Goals, Objectives & Competencies

Aim

The aim of this training program is to prepare clinical or counseling psychology doctoral interns to become entry-level Health Service Psychologist through participation in a year-long university counseling center internship.

“Psychologists are recognized as Health Service Providers if they are duly trained and experienced in the delivery of preventive, assessment, diagnostic and therapeutic intervention services relative to the psychological and physical health of consumers based on:

having completed scientific and professional training resulting in a doctoral degree in psychology;
having completed an internship and supervised experience in a health care setting;
having been licensed as a psychologist at the independent practice level.”

(APA, 1996; APA 2011) The University of Northern Colorado Counseling Center adheres to the principles of the Health Service Psychology Education Collaborative.

Goals

The Counseling Center staff believes that the role of a university counseling center psychologist requires a wide range of competencies, which underlie the program's goals and objectives. Doctoral internship training focuses primarily on the refinement of skills in the clinical, outreach and consultation, and supervision arenas. Also on the translation of ethical/legal and multicultural knowledge into professional behavior. Our internship program has four primary goals and within them related core objectives and competencies.

Goal One

Interns will develop appropriate clinical skills and competencies in preparation for entry level practice as professional psychologists.

Goal Two

Interns will demonstrate appropriate professional behavior and socialization into the profession of psychology.

Goal Three

Interns will cultivate the knowledge and awareness needed for ethical practice as a psychologist.

Goal Four

Interns will demonstrate a commitment towards multicultural competency and humility.

Requirements for Successful Completion of Internship

This full-time, 2000-hour Doctoral Internship program is designed to provide a broad-based professional training experience in the range of activities carried out by psychologists in a university counseling center. Successful completion of this internship will depend on:

Accrual of 2000 required hours
500 direct clinical hours
Adequate scores on written evaluations

Interns must receive a minimum of “3” or above on each competency area under each domain of the evaluation form. Please see Internships Goals, Objectives and Competencies for more details.

Supervisors are expected to document and convey any problems that are significant in nature to the attention of the intern as early as possible in the year in order to provide them with a reasonable amount of time to address or re-mediate concerns.

If marked and/or persistent concerns are noted, a remediation plan will be put into place to help the intern develop appropriate competencies.