Doctoral Internship in Counseling and Clinical Psychology

The Internship Program
  

Training Model and Philosophy

The doctoral internship in professional psychology offered at the Thomas E. Cook Counseling Center at Virginia Tech provides excellent preparation for generalist, entry-level psychologists who wish to pursue a career in a university counseling center, or in such venues as private practice or outpatient mental health services.  

The training program follows a practitioner-scholar model of psychology training which emphasizes the practice of counseling and psychotherapy informed by scientific and scholarly inquiry. To this end, the training program employs a variety of modalities including a structured and sequenced seminar series, experiential activities and supervised clinical experiences intended to promote the acquisition of practice skills as well as the development of critical thinking. Interns are encouraged to engage in applied research focusing on addressing questions directly suggested by experiences encountered in clinical practice. Interns are also encouraged to be critical, informed consumers of research with an eye toward clinical applications of scientific findings.

The Counseling Center provides an environment that is both supportive and challenging to interns as they acquire new skills and reach new levels of personal and professional growth. Interns are seen as emerging professionals and are included in most staff activities. Interns have many opportunities to consult with senior staff, and quality of supervision is emphasized, with interns receiving a minimum of 5 hours of supervision per week.

The training program espouses a developmental philosophy with the intent to encourage intern growth and development over the course of the training year in domains relevant to the professional of practice psychology. As such, supervisors strive to assess the interns’ beginning levels of competencies in domains relevant to professional practice and work toward growth in these areas over the course of the internship year.

The following are primary areas of focus for interns:

  • Brief Individual Psychotherapy
  • Group Psychotherapy
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Psychological Assessment
  • Research and scholarly inquiry
  • Consultation and Outreach
  • Professional Ethics
  • Supervision of Practicum Trainees
  • Multicultural Competence

Other possible areas of focus are:

  • Learning Skills
  • Women's Health
  • Eating Disorders
  • Sport Psychology 
  • Couples Psychotherapy
  • Trauma / PTSD
  • Feminist Therapy
  • Alcohol Education
  • Administration

The Center staff offer a range of theoretical orientations including interpersonal, cognitive-behavioral, feminist, systemic and humanistic frameworks. Staff professional interests include eating disturbances, men's issues, women's issues, couples/marital therapy, group therapy, gender identity issues, and sport psychology.

Counseling Center self-evaluations are an important part of the Center's operation and efforts to continually improve services. Client satisfaction surveys and needs assessments allow for ongoing evaluation and feedback for all Center staff. The client data base provides opportunities for research. Clinical supervisors and other professional staff evaluate and give feedback to interns at mid-semester in the Fall, at mid-year, and in the final month of the training year. Interns evaluate their clinical supervisors and the training program on the same time line.

 

Welcome!

Please click on the index topics in the column at the left of your screen to explore the components of
Cook Counseling Center's Pre-doctoral Internship in Psychology.

Revised 11/14/2011
Cathye Griffin Betzel, Psy.D.