Health Service Psychology Internship

Program Overview

*Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as of August 2022, our center has been operating on a hybrid model (going to the office a few days) while conducting in-person counseling/supervision/training as well as tele-counseling/supervision/training. This is subject to change in the future. Our center acknowledges the massive changes and distress due to the pandemic and continued political unrest in the current sociopolitical climate. We have worked on addressing these in the training program throughout the year such as being intentional of creating spaces in trainings, supervision, and meetings to process, connect, and support trainees and having continued communication prior to the interns' start date to provide guidance through challenging times. Please also review our SJSU COVID-19 Health Advisory and continue to monitor this site for changes: https://www.sjsu.edu/healthadvisories/vaccination.php

The major goal of the SJSU CAPS’ Training Program is to provide high quality, multicultural-focused learning experiences to postdoctoral residents and psychology interns (hereafter referred to as “trainees”) in counseling/clinical psychology in preparation for a career in mental health. To help attain this goal, the counseling faculty has a strong commitment to supervise, teach, and mentor our trainees. Our training is guided by a Practitioner-Scholar model in which we train clinicians to be informed of theory and research in the science of Psychology. Our supervisors represent a broad base of theoretical backgrounds, thus trainees are exposed to various models. We emphasize short-term treatment approaches that meet the needs of a diverse college and graduate student body. We also strongly acknowledge that we live in a diverse world with continued ongoing diversity-related issues and injustices. We thus believe in the utmost importance of being dedicated to multicultural awareness and humility. We believe in the need to engage in this process on a daily basis by being aware of our multiple social identities and interactions of those with others, acknowledging our biases, being aware of societal contexts that impact us on a constant basis, and advocating for various marginalized populations. Thus these beliefs and values are embedded into our training program and multiple elements described below.

We also strive to provide trainees with challenging and developmentally appropriate training experiences. We accomplish this by emphasizing training that is sequential, cumulative, and graded in complexity. We provide didactic trainings, experiential learning (direct service), mentorship, and role modeling from various staff members. We encourage self-examination and awareness of the impact of self on others.

At CAPS we also believe that different levels of trainees have different developmental needs. We work with postdoctoral residents and health service psychology interns. Thus, some trainees will be separated for various training activities, while for other components of training all trainees will meet together in order to optimize the diverse perspectives that arise when combining various training levels. 

We are proud members of the Association of Counseling Center Training Agencies (ACCTA) – a national organization for training programs within university counseling centers. Our internship training is a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). Our internship has been accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) since 2012 and was re-accredited for 10 years in 2019.

CAPS abides by the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Conduct of Conduct. Our internship and postdoctoral programs meet state licensure requirements and provides broad training covering all the major areas of knowledge and skills expected of a psychologist in a university counseling center setting (Standard 7.01), provides an accurate description of the training program, goals and objectives, stipends, benefits and exit criteria (Standard 7.02), provides training as described in the program materials (Standard 7.03), does not require interns to disclose or discuss personal information except as it is related to their developing skills and professional effectiveness (Standard 7.04), does not mandate outside therapy experiences (Standard 7.05), provides evaluations of interns in a timely manner (Standard 7.06), and prohibits sexual relationships between interns and supervisory staff (Standard 7.07).

Aim of Training: To train entry-level psychologists whose professionalism includes self-awareness, culturally-responsive practice, and communication/interpersonal skills, for ethical and effective practice in the field of Health Service Psychology.

We have outlined the following training competencies and elements:

Trainee Training Competencies

Competency A: Research

Competency B: Ethical and Legal Standards

Competency C: Individual and Cultural Diversity

Competency D: Professional Values and Attitudes

Competency E: Communication and Interpersonal Skills

Comptenecy F: Assessment

Competency G: Intervention

Competency H: Supervision

These competencies will be addressed and facilitated through modeling by professionals, supervision, didactic training, experiential learning, and mentoring. These goals will be assessed by providing written and verbal feedback to each intern.

Information about SJSU CAPS Psychology Internship: Supervisors' Point of View (Fall 2021)

This video contains information about the SJSU CAPS Psychology Internship program shared by our Clinical Supervisors. Hosted by the Intern Training Coordinator, our CAPS supervisors address common questions asked by applicants over the years in a panel format. This video was created to help those interested in our program to learn more about our CAPS atmosphere and the internship year. 

Agency Description

San José State University CAPS is a department within the Division of Student Affairs at San José State University. CAPS offers services designed to help San José State's diverse student body of 30,000 identify and accomplish their academic and career goals, enhance personal development, meet life's challenges, and improve interpersonal relationships. CAPS is established as a comprehensive counseling center offering core clinical services, developmental and life skills interventions, consultations, and outreach to our diverse student population. Short-term counseling and psychotherapy are the primary means of direct service delivery.

Agency Objective

CAPS provides quality culturally-responsive services to students so they can achieve their goals of becoming successful graduates of San José State University, both academically and socially. To fulfill this objective, we look at the whole student based on their sociocultural background and provide guidance and tools to become productive and well-rounded. To do that, professionally trained psychologists, social workers, and counselors are available for students on an individual or group basis for counseling on a myriad of psychological and academic issues. In addition, we provide services such as outreach presentations for students, student groups, staff/faculty, and staff consultations on issues of student mental health and campus climate; and professional training, teaching, and supervision for future mental health personnel, consistent with the educational mission of the university.

Population Served

CAPS provides services for all enrolled students of San José State University. The student population of SJSU is a highly diverse group. For example, there is no one clear majority group (more than 50%) in terms of ethnicity on the campus and ages range from late teens to many students in their fifties. In addition, there is diversity around ability/disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, social class, nationality, and more. Please see here for more information on SJSU's population: https://www.sjsu.edu/diversity/diversity-equity-inclusion/demographics/index.html

Theoretical Orientation

CAPS' staff utilize a variety of theoretical positions including integrative, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, feminist, multicultural, gestalt, humanistic, and systems perspectives. Generally, an integrated approach to counseling and psychotherapy is shared by the staff.

Diversity and Social Justice Training

Training in multiculturally oriented therapy and counseling is integrated into all training activities. As noted, SJSU CAPS serves a highly diverse population. Psychology interns participate in a weekly Diversity Discussion Group/Seminar (Fall/Spring) and Social Justice and Outreach Training Seminars (in Fall) where social justice and outreach issues are integrated and discussed in depth. Psychology interns also provide various outreach and workshops and are guided to provide these in a culturally sensitive manner to diverse populations. Lastly, CAPS hosts an annual conference: Multicultural Training Day. Trainees and Training Directors from university counseling centers in the Bay Area are invited to attend and share in a day of multicultural learning and dialogue (e.g., Topics include addressing racial trauma, working with LGBTQ populations, working with undocumented students etc). See changes in this conference in the pandemic below.

Components of the Clinical Psychology Internship Training Program

There are four major component areas of the Training Program. These areas are Multiculturalism/Cultural Humility, Training, Direct Service, and Indirect Service. In addition, there may be Other Training Opportunities available throughout the training year.

Multiculturalism/ Cultural Humility:

At CAPS we value multiculturalism, cultural humility, and social justice and work to actively engage in our own self-reflection processes, acquire culture-specific knowledge, and provide culturally sensitive services to our campus population. Thus, when providing individual, couples, crisis and group counseling, attending supervision, and providing consultation and outreach programming to attending  training seminar presentations, psychology interns and post doctoral residents will be guided to think of the recipient of services as a whole embedded in layers of systems and cultural contexts, learn how to conceptualize and explore these layers and various social identities with clients, and reflect on their own cultural backgrounds and identities as counselors, psychologists-in-training, and professionals-to-be. For instance, psychology interns and postdoctoral residents also partake in a Social Justice and Outreach Seminar to further discuss how to be social justice advocates. CAPS also hosts an annual one-day Multicultural Training Day conference, that all interns and postdoctoral residents attend. This has been combined with the Northern California Training Day conference (NCTD) during the pandemic and will continue to do so for this year.  

Training:

Seminars

• Didactic Training Seminar: The Training Seminar meets weekly for 1-2hrs (mostly weekly for 1hr in the Fall; mostly weekly for 2hrs in the Summer) and is coordinated by the Intern Training Coordinator. The weekly seminar encompasses 3 large components: clinical topics, psychological testing topics, and professional development topics. First, various clinical topics are presented and discussed by a variety of presenters at CAPS and outside presenters. Common training topics include: how to work with trauma survivors, cultural double-bind, working with specific cultural populations (e.g., ethnic groups, international students, LGBTQ populations), conducting various modes of therapy, learning how to do supervision and more. Second, the seminar includes training on psychological assessment (e.g., CCAPS, CAMS, trauma assessment) in which interns will be trained on (in Fall) and asked to use with a client and report on (in Spring). This is a small component of the training experience. Furthermore, the seminar will also include training coordinated by a licensed psychologist on professional development topics (e.g., applying for next training positions, preparation for licensure in psychology, job interviews) throughout the year. 
• Diversity Discussion Group/Seminar: This group/seminar is an opportunity for trainees to develop their awareness and knowledge in diversity through discussion and is led by a licensed clinician. It is conducted for 1 hour per week in the Fall Semester and Spring Semester. Our agency believes that self-awareness is vital to the development of a competent practitioner. Thus, trainees will be invited to deeply examine their own cultural identities and assumptions, discuss diversity issues that arise in the everyday setting and larger society, and reflect on how these impact interpersonal and relational dynamics in providing therapy and healing, and within interpersonal and systemic dynamics. The purpose of this is to help trainees advance their multicultural awareness and cultural humility in order to improve mental health for their clients and the community. Although this group serves clinical work, it is not supervision or about specific cases.    
• Social Justice and Outreach Seminar (Interns & Postdoctoral Residents): The Social Justice and Outreach Seminar occurs weekly during the Fall semester and is led by a licensed psychologist. Trainees will discuss the role of psychologists in addressing social justice issues that may prevent or alleviate mental health struggles; explore the relationship between social justice and the development of outreach services and programs; and may help in developing specialization areas in which they focus their outreach and group efforts (e.g., LGBTQ students, racial/ethnic minority students, international students, first generation college students). It is the Training Committee’s philosophy that including a diverse group of individuals (including diversity in training levels) enriches the discussion in this seminar and thus psychology interns and postdoctoral residents are both included in this seminar. Information regarding performance in this seminar may be provided to the individual supervisor for inclusion in the semester evaluation process.
• Supervision of Groups & Workshops/Group on Groups Seminar: The Group seminar is led by a licensed psychologist. This seminar counts toward clinical supervision hours. The seminar focuses on assisting and supervising trainees as they develop, market, and co-lead therapy groups and psychoeducational workshops. Psychology interns are required to co-lead therapy groups with a staff member or a Multicultural Postdoctoral Resident (tends to usually be a staff member in the Fall semester). Information regarding performance in this seminar, as well as performance when leading groups and workshops, may be provided to the individual supervisor for inclusion in the semester evaluation process. 

Supervision/Case Consultation

• Individual (1:1) Supervision: CAPS meets or exceeds the supervision requirement in the CA Board of Psychology’s Supervised Professional Experience (SPE) regulation. Each intern/postdoctoral resident will be provided with supervision for at least 10% of the total time worked each week. *At least one hour per week of individual face-to-face supervision is provided each week. Supervisor assignments for the Fall semester are made by the Training Committee. Interns/Postdoctoral residents are required to change supervisors during the second semester to obtain a breadth of orientations, techniques, and styles. For the second semester, trainees’ preferences for supervisors are solicited and considered in assignments made by the Training Committee. Every effort is made to match requests. Supervisors during the Winter and Summer semesters tend to be randomized given the smaller number of supervisors available during those semesters. Thus, interns and postdoctoral residents get a chance to work with a wide range of and several supervisors throughout the year. 
  • In addition to primary supervision received above from a licensed psychologist, interns will receive an hour of secondary supervision once in two weeks from a post-doctoral resident for one semester (either fall or spring semester). A few cases will be assigned for this supervision process and the post-doctoral supervisor will receive supervision from a licensed psychologist for this experience.

*Individual Supervision will be conducted in a hybrid model (in-person and/or online) and is up to the comfort of the trainee and supervisor. This is in accordance with APA and the CA Board of Psychology guidelines. This is subject to change in accordance with APA and the CA Board of Psychology, and interns and postdoctoral residents will continue to be updated about this during the year.

• Group Supervision: Group supervision occurs one hour per week. Group supervision is led by a licensed Psychologist and a Post-doctoral Resident. Group supervision provides a forum for discussing clinical work and improving clinical skills as well as professional development.  Case presentations will be conducted during this time in the fall and spring semesters.
• Clinical Consultation Meeting: This one hour weekly meeting is for counselor faculty, interns and postdoctoral residents to present cases to one another and engage in consultation. The emphasis in this meeting is to view our work as a team effort to provide the best possible and most clinically appropriate and ethical service to our SJSU students.
• *Audio/Video Recording: In order to provide specific and in-depth feedback, supervisors require psychology interns to video-record all client sessions. Recorded sessions are provided to the trainees’ supervisor and may be reviewed with the trainee during supervision or outside of supervision times. Recordings may also be accessed by other training staff due to training purposes (i.e. showing in group supervision). Trainees inform clients of the recording requirements at the same time they inform clients of their supervision, which is usually during the first session. Should a client not want to be recorded, the client will be reassigned to a non-recording counselor within the agency. Sessions are digitally recorded and stored on a secure server for at least 1 month. Recorded sessions are for training purposes only and are not available for use outside of CAPS. If a client wishes to obtain recorded sessions, the trainee must consult with their primary supervisor. Any recording taken out of CAPS is a violation of this policy and subject to disciplinary actions.

Direct Service: 

Direct service hours are provided through individual, couple, and group counseling sessions; outreach presentations; and assessment/crises coverage. The provision of direct service hours are done through consultation with your primary supervisor. Psychology interns are expected to accrue approximately 20.5 hours of direct service per week in Fall, 22.5 hours in Spring and Summer. A primary supervisor, in consultation with the Training Coordinator and Associate Director, may help adjust the amount of direct service hours provided by an intern depending on the intern’s individual needs and situation (e.g., accommodations for disability).

• • Individual/Couple Psychotherapy:  Psychology interns are expected to accrue the majority of the direct service hours through work with individual clients. The size of the caseload varies considerably depending on whether clients are seen weekly or less often. Clinical load may also vary during slower times of the year, such as winter break and the beginning of fall semester, and higher during peak times such as midterms and finals.
  • Groups: Psychology interns provide group counseling with another staff or post-doctoral resident (tends to usually be a staff member in the Fall semester). Formation of groups will be discussed during orientation, individual supervision, and the Group on Groups and Workshops Seminar. Psychology interns are required to co-lead counseling groups with a counselor faculty in the Fall with the possibility of co-leading with a Multicultural Postdoctoral Resident in the Spring. Interns should receive 30 min supervision with their co-leader who will be a licensed clinician and group supervision in the Group on Groups seminar.
  • Outreach and Workshops: Psychology interns are also required to complete two outreach presentations (1 per semester) for the training year. In general, trainees are free to partake in tabling events in the beginning of the semester. When conducting a presentation at CAPS for the first time since their arrival, they are asked to co-lead their presentation at CAPS with a counselor faculty. After this first outreach, trainees may take on other outreach presentations freely. They are welcome to partake in outreach requests that CAPS gets from the SJSU community and programs presented during re-occurring campus events such as Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Sexual Assault Awareness Week, or African American History month. Trainees may also establish consultation relationships with any number of student organizations or offices, including: Gender Equity Center, MOSAIC Cross-Cultural Center, Athletics Department, Residence Life, Accessible Education Center, The Greek System, Mental Health Ambassadors (student group de-stigmatizing mental health services), and Peers In Pride (LGBTQ mentoring program) or the larger Pride Center after consulting with their supervisor and training coordinator. Time spent on these projects varies widely. Psychology interns are welcome to suggest programs based on their interest areas. 
  • Outcome Assessment of Clinical Work: CAPS offers some but not comprehensive training in collecting quantitative outcome data on the psychological services provided to clients. This work is conducted as part of their didactic seminar where they receive training on different types of psychological assessments and they are expected to conduct an assessment with a client and present a testing report in the Spring semester. Trainees will consult with the Intern Training Coordinator who is in charge of the didactic seminar, their supervisors, and psychologists providing training on the outcome assessments for their assessment project. Trainees will also assume the responsibility of consulting with their academic training programs to determine if at all they need to deliver outcome measures during the training year and may need to acquire those measures through the doctorate program. Any measures administered at CAPS will remain part of the client’s file and that data cannot leave CAPS. 

• • Initial Consultation (ICON)/Triage and Crisis Coverage: Psychology Interns will be required to have 2 ICON appointments per week; ; ICON appointments are generally the entry point for our students and are scheduled appointments that last approximately 45-50 minutes and are designed to “assess” the student’s reason for wanting personal counseling and assess for risk. After the assessment, if determined to be appropriate for our services, the student is either scheduled an intake or personal returning or placed on the waitlist to be assigned to an appropriate counselor (this depends on schedules and time of the semester). CAPS generally provides crisis services between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday during Fall and Spring semester. Each semester, a variety of crisis cases demand our attention. These include walk-in clients who seem to be in crisis, calls from staff in the residence halls, or requests from faculty or staff to consult about troubled students. Interns are required to have 2 hours of crisis coverage and 2 hours of crisis backup per week, during which they manage any crises that arise/come into the center. In addition to the assigned shift, from time to time all counselors may be called on to assist with crisis situations.

Indirect Service:

• Meeting with Training Coordinator: Psychology interns have weekly 30 minute meetings with their training coordinator in the Fall and a bi-weekly 30 minute meeting in Winter-Summer. This time is used to check-in, go over administrative tasks, and to help the interns adjust to the agency and to their internship program.
• Peer Support Lunches:  Psychology interns are encouraged to attend a weekly lunch meeting to support each other and process their unique developmental experiences. Meetings may focus on supporting each other through transitions, increasing accountability regarding progress on dissertations, discussing issues that come up around working in CAPS, and processing the dynamics within the cohort. These are scheduled into their weekly schedule.
• Case Management: Psychology interns schedule time into their weekly schedules to complete their case records, review session recordings, and attend to other administrative tasks.  In addition, certain blocks of free time for this will present themselves from time to time (e.g., cancellations, no-shows).
• Other Consultation, Club, or Committee Work: In the past, trainees have become involved with other organizations that correspond to their own interests. These have included the Career Services; Health Services; MOSAIC Cross-cultural Center; Cesar Chavez Community Action Center; Pride Center; Gender Equity Center; Athletic Department, etc.  
• Attendance at Division or Departmental Meetings and Functions: Our program values exposure to the larger picture of university functions and collaboration with other campus units. Thus, psychology interns attend various meetings throughout the year that involve the larger staff and faculty of San José State University. These include: CAPS staff meeting, SWC staff meeting, Division of Student Affairs Professional Development Day, Division of Student Affairs Meetings, and various university social functions or celebrations. 

Other Training Opportunities:

• Case Presentations: Psychology interns are required to give one formal case presentation each semester (Fall and Spring). Case presentations are delivered during the Intern Group Supervision meetings. Supervisors may assist trainees in any manner they wish with case presentations (e.g., review write-up, attend presentation). The psychology intern will receive written feedback from the group supervision leaders and this information may be provided to the primary supervisor for inclusion in semester evaluations.
• Outreach Presentations: Psychology interns are required to give one outreach presentation each semester (Fall and Spring).  As mentioned above, each intern is required to have one workshop/outreach presentation (minimum of 1hr) evaluated per semester (2 total per year). Interns are allowed to do one outreach presentation with a co-presenter but the intern must contribute to at least half of the creation of the material and present at least half of the material. For the second outreach presentation, each intern must both create and present the material fully by themselves. Evaluations can be completed by a counselor faculty. Interns will need to ask the counselor faculty to conduct these evaluations and provide them with these rating forms.
• All Staff Trainings: CAPS values ongoing trainings for all levels of trainees and faculty and staff. Thus, CAPS provides trainings for all clinical staff, including trainees, each academic year. These presentations may be provided by staff/faculty within the Department or by outside presenters. 

Hours:

Our training program for psychology interns is for 2000 hours of Supervised Professional Experience (SPE), accrued over 12 months and completing 1900 hours is the minimum requirement for our program. Training generally begins around early or mid-August. We will solicit 4 psychology interns. Psychology interns are expected to be available during CAPS business hours.

Application and Selection Process

We participate in the APPIC match and use the APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI Online). To access the application, please go to the APPIC website. The website provides instructions for how to complete and submit your APPI online application. If you have not requested an applicant agreement form and materials describing the APPIC Internship Matching Program, please contact the National Matching Service (NMS) at https://natmatch.com/psychint/.

Our information for NMS is as follows: San José State University, Counseling and Psychological Services *APPIC Member Number: 2143 *APPIC Match Number for NMS: 214311

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.

***Please note that due to the new AAPI system, we will accept applications until 11:59pm EST (Eastern Time) on 11/1/2022 (Tuesday).

Requirements:

• Our requirements and required materials include:
  • We require that applicants come from APA accredited counseling psychology or clinical psychology Ph.D. or Psy.D. programs, have at least 2 years of doctoral training, have 500hrs of Direct Service, have passed their comprehensive exams, have completed their coursework, and have their dissertation proposals approved by the beginning of internship.
  • A completed APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI) form accessed at the APPIC website.
  • Cover letter.
  • Current curriculum vita.
  • Official transcripts of all graduate work (current doctoral and any other previous graduate level work).
  • Three letters of recommendation, at least two from supervisors who are familiar with your more recent clinical work.
• While not required we prefer applicants who have experience in college counseling or working with young adults/adults, have some experiences with crisis counseling, and have experience with groups and outreach
• Please also see our profile in the APPIC Directory for information about our site and requirements for application (e.g., minimum hour requirement, credentials etc).

Internship Admissions, Support, and Initial Placement Data

Date Program Tables are updated: 8/5/2022

Internship Program Admissions

If you find that your questions are not answered by our website information, please contact the Intern Training Coordinator, Minji Yang, Ph.D. (minji.yang@sjsu.edu).

Our internship program is accredited by the American Psychological Association.  Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation:   

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202-336-5979
E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org
Web: www.apa.org/ed/accreditation