Agency Description

Community Institute for Psychotherapy (CIP) is a nonprofit, tax exempt agency founded in 1977 to provide high quality, sliding-scale mental health services for individuals and families who don’t have the resources to pay full fees for professional help. CIP offers a broad range of counseling services designed to meet a variety of needs. At CIP we believe that psychotherapy, training, education, and prevention play a vital role in personal, community, and global change. We believe that the healing of the individual and the healing of the planet are inseparable. CIP serves a wide range of clients from age 6 years to the elderly. We provide individual, couples and family psychotherapy as well as group therapy. Our clients a wide range of functioning as well from SMI (seriously mentally ill) to moderate and mild. We also offer the opportunity to work at an offsite program providing service within another setting CIP’s rigorous clinical internship program is intended for graduate students in psychology and social work. Each year we have 14-16 interns pursuing their PsyD, PhD, LMFT, LPCC or LCSW degrees and approximately 45 supervisors and 45 trainers dedicated to training and mentoring them. We are a CAPIC approved internship site. We believe that a thorough grounding in theoretical and psychotherapeutic techniques beyond the graduate school curriculum is necessary to prepare interns for private practice careers.

Agency Mission

CIP's first mission is to provide quality mental health counseling services to low-income individuals and families in Marin so that they may re-establish mental and emotional well-being and live satisfying and productive lives. CIP offers short- and long-term outpatient psychotherapy on a sliding scale fee basis to adults, children, families, and couples who would otherwise be unable to afford such services. CIP's second mission is to provide a rigorous training program for 14-16 interns in psychotherapy who are currently in post-graduate (Masters and Doctoral) programs. Each intern receives more than 350 hours of training and supervision each year, including individual supervision, group supervision, and training seminars. CIP is a CAPIC (California Psychological Internship Council) approved one and two-year half-time site.

Population

For over 45 years, CIP has played a vital role in the continuum of service in Marin County and acts as a safety net for those in need. Last year, CIP provided an agency total of over 7,000 hours to more than 500 unduplicated clients, 85% of whom did not have Medi-Cal, and 80% of whom had monthly incomes of $2,500 or less. Clients received help with anxiety and depression, divorce and parental stress, issues affecting young children, domestic violence, abuse, and homelessness. More than 18% were children between 6 and 18 years of age. The diagnoses of the clients range from adjustment disorders to Bi-Polar/ Schizoaffective clients, many with Axis 2 diagnoses. The age range is age 6 to the elderly. Diagnoses are culturally-attuned and evidenced based. CIP serves a large Latino-based population.

Staff (#, Degree, Prof. Lic.)

# of Psychologists: 16

# of MFT: 18

# of LCSW: 4

Required days and times

Wednesdays from 8:30 am-4 pm and Fridays from 9-11am

Training and Education Offered

CIP is a community mental health training facility. We offer rigorous clinical training for graduate students in psychology, social work, and counseling. Each year, we have a total of 14 to 16 students pursuing their PhD, PsyD, LMFT, LPCC or LCSW degrees. Typically, seven to eight of our trainees are through our psychology doctoral internship program. Our training and supervision provides exceptional opportunities for individuals interested in working in a community-based environment with a diverse population and a wide range of issues. Our program is psychodynamically based, incorporating training from Object Relations, Jungian, Attachment, Mastersonian, Control Mastery, Self Psychology, Kleinian, and British Middle School points of view. In addition, trainees receive training and experience with short-term treatment modalities, family systems, and mindfulness. We promote service as a means to reinforce positive values and to help build strong, resilient families, schools, and communities. We offer a flexible work environment that honors cultural differences and promotes an atmosphere of continuous learning. About 40 supervisors and 40 trainers dedicate their time to train and mentor trainees to be tomorrow's licensed therapists. We believe that a thorough grounding in theoretical and psychotherapeutic techniques beyond the basic graduate school curriculum is necessary to prepare trainees for private practice careers.
 Just as important to the development of a psychotherapist is personal development. At CIP we provide a holding space for trainees to attend to the external and intrapsychic issues that face developing therapists. Feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and eagerness to gain competence in treating individuals and families are common experiences for trainees; at CIP we make it a priority to create a warm and supportive environment where trainees can grow both intellectually and emotionally. 

Many of our past graduates and licensed therapists have expressed gratitude for the warmth, care and professionalism that core staff, supervisors and trainers provided. CIP’s program for psychology doctoral interns (referred to as interns) is geared for individuals interested in learning to conduct long-term psychodynamically informed psychotherapy. The essentials of psychotherapy will be taught through experiential and didactic learning. Individual supervision, group supervision, and seminars form the core of the program. Together these focus on deepening Interns’ theoretical understanding of case material and translating that understanding into practical, effective interventions with clients. Intensive examination of each case is utilized to facilitate in-depth understanding of the work. Self-exploration and peer feedback are highly valued. Audio taping is used in the supervision process. As less training programs provide psychodynamic training, we believe it is important to preserve the rich history of this work using evidence based psychodynamic practices to ensure providers fill a developing void in services available to clients. Additionally, emphasis is placed on professional development, providing valuable training and experience that prepares our interns for independent practice and sustaining a private practice. We require that all interns have their own individual weekly psychotherapy and provide documentation of this. Community Institute for Psychotherapy is a nonprofit corporation with a dual purpose – providing education and service. The Aims of our psychology doctoral internship are as follows: To provide a high quality, intensive internship which fulfills professional requirements for doctoral level psychology interns. To provide an internship in a nurturing environment which is supportive of the whole range of human functioning - intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Our belief is that interns in turn will attend to each of these dimensions in the lives of their clients. To contribute to the exploration and research of the best possible model for the training of psychologists. To provide interns with rich training in psychodynamically/psychoanalytically based psychotherapy (i.e., Object Relations, Jungian, Attachment, Mastersonian, Control Mastery, Self Psychology, Kleinian, British Middle School, and others). To also integrate other theories as relevant (i.e., Family Systems, Cultural and Racial Identity Models, Mindfulness and Developmental, Trauma Informed and Neurologically Informed therapies). To provide interns with support to develop skills needed for a successful private practice.

X-Cultural Training

Responsibilities

CIP conducts intakes, individual, group, family, and couples therapy, through our traditional outpatient clinic with clients children and adult clients across a spectrum of mental health disorders and severity (mild, moderate, and severe). Interns receive a county waiver to see clients with moderate to severe mental illness through medi-cal. Interns are responsible for clinical documentation, use of the data-base, agency tasks. Additionally, CIP offers optional specialty programs in Couples Therapy, Eating Disorders, and Dreams. CIP collaborated with Outreach Programs (e.g., schools, juvenile probation) through which interns obtain additional experience and training. Finally, CIP’s fifth speciality program is a psychological testing clinic. Our interns receive testing training with a minimum of one testing case per year. Many interns choose to exceed the minimum testing requirement in order to get sufficient training for independent psychological testing practice. Individual, couple, family, group psychotherapy, psychodiagnostic testing, intakes. Responsible for attending all trainings and case conferences except for 4 weeks vacation per year. No didactic training in the summer. We require that 40% of total hours counted be direct client hours (600 direct client hours for 1500 total hours). We require every student to be in individual weekly psychotherapy and we ask for documentation of this.

Prerequisites

Application Procedures