Student Affairs
Components of the Training Program
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) psychology Internship Program provides comprehensive training in college mental health including experience with intakes, assessments, on-call coverage, crisis intervention, suicide assessment and management, brief counseling, group counseling, workshops, outreach programming, consultation, case management, and working with a diverse and gifted student population.
Clinical Activities
Direct Clinical: Interns are responsible for managing 16–20 hours of clinical work per week, providing brief therapy to registered Stanford University undergraduate and graduate students. They will conduct intakes and assess the appropriateness of the student’s presenting problem to a brief treatment model versus open ended therapy. Interns will have the opportunity to provide open ended therapy for the year with up to two students. During the course of the training year, interns will discuss their treatment plan in ongoing supervision and gain greater experience and competence in their clinical assessment and interventions. This may include consultation with psychiatrists, referring students off campus for open-ended therapy and collaborations with other staff on and off campus regarding student mental health care.
On Call: All interns provide one weekly 8 hour shift of on-call crisis service to the student population. During on-call, interns meet with students, professors, Resident Advisors, Resident Fellows or Resident Deans to consult, triage, or assess students for safety issues. Interns consult with staff if a student presents in crisis with potential as a danger to self or others, or is gravely disabled, or other safety concerns related to abuse. Interns may take phone calls and provide referrals and triage over the phone. In the case of a crisis involving potential harm to self or others, interns consult with a senior staff back-up. By the end of internship year, interns will have gained experience with crisis assessment, management, and hospitalizations. In addition, interns may join staff in speaking to various academic departments or resident halls when critical incidents arise.
Training Activities
Clinical Supervision
Interns attend two hours of weekly individual clinical supervision. In individual supervision, interns are encouraged to develop reflective, introspective clinical and case conceptualization skills that aid in their development as professional psychologists. Interns are given an opportunity prior to the beginning of the internship to request their supervision preferences and needs through a self-assessment and during orientation as they become acquainted with supervising staff. An attempt is made to match interns to supervisors based upon these preferences. The clinical supervisor carries responsibility for case management, acquainting the intern with the operations of the agency, training requirements, mentoring, and moral support. Ongoing and reciprocal feedback is an important part of supervision. Interns switch supervisors mid-year to diversify their supervisory experience. Evaluations occur mid-year and at end-of-year.
Specialty Rotations
Our internship provides three rotations that focus on specific issues relevant to the student population: eating disorders, substance use, and gender and sexual identity. These rotations are designed for the interns to gain knowledge, experience, and competence in how to work with these specific issues in time-limited psychotherapy.
The Eating Disorders Rotation typically takes place during the fall quarter and is designed to educate interns about the assessment and brief, evidence-based therapy approaches to treat eating disorders in a college mental health setting. Interns will develop knowledge and competence around the assessment, theories, and brief therapies of eating disorders by the end of the rotation. While on rotation, interns participate in the Eating Disorders Care Team, where they can observe and appreciate the complexities of treating EDs from a multidisciplinary perspective.
During the winter quarter, the interns will participate in the Substance Use/Motivational Interviewing Rotation. This rotation is intended to provide interns with the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct substance use evaluations and brief treatment in a university setting. The primary focus of the seminar is on developing motivational interviewing skills and learning its role in both assessing and treating students who present to CAPS with a substance use problem.
The Gender and Sexual Identities Rotation will take place in spring quarter and it aims to enable clinicians to become more clinically and culturally competent working with clients across the full spectrum of gender and sexual identities. Topics covered include: sexual fluidity, transgender identities, cultural history of LGBTQIA identities, queer-identified people of color; faith and sexuality, same-sex parenting and relationships, poly and kink identities, same-sex relationship violence, and more. This rotation includes a field trip to San Francisco in which we visit sites that are of cultural, spiritual, and historical significance to the Bay Area's LGBTQIA communities.
Social Justice Outreach Seminar
This weekly seminar meets to provide support and supervision for activities related to consultation, education, liaison, and outreach to the Stanford community with a special focus on increasing your understanding of social justice to help you develop skills in delivering outreach services diverse and marginalized student communities. The seminar begins with a contextual framework in the fall of how social justice work has evolved overtime and the exploration of how to apply this framework to the delivery of outreach. Yearly, two social identity groups are selected as a focus. Fall 2017, interns will explore The Black Community and Socioeconomic Status.
In addition, interns establish liaison relationships with a community centerto collaborate and work with throughout the year to meet the needs of a specific student population. A social justice project is developed that may include outreach programming, consultation, drop-in hours, or other collaboration.
Some of the community centers we collaborate with include:
- Asian American Activities Center (A3C)
- Bechtel International Center
- Black Community Services Center (BCSC and also known as The Black House)
- El Centro Chicano y Latino
- Native American Cultural Center (NACC)
- Women’s Community Center (WCC)
- Markaz Resource Center
We always support establishing new liaison relationships through the seminar.
Didactic Seminars
The didactic seminar meets weekly for two hours. This is a topical seminar where presenters focus on topics that are particularly relevant to college mental health. Individual seminars are organized around clinical, diversity, ethics, pharmacological, and treatment model themes.
See an example list of topics covered during Fall 2017.
Diversity Seminar
During winter quarter, interns meet with the training director to explore their intersecting identities and how their own beliefs and values may impact interactions with one another and their clients. Additional topics explored include power, privilege, social justice, and self-care. We believe this is an integral part of fostering personal and professional development working as part of a multicultural organization providing services to a diverse student population.
Professional Development Seminar
This weekly seminar is attended by both psychology interns and postdoctoral fellows and is facilitated by the training director. The purpose of this meeting is to provide a weekly check-in with the training director and a venue for trainees to support and learn from each other. Trainees may seek support for applications, review each other’s’ CVs, do mock interviews, process challenges and organizational dynamics and provide feedback to support each other’s professional development.
Clinical Team Meeting
Interns are part of a multidisciplinary (psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, and marriage and family therapists) team that meets weekly for case conference, support, education, and administration.
Intern Group Meeting
The interns' group meeting is run by the interns themselves. It provides opportunities for interns to bond with one another, to set their own agenda for the meetings, to process their training experience, and to provide mutual support.
Friday Staff Meeting
Each week, interns attend a one hour staff meeting. There is both an administrative and educational component to these meetings.
See an example of the topics covered during the staff meeting.
Case Conference
Each week, interns attend a one-hour case consultation facilitated by a CAPS staff member. This seminar provides interns with an opportunity in peer consultation and supervision.
