Agency Description

Santa Rosa Junior College Student Psychological Services (SPS) is embedded in Student Health Services and is a half-time CAPIC internship site. We offer doctoral level half-time internships in several formats. Interns may select a two-year or a one-year option. In addition, interns may select a 24-hours-a-week, 12-month option, as this will provide 1000 hours per year, meeting criteria for licensure in any US state. Interns may also select a 20-hours-week, 10-month option, providing 750 hours per year, meeting CA criteria. Interns should select that later option only if they are 100% certain they will always practice in California. Direct services are provided by eight trainees each year, who are supervised by Licensed Psychologists, and who provide individual, couple, and crisis/drop-in therapies as well as educational presentations and biofeedback services, as part of the clinical and outreach services at SPS. Many trainees are advanced practicum students, while several are pre-doctoral interns, in either one or two-year placements. The second year has expanded responsibilities. Experienced mental health professionals, including licensed psychologists, provide weekly individual (one hour) and group supervision (two hours); weekly didactic trainings (two hours) are given by a range of professionals from the program and the community. The topic of the trainings in the year mirror the developmental needs of incoming interns, beginning with such topics as Developing Therapeutic Alliance and Crisis Intervention, and moving through a variety of Diagnostic topics, Professional Development issues, and a range of Intervention and stage of therapy skills.

Agency Mission

The mission of Santa Rosa Junior College’s Student Health Center is the treatment of health difficulties which interfere with students’ academic or personal functioning. Student Psychological Services (SPS) provides psychological treatment and support as part of this mission. In addition, SPS is committed to supporting each intern therapist to develop their own style of therapeutic interaction within the framework of ethical and professional clinical practice in a collaborative and respectful setting. Within this program interns learn their interests, strengths and limitations as clinicians, and develop confidence to learn new skills. Supervision follows a developmental model (meeting the trainee where they are), both in individual and group sessions. The emphasis is on building a trusting and mutually respectful relationship between and among all SPS supervisors and interns, and using this to deepen interns’ sense of professional identity and supervisors’ experience of intern professional growth. Group supervision and case settings include an additional layer of modeling and mentoring among the various levels and types of experience within any given year’s cohort, and interns are actively encouraged to learn from one another and to stretch and express their professional voices. This attitude and approach is reflected in the collegial and cohort/program relationships and functioning as well. Interns are encouraged to be supportive and engaged, and to receive support and feedback from peers, building a strong sense of interaction and ownership of the functioning of the training community.

Population

Clients here often come from a place of inequity and have a need to overcome challenges. They are inspiring in that they are coming to community college to further their knowledge and careers through education. We assist with adversity. Santa Rosa Junior College serves a rapidly growing North Bay community, and has approximately 20,000 matriculating students on campuses in both Santa Rosa and Petaluma. It houses and provides many professional and certificate programs (several levels of Nursing, Culinary, Dental Assistant, EMT, Fire Fighting) as well as more traditional AA degrees, and many students complete the program here and transfer to four year BA programs in the state. As part of Student Health Services, Student Psychological Services provides services to students, focusing on the assessment and treatment of psychological and mental health difficulties which interfere with the student's academic, employment, or personal functioning. The students who attend SRJC comprise a highly diverse mix of age, gender, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status; ages range from 16 to 70, although the majority of clients are traditional college age. Clinical needs and presentations vary as well: many students are negotiating major life transitions, such as re-entry, leaving home, or adaptation to a new culture. There are also students who have chronic medical or psychological diagnoses who attend classes and access health and psychological services. Interns can expect to encounter the gamut of diagnostic presentations, with about 40% in moderate distress, and about 5% in crisis. Most diagnoses tend to fall within the areas of depression, anxiety, relationship issues, trauma, substance use/abuse or dual diagnosis; but regular examples of bipolar disorder, personality disorders, and psychoses do present as well. Treatment is voluntary, and in very high demand, and most students who seek help are highly motivated for change.

Staff (#, Degree, Prof. Lic.)

# of Psychologists: 4

# of 1: 0

Required days and times

Orientation week is August 12 - Aug 16, each day 10:00am-5:00pm. Then, once the year starts the next week, the weekly training time occurs on Tuesdays from 8:30am to 2pm Clinical Hours: Flexible per your schedule

Training and Education Offered

The internship program provides in-depth training and support for intern therapists to learn solid individual/couples psychotherapy skills with adults (and occasional 16-17 year olds); interns are expected, on average, to see 9-11 clients per week (for those doing 20 hours per week) and 12-14 clients per week (for those doing 24 hours per week) including one or two drop-in sessions. Supervisors and trainers provide information for assessment, treatment planning, treatment management, referrals, and termination. Supervision includes discussion of cases, review of clinical issues arising in sessions, and addresses counter-transference and parallel process issues. Regular review of session video recordings enhances the supervision. The training part of the internship does not aim to duplicate academic material taught in graduate programs, but to integrate theories with clinical practice. Emphasis is given to the development of clinical skills, building assessment abilities, learning about appropriate treatment planning and pacing of therapy, and the proper use of self in clinical practice. Interns learn how to structure a brief therapy and achieve therapeutic success often with clients who present long-term issues. The two year program overall has a graded progression increasing in responsibility, breadth and depth from year one to year two. In training this means that more is expected of each intern in their second year in level of participation, mentoring, leadership and modeling in training experiences. The topics change from year to year, and the complexity and depth increases in material and application in the second year. NOTE: The first year of the two-year half-time program is equivalent to the one-year half-time program.

X-Cultural Training

Responsibilities

Interns average 9-11 clinical hours when in our 20-hour internship and 12-14 hours in the 24-hour internship (individual, crisis, and couple), and are responsible for the case management and clinical documentation. They are available for crisis and drop-In needs. They may provide one to several hours of outreach or presentation in any given week. They participate in a 1-hour individual supervision session, a 90 minute case conference/supervision, a 90 minute training period, and a 90 minute case review/group supervision/outreach supervision/training/administrative staff meeting. The two year program has a graded progression functionally increasing in responsibility, breadth and depth from year one to year two as follows: Internship Year I 1. Participate in Orientation Week, full week in August, Mon-Fri, 10:00-5:00. 2. Participate in weekly Case Conference, Tuesdays, August to May, 8:30 - 10 3. Participate in weekly Didactic Trainings, Tuesdays, August to May. 10:10-11:40. 4. Participate in weekly training/supervision on Cases/Outreach/Group, Tuesdays, 12:45 to 2 5. Participate in weekly scheduled Individual Supervision. 6. Provide 10-12 client therapy hours per week (including 1-2 drop-in hours). 7. Provide outreach presentations. 8. Provide informal supervisor/mentorship to undergraduate peer health educators. 9. Summer session (for those doing a 2-year program) is focused on clinical hours, individual supervision, and special projects. Internship Year II (all above, plus:) 1. Present and facilitate one Fall Semester 90-minute training on a topic of expertise and relevance. 2. Facilitate one discussion per semester in case consultation format. 3. Provide focused treatment to at least four clients in chosen area of expertise. 4. Provide community talk/workshop in area of chosen expertise.

Prerequisites

Application Procedures