Pre-Doctoral Internship Program 
Our Philosophy
The staff at the Counseling Center at the University of New Hampshire is strongly committed to training. We feel that participation in training benefits not only our predoctoral interns, but also benefits supervisory staff and the profession of psychology as a whole.
The staff at the University of New Hampshire Counseling Center believes that the role of the counseling center in a university setting is multi-faceted. We see ourselves as specialists in developmental, clinical/remedial and preventative interventions with adolescents and young adults. We aim to serve the community while being part of the community. As part of the community we are accessible to and familiar with our constituents. In addition, as community members with specialized training in work with the university population, we are knowledgeable about the special needs of students, faculty, staff, and the systems of which we are a part.
It is the philosophy of knowledge in service of practice or "knowledge for what it can accomplish" (Stricker and Trierweiler, 1995 p.996) that guides our center and training program. However, while the emphasis of our program is clearly on practice, we understand good professional practice to be possible only when science and practice are integrated (Belar and Perry, 1992) and when the practitioner "reflects-in-action" (Peterson 1995 p.980). We believe that to be responsible and effective practitioners, we must also be scholars. As clinicians and supervisors, we draw upon our knowledge of research, scholarly work and theory as well as our intuition, creativity and experience of relationship to respond to a particular need. We see our work and knowledge as fluid, always growing and changing in response to new information and experiences. We are committed to continual professional and personal learning through both formal and informal modalities. It is with this understanding that our center staff endorses a "Practitioner-Scholar" model of training and clinical practice.
What does this mean in terms of training? It means that training staff help the interns embrace the Counseling Center mission, which includes service to the university community in many forms: individual and group psychotherapy, crisis intervention, psychoeducational workshops, learning disabilities assessment and consultation to other offices and departments. It also means opportunities to reflect on what we are doing and to draw on ideas from our colleagues and pertinent psychological and other literature. These opportunities take the form of supervision, case sharing, seminars, professional reading, and evaluation of and/or participation in research. There is a process that is modeled and encouraged; one in which we avail ourselves of the external knowledge and resources available to us, and we also turn inward to our self-knowledge, and the accumulation of what we have learned in practice. We draw on all of it in our attempts to move those we serve forward.
As a training program our primary goal is to encourage and assist interns in their development toward becoming highly responsible, ethical, and competent entry level psychologists. Our program provides interns with an intensive professional training experience in the many activities in which a university counseling center psychologist typically engages. Interns receive supervision and mentoring in the provision of individual and group psychotherapy, learning disabilities assessment, consultation and outreach, crisis intervention, the provision of peer supervision, and administrative activities. Interns receive a minimum of 2.5 hours per week of individual supervision and three hours per week of group supervision. Further, interns participate in seminars in each of these domains. Our seminars are led by senior staff psychologists and professional program consultants who base their presentations on their clinical expertise and experiences as well as on current literature. Interns spend an average of 3 hours per week in seminars. Our internship program also encourages spontaneity and curiosity regarding research and scholarly inquiry by way of individual and group projects (Consultation Project and Clinical Specialty Project).
The Center's staff views professional growth as interrelated with personal growth. Therefore, interns are challenged to examine
themselves and their world views as they develop as psychologists. We are committed to diversity and to working on issues of oppression and social
justice. Throughout the year, interns receive training on the dynamics of oppression, power, and cultural influence, and are sensitized to diversity among clients. Our commitment to diversity is also reflected in the staff's theoretical orientations and practice. More generally, interns are part of a Center that respects and values the participation of all its members and works to responsibly acknowledge power and its use.
Interns are encouraged to participate in all aspects of the functioning of the center. We believe that effective socialization of interns into professional psychology involves a high degree of interaction between interns and staff members and that direct communication about values, attitudes, and ideas and modeling these in our work is central to reaching our training goals. Using an apprenticeship process interns work closely with senior staff in developing skills to successfully participate in the many activities in which a university counseling center psychologist engages. Early in the year interns share tasks with supervisors and assume more responsibility and autonomy, as they are ready. Consistent with our value on relational learning is the continual feedback loop that exists between interns and senior staff and between all members of our staff. Interns participate in a program that assesses and adjusts to the unique needs and abilities of each intern class. Clearly, evaluation and feedback are critical components of our training process and take place in informal and formal contexts. Information about intern progress and needs is gathered throughout the internship year. Initially, interns' pre-internship experience is assessed during the selection process and prior to their arrival at UNH. The information gathered is used to plan the content and/or sequencing of the Professional Development Series, some of our Orientation and Intern Seminars and in matching of primary supervision pairs. During orientation, the Director of Training meets with each intern to discuss his or her clinical experiences, goals and supervisory preferences. Based on this information as well as staff availability, supervisory decisions are made. Discussion about intern progress and needs occurs between interns and senior staff in all supervision and training. In addition, communication between supervisors occurs during weekly senior staff meetings, supervisory meetings called on an as needed basis and evaluation meetings. Adjustments to clinical load, training seminars and supervision meetings are made in response to this shared information.
While our training program is calibrated each year to fit the specific and evolving needs of each training class, the basic components of training offered and the model of training to which we adhere remain consistent each year. Current literature and professional standards inform our supervisory and training work. In meeting our primary goal of encouraging and assisting interns in their development toward becoming highly responsible, ethical, and competent entry level psychologists, we provide training in the following skill domains: Clinical Services, Consultation and Outreach Services, Workshops, the Provision of Peer Supervision, Professional Commitments and Responsibilities and Supervision and Professional Development. In each skill domain, several behavioral objectives are defined. It is expected that as the year progresses interns move towards increasing independent practice and by the end of the internship year it is expected that interns function as competent entry level professionals.
Belar, C.D., and Perry, N.W. (1992). The National Conference on Scientist-Practitioner Education and Training for the Professional Practice of Psychology, American Psychologist, 47, 71-75.
Peterson, D.R. (1995). The reflective educator. American Psychologist, 50, 975-983
Stricker, G. and Trierweiler, S. (1995). The Local Clinical Scientist. American Psychologist, 50(12), 995-1002