COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES

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Internship Admissions, Support, and Initial Placement Data

Internship Program Admissions

Date of Program Tables: October 10, 2022.

Briefly describe in narrative form important information to assist potential applicants in assessing their likely fit with your program. This description must be consistent with the program's policies on intern selection and practicum and academic preparation requirements:

The Doctoral Internship at NU CAPS fosters interns’ professional competencies through their experience as providers of essential services in a college mental health setting, with clinical supervision and didactic training by experienced professionals. NU CAPS clients are undergraduate and graduate students who present with a wide variety of clinical concerns. Their cultural identities and backgrounds are customarily considered alongside social and historical realities in our understanding of their psychological health and treatment plan formulation. With a developmental view of interns’ growth, clinical supervisors value interns’ identities as emerging professionals and cultural beings. Interns collaborate with other psychologists, licensed counselors, licensed clinical social workers, psychiatrists, medical staff, and various university partners. NU CAPS is a busy and dynamic environment that calls for a comprehensive range of competencies from all its clinicians, who must also prioritize their personal well-being and professional growth.  Our supervision, mentorship, and vigorous training curriculum support and challenge our Doctoral Interns to thrive in this environment.

Does the program require that applicants have received a minimum number of hours of the following at time of application? If Yes, indicate how many:

Describe any other required minimum criteria used to screen applicants:

To be considered for the CAPS Internship Program, applicants must fulfill the following criteria at the time of application submission:

• Current enrollment in an APA-accredited (or CPA-accredited) doctoral program in counseling or clinical psychology.
• Successful completion of doctoral comprehensive or qualifying exams.
• A minimum of 350 intervention hours from practica by November 1 as stated above, and a minimum of 1,200 total practicum hours. Refer to the AAPI for what are included under "Intervention Experience." These hours may also include practicum training accrued during a terminal master’s program. Although we value applicants' non-practicum clinical work in mental health services (e.g., jobs, volunteer work) in considering applicants' background and experience in the field, hours of non-practicum services should not be counted towards this criterion.
• Approval by the academic training program verifying readiness for internship.
• Completion of all required coursework and practica prior to the starting date of the internship.
• Favorable consideration will be given to applicants who will have completed or made substantial progress toward the completion of their dissertation by the start of the internship year. 

Financial and Other Benefit Support for Upcoming Training Year

 Other Benefits (please describe):

• 22.5 hours of professional development time (for graduation attendance, dissertation defense, job interviews)
• Interns choose from health insurance options available to other Northwestern employees and cost of premium is deducted monthly from paycheck for the chosen plan; options to include a spouse and dependents are available.
• Interns are provided individual offices, laptop that connects to desktop monitor, internet, access to printer/copier/fax machine, digital recording technology, and phone/voicemail.
• As Northwestern employees, interns have Northwestern e-mail accounts, business cards, access to library resources, and discounts at local merchants.

Initial Post-Internship Positions