August Orientation
The month of August is dedicated to orientation, clinical training, team building and facilitating the interns’ transition to USC and the Los Angeles area. Typical orientation activities include an all staff retreat; orientation to CMH clinical operations and procedures; diversity training; an introduction to therapeutic issues relevant to college mental health; introduction to outreach and consultation; visits to key campus departments; and the establishment of campus liaison projects.
Diversity Colloquia/Dialogues
Diversity Colloquia provide didactic coverage of salient facets of working with specific populations such as, but not limited to, ethnic/racial minorities, LGBTQ or differently-abled students. Once broad cultural groups have been covered in our Diversity Colloquia, this meeting converts into weekly, one-hour Diversity Dialogues which include experiential exercises, guided discussions, culture-sharing, self-reflection and exploration, and case discussions.
Intern Seminar Series
These weekly 1.5 hour seminars provide interactive training on treating clients with specific problems or disorders (e.g. disordered eating, social anxiety, depression), therapy skills and techniques (case conceptualization, mindfulness and affect regulation, therapeutic communications) applied theories (e.g. CBT, ACT, DBT, Interpersonal), and ethical and professional issues (i.e. therapist/client attractions, job search).
Video Case Conference
Interns attend video case conference meetings, during which they will present video excerpts of their work with individuals and couples. Interns help their peers explore case conceptualization, transference and counter-transference, treatment options, and clinical challenges.
Crisis Supervision and Training
Crisis supervision is provided by members of the crisis team for in depth training and supervision in crisis-specific topics such as risk assessment, hospitalization, bridge care, suicidality, threat, etc). These supervisions and trainings include didactic, experiential and/or case discussion components.
Supervision
Supervision matches are yearlong and are made with input from interns. Each intern receives two hours of weekly supervision total with a primary and delegated supervisor, both licensed psychologists.
Supervision of Practicum Counselor
Interns provide weekly supervision to doctoral level practicum counselors from local doctoral programs. The intern will collaborate with the staff faculty co-supervisor, who will also meet weekly with the practicum counselor.
Supervision of Supervision
Interns meet with as a team with a supervisor to discuss the supervision they are providing to the practicum counselors. Models of supervision, multicultural supervision, and ethics are part of the team discussions. Supervision will address identifying the developmental needs of the supervisee, fostering the supervisory relationship, providing feedback, and monitoring client welfare. Interns will also meet regularly with their faculty co-supervisor.
Training Others
Interns have the opportunity to provide training for counselors-in-training at our Center (Practicum Counselors and Social Work Interns). This training covers both a topic of clinical interest and a presentation about their advocacy work, the Social Advocacy Project. They also have the opportunity to provide training for Peer Educator/Mentor programs offered by various departments on campus.
Evaluation
Interns are formally evaluated and given feedback twice a year regarding their overall performance and their progress as clinicians. Likewise, twice a year interns formally evaluate their supervisors and they provide feedback about the training program. In addition, informal quarterly meetings with the intern are held to assess progress and for interns to share their satisfaction with their learning goals.