, and the Women's Program. The SAFE Program program uses multiple approaches to provide education and feedback to students on their alcohol and substance use, which includes motivational interviewing techniques and supervision of SAFE peer educators. The Wellness Program and the Women's Program are more developmentally based, and also employ trained peer counselors, multiple group formats, and active outreach strategies in their design.

PREVENTIVE/OUTREACH SERVICE

Over the years PCS has engaged in many different campus outreach and consulting programs. A majority of them are aimed at individual college campuses where programs for improved student living and functioning are developed. Other outreach efforts involve programs or units that reach students on a more university-wide basis.

College Consultation Teams

The five undergraduate colleges at UCSD are the places where residence life programs, student activities, academic advising, and general programs for community living are developed. Small teams of staff and interns are formed at each college for the purpose of consulting with college administrators, advising in the development of residence policies and programs, training students to be advisers and student leaders, and helping college staff in team building and general organizational development.

The Multicultural Outreach Committee

This committee develops innovative ways to serve the special needs of ethnic-specific populations in coping with and surviving in the modern university. Environmental and administrative problems which contribute to the stresses of these students are also addressed, and outreach projects, such as the service's role in Summer Bridge (see below), are planned and implemented during the year.

The Summer Bridge Program

The Summer Bridge Program is an intensive four-week residential experience designed for incoming university students from low income and culturally diverse backgrounds. The PCS staff lead psycho-educational classes to prepare these students for the social and academic life of the university. This experience provides interns with an intensive introduction to outreach work and an excellent experience teaching and consultation.

University-Wide Consultation

This includes more traditional consultation services offered on a continuing basis to other student affairs units of the university, such as Career Services, student organizations, such as fraternities and sororities, as well as community outreach programs, such as Student Outreach and Recruitment.

OTHER SERVICE ACTIVITIES

PCS is engaged in three forms of investigative research:

• program evaluations are regularly conducted to determine the effectiveness of the services
• data on client functioning and characteristics are gathered for potential institutional feedback
• basic research is conducted to answer questions which may prove beneficial to university mental health programs in general.

CLINICAL STAFF

The clinical staff of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) includes twelve counseling and clinical psychologists, two post-doctoral fellows, and four pre-doctoral psychology interns.  All of our staff are generalists and see students presenting with a variety of issues.  In addition, our staff is ethnically and culturally diverse, with over half our staff of Asian-American, African-American, Hispanic, and Mexican-American heritage.  All our staff members possess clinical experience and expertise in working with diverse student populations.

In addition, the staff at CAPS are productive researchers and writers.  The CAPS staff possess a wide range of publications that deal with various psychology-related topics and issues.  To see a list of writings and research reports published by our staff, click here.

SALARY, BENEFITS AND FACILITIES

Salary and Benefits

Interns are currently paid a minimum of $23,660 for full-time work during the twelve-month training period. They are staff employees of the university. Benefits include health insurance, liberal time off for holidays, sick leave, a two-week vacation, support for professional activities and development, access to campus library and recreational facilities, and reduced price of admission to entertainment and cultural events at the university.

The Facilities

In addition to a central office complex, CAPS occupies office space at all six of UCSD's undergraduate colleges. Along with one or two senior staff, each intern has his or her own office located in one of the colleges. Thus, as one member of the college's team of consulting psychologists, interns have the opportunity to interact closely with the faculty, staff and student leaders of a particular college. With other activities, such as group therapy, crisis intervention, training, and administration, all PCS staff utilize the central counseling facility. This includes a group room with an adjoining observation facility, a client-resource library area, as well as a learning resource room with training videotapes, microcomputers for research, and audio and videotaping equipment.

APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCEDURES

Qualification of Candidates

Candidates should be advanced graduate students in clinical or counseling psychology and must have completed all required course work for the doctorate as well as comprehensive examinations. A minimum of 500 direct clinical hours are required for internship at UCSD. Clinical (or intervention) hours are hours used for individual therapy, group therapy, and assessment/testing.

Preferential Criteria

Only candidates from APA-approved or CPA-approved clinical or counseling training programs will be considered. Preference will also be given to candidates who have an approved dissertation proposal or are otherwise in an advanced stage in their dissertation research. Previous training and experience at a university or college is also favorably considered.

Application Procedures

A completed application includes the following:

1. A completed APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI) form can be downloaded from the APPIC Web site. The APPIC Policy on Internship Offers, Acceptances and Match Policy is available at that same site. If you do not have access to the Internet, a copy of the AAPI and Match Policy can be obtained by writing to the address listed below (see Item 7).
   
   APPIC has an UPDATED internship application for those applying for internships for the 2007-08 year. To download the application, click here.

Samuel Park, Ph.D.
Training Director
University of California, San Diego
Counseling and Psychological Services, 0304
Galbraith Hall, Room 190
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0304

Final Selection

All selection interviews with final candidates will be conducted in December and January through a thirty-minute telephone conference call. Information obtained through the phone interview plus the written application materials will be used to determine the final selections. This internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant. This internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy which all intern applicants should review as part of their application. The entire APPIC match policy can be viewed at the APPIC website. Our internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant. Final acceptance for interns to the internship program is contingent upon meeting the University and internship program background and reference check criteria.

You can obtain instructions and download the Applicant Agreement required to register for the national match from the Matching Program website.

• Our APPIC Program Number is 1124.
• Our National Matching Service (NMS) Program Code Number is 112411.

For more information about our pre-doctoral internship program, please visit the Training-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of our website.

American Psychological Association

For more information about the American Psychological Association (APA) and accreditation, please click here. To access further information and/or reports regarding the accreditation status of the CAPS Pre-Doctoral Internship Training Program, please contact Dr. Jeanne Manese at (858) 534-3755. You can also contact APA at the following address:

American Psychological Association
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
(800) 374-2721

For more information about the American Psychological Association's Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation, please click here. The address of the Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation is:

American Psychological Association
Office of Program Consulation and Accreditation
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
(202) 336-5500
(202) 336-6123 TDD