Pre-doctoral Internship

Note: We are no longer accepting applications for 2012-2013.

Pre-doctoral Internship in Counselling or Clinical Psychology

Health and Counselling Services at SFU offers full-time pre-doctoral internship positions to doctoral students in counselling and clinical psychology. This internship provides a range of training and service opportunities designed to enable interns to further develop their counselling skills, interests, and professional identities. The training process includes primarily counselling within individual, couple, and group contexts; crisis intervention and risk assessment; critical incident stress debriefing training and opportunities to facilitate a variety of psycho-educational workshops. Although all interns participate in the general training program, individuals may tailor some of the internship to meet their particular goals.

Opportunities

We have one pre-doctoral internship position for the 2012/2013 academic year. Our pre-doctoral internship program is a one year full-time placement beginning September 2012 and ending August 2013. Our hours of operation are 8:45am - 4:30pm Monday to Friday. Pre-doctoral Interns complete at least 1800 hours of supervised work experience.

The goal of our training program is to provide interns with an opportunity to experience a diverse and comprehensive set of learning and professional activities to enhance their counselling knowledge and skills in preparation for independent practice and registration with the College of Psychologists. In addition, interns are encouraged to explore various other learning opportunities within the university context. Finally, we value the skills and knowledge that interns bring to our centre and, therefore, see the interns as contributors to our growth and development.

Internship Activities

Direct Service:
Direct service activities include individual, couple and group counselling; delivery of workshops, seminars, outreach activities; crisis intervention, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing; and consultation provided to/and with faculty and staff. Student presenting concerns include issues related to coping with adjustment to the university environment, depression, anxiety, self-esteem and confidence, relationships, relocation, trauma, abuse, health, diversity, disordered eating, suicide, and academic issues.
Indirect Service:
This includes administrative activities that support direct service such as documentation of counselling sessions, consultations, and group sessions; review of emails; consultation with other professionals; file review; video tape review; intervention planning; and psycho-educational material development related to outreach or group presentations.
Supervision and Case Management:
Interns will receive supervision directly related to their counselling/professional development based on client contact at our site. Individual supervision: Interns receive on average, 4 hours of regularly scheduled supervision sessions per week.In addition, trainees can consult with supervisors or other staff members as needed.
Didactic:
Interns attend a 6 day in –house training/Orientation program at the beginning of September offered by our staff. Interns participate in a bi-weekly case conference meeting with counselling staff. Interns participate in weekly group case conference and training seminars from September to May. Interns attend one or two full-day of professional development training seminars offered by our centre.
Research:
Interns generally have 3 hours/week of in-house time to focus on research.

Expected Outcome

It is expected that upon completion of the pre-doctoral internship, the intern will have developed the competencies, knowledge, skills, and professionalism that are required for independent practice in psychology.

Evaluation

Two formal evaluations will be carried out during the internship; one at mid-term and one at the end. These evaluations will be focused on giving the student feedback on their progress regarding the overall goals of the internship as well as on the specific goals that the intern set for him or herself at the beginning and at the mid-term of the internship. Ongoing feedback will also be provided by the supervisors in order to keep the intern informed of their progress on an continuing basis. Interns are also expected to keep a written log of the numbers of hours and numbers of clients they see. Supervisors will also keep a log of supervision hours, issues discussed during each supervision session and progress

Application Information

Applicants need to submit the following:

A letter of intent including a statement of professional objectives for the internship, their specific reasons for selecting SFU Counselling Services as an internship, and a summary of their theory of change and theoretical orientation.
A current curriculum vitae.
A videotape/DVD showing you conducting a counselling session (mock counselling session is acceptable)
Official transcripts for all post-secondary graduate academic work to date.
A departmental letter confirming student’s readiness for full-time internship.
Three letters of recommendation evaluating the applicant’s performance in both academic and clinical settings.

Applicants must have completed all the doctoral program’s requirements except their dissertation at the time of application. We are accepting applications for the 2012-2013 internship year until the position is filled. Preference will be given to applications received before Jan 4, 2012.
Applications will be reviewed by the Internship Director along with the selection committee, and those who are short-listed will be invited for an interview.

Submit your applications to:
Dr. Erika Horwitz
Health And Counselling Services
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, B.C.
V5A 1S6

The professional counselling staff

Erika Horwitz, Ph.D., R. Psych #1582 (University of British Columbia), Associate Director, Counselling
Rob Awai, MA, RSW (University of Victoria)
Wayne Heaslip, MA, RCC (Adler)
Lisa Sookochoff, MA, RCC (University of British Columbia)
Megan Pinfield, MA, RCC (Adler)
Lorne Prupas, Ph.D., R. Psych.#1151(Simon Fraser University)
Les Reimer, MA, RCC (Providence College)
Janice Stuart, Ph.D., R. Psych.#1578 (University of Alberta)
Cathy Trudeau, MA, RCC (Simon Fraser University)

For more information, call:
Erika Horwitz, Ph.D., R. Psych.
Internship Director
Phone: 778-782-3197
ehorwitz@sfu.ca