Doctoral Internship in Health Service Psychology

	2017-2018	2018-2019	2019-2020
Number of completed applications:	147	126	110
Number of applicants invited for interviews:	38	40	39
Total number of interns:	3	3	3
Total number of interns from APA/CPA accredited programs:	3	3	3
Total number of interns from Ph.D. programs:	3	2	3
Total number of interns from Psy.D. programs:	0	1	0
Total number of interns from Ed.D. programs:	0	0	0
Number of interns that come from a Clinical Psychology program:	0	1	0
Number of interns that come from a Counseling Psychology program:	3	2	3
Number of interns that come from a School Psychology program:	0	0	0
Range of integrated assessment reports: lowest number of reports written:	0	0	1
Range of integrated assessment reports: highest number of reports written	25	6	7

Internship Program Admissions

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:	Applicants must be advanced doctoral students with appropriate coursework in assessment, personality theory, and diagnosis as well as counseling theory and practice. All formal coursework, supervised practicum experience (minimum of 500 hours), and comprehensive exams must be completed prior to the beginning of the internship year. Applicants with a demonstrated interest in working with multicultural populations are preferred. Applicants from APA-accredited doctoral programs in counseling or clinical psychology are preferred.
Does the program require that applicants have received a minimum number of hours of the following at the time of application? If yes, indicate how many:	Total Direct Contact Intervention Hours: 500 hours Total Direct Contact Assessment Hours: None.
Describe any other required minimum criteria used to screen applicants:	N/A

Financial and Other Benefit Support for Upcoming Training Year

Annual Stipend/Salary for Full-Time Interns	$39,300
Annual Stipend/Salary for Half-Time Interns	N/A
Program provides access to medical insurance for intern?	Yes
If access to medical insurance is provided:
Trainee contribution to cost required?	Yes
Coverage of family member(s) available?	Yes
Coverage of legally married partner available?	Yes
Coverage of domestic partner available?	Yes
Hours of Annual Paid Personal Time Off (PTO and/or Vacation)	120 hours
Hours of Annual Paid Sick Leave	96 hours
In the event of medical conditions and/or family needs that require extended leave, does the program allow reasonable unpaid leave to interns/residents in excess of personal time off and sick leave?	Yes
Other Benefits	Up to two weeks of professional development time.

Initial Post-Internship Positions

(provide an aggregated tally for the preceding three cohorts)

	2017-2020
Total # of interns who were in the 3 cohorts	9
Total # of interns who did not seek employment because they returned to their doctoral program/are completing doctoral degree	0

 

	Post-doctoral residency position	Employed position
Community mental health center	N/A	N/A
Federally qualified health center	N/A	N/A
Independent primary care facility/clinic	N/A	N/A
University counseling center	9	N/A
Veteran Affairs medical center	N/A	N/A
Military health center	N/A	N/A
Academic health center	N/A	N/A
Other medical center or hospital	N/A	N/A
Psychiatric hospital	N/A	N/A
Academic university/department	N/A	N/A
Community College or other teaching setting	N/A	N/A
Independent research institution	N/A	N/A
Correctional facility	N/A	N/A
School district/system	N/A	N/A
Independent practice setting	N/A	N/A
Not currently employed	N/A	N/A
Changed to another field	N/A	N/A
Other	N/A	N/A
Unknown	N/A	N/A

Is it appropriate for applicants to contact current trainees and staff with questions? Yes. Please email Claytie (claytie@berkeley.edu) to request current trainees and staff contact information. When contacting trainees and staff, please ask how they would prefer to be in communication (e.g., phone or email).

How diverse is UC Berkeley’s student body? UC Berkeley’s community has rich cultural, ethnic, social, and socioeconomic diversity in which every state and over 100 countries are represented. Over half the undergraduates are people of color; 5,000 are re-entry students; 2,200 are international students; 3,200 are immigrants and refugees, and 68% receive financial aid. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students are also represented at UC Berkeley and there are several active LGBTQ organizations on-campus.

What are you looking for in an intern? The majority of our doctoral and post-MSW interns have previous practical experience in counseling centers, experience providing brief therapy, and experience with crisis management. The doctoral interns will also have some knowledge of career counseling and assessment. As a staff, we value diversity both in terms of learning from each other and from the students we serve. Applicants that are able to articulate how diversity has impacted them on a personal and professional level tend to be a good fit with our training program. Similarly, we are looking for individuals who enjoy working collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team setting.

Do you look at social networking sites as part of the evaluation process? Currently, we do not seek out information from social networking sites as part of our evaluation process.

Can I receive specialized training in some clinical area? You will definitely get specialized training in providing multiculturally competent brief therapy; crisis management; and group therapy. In Social Services the post-MSW's will get training in AOD, newly diagnosed illness, pregnancy, eating disorders and domestic violence. Other specialized training (e.g., specific clinical issues, couples counseling, specific populations) can occur through individual supervision. However, this needs to be discussed with the Training Director and your individual supervisor. If you have specific training goals/needs that are not specified in our materials please ask before, or during, the interview so we can discuss the possibilities.

Do you provide telemental health? Yes, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are providing almost all mental health services remotely through phone and Zoom video. These services individual counseling, group counseling, outreach workshops, urgent drop-in, among other clinical services. Doctoral interns are issued laptops so they can work from home exclusively during the pandemic. In rare cases, interns have the option to meet in person with clients in the big group room where social distancing can be practiced. These in-person sessions are limited to high-risk clients needing in-person support. Although most interns work from home full time during the pandemic, they also have the option to choose to work in the office on some days. 

How many long-term clients do I get to have? Two. However, the clients you see for longer-term therapy need to fit specific criteria that you will discuss with your supervisor and colleagues in case conference.

Please describe opportunities for crisis counseling. All interns and fellows serve on a TRAC (Triage, Referral, Assessment and Consultation) team that is typically a two to four-hour shift where you will see students who are in varying levels of crisis or who state that they need to be seen today (rather than simply making an appointment). During TRAC you also take phone calls from staff, faculty, and parents concerned about a student.

Are there opportunities for testing? There are a number of assessments available for doctoral interns to use in working with students. Our staff primarily uses the Strong Interest Inventory, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MMPI-II, and depression and anxiety inventories. Our interns are also introduced to assessments used in the screening and diagnosing of ADHD. In the assessment seminar you will learn about these assessments and others that you might choose to use in your clinical work.

Are there opportunities to do outreach? Yes. Interns play an important role in our outreach to the campus. CAPS and SOS frequently get requests from the campus to do workshops, trainings, and other preventive mental health programs as well as doing proactive outreach work to the campus to reach underserved populations. CAPS and SOS does approximately 100 outreach events/year. Interns are expected to be involved in these outreach efforts (the expectation is that interns will be involved in approximately 4 programs per semester) and to develop their skills and comfort level in leading such programs. In addition, interns are paired with senior clinicians to respond to urgent outreach requests (e.g., crisis debriefings, responses to campus emergencies), which may involve evening work. Finally, doctoral interns have served as liaisons to residential life (dormitories), providing consultation to resident advisors and resident directors, as needed.

Will doctoral interns be able to provide supervision? Most likely. Every year we do our best to have doctoral interns supervise our career practicum interns. However, sometimes we have fewer career interns than we do doctoral interns. All doctoral interns participate in the Supervision of Supervision seminar and every effort is made to have interns, especially those without prior supervision experience, supervise for at least one semester.

How are supervisory assignments made? During the summer interns are sent an email asking, among other things, what their goals are for supervision and what they would like in a supervisor. The training staff meets to discuss possible matches based on the stated interests and goals of the incoming doctoral intern. Similarly, staff also have a say in whom they would like to work with based on their availability and own interests.

Do interns have an opportunity to lead groups at CAPS and SOS? Yes, we welcome intern involvement in our group program. CAPS and SOS offers a range of therapy, support and psycho-educational groups each semester. Interns are encouraged each year to co-lead at least one group with a post-doctoral fellow or senior staff member. Group leadership assignments are based both upon the clinical needs of the group program and the training needs of an intern. In the fall, interns are typically assigned to lead a Managing Stress, Anxiety, and Depression group.

Will you accept a 4th letter of recommendation? We will accept it but we may not read it. Given the number of applications we receive and the short time allotted before we need to make very important decisions (i.e., who to interview) we suggest only sending 3 letters from individuals you believe can best speak to your skills and areas for growth. This will ensure we read your best letters of support. 

How would you characterize the culture of the Counseling Center? We like to have fun with each other, love working with college students, and enjoy celebrating each other's accomplishments (with food). That said, this is a fast-paced setting that is highly utilized. Thus, there can be increased stress during certain times of the year when demand for services is high. We continually look at how we can better meet the need for student access while at the same time monitor self-care.

Are staff involved in research? A few members are involved in research and publishing. However, there is no formal program of research taking place at Counseling & Psychological Services. The 2011-2012 doctoral interns decided (in collaboration with the Director of Training) to work on a group research project examining, among other things, the internship application process. This was possible because they were done with their dissertations (or far enough along) and able to use their 2 hours of weekly research time to conduct the project. The 2012-13 doctoral interns researched social justice training at APPIC member postdoc programs. The latter was presented at APA. 2017-2018 interns presented a presentation at APA titled: "Campus-wide crisis response in university and college settings with underrepresented student groups".

Are there opportunities to teach? There is no formal opportunity to teach on an ongoing basis; however, there are opportunities to guest lecture. In the past, some interns have taken adjunct teaching positions at neighboring universities (e.g., University of San Francisco, Santa Clara, and the Wright Institute).

Will I get my own office? Our hope is that every doctoral and post-MSW fellows would have their own office. For the past several year interns and fellows have had their own assigned offices. We are in the process of identifying office space in the Tang Center and on campus to accommodate our growing staff.

Will I have access to computers? Of course. Each office is equipped with Microsoft's Office Suite, Outlook Email, Internet Explorer, and PnC (Point and Click) which allows access to patient information. All notes are done electronically.

How many applications do you typically receive and how many applicants will remain under active consideration after interviews? Last year we received 126 applications for the doctoral internship, interviewed 40, and ranked 36. 

Do I need to call you after the interview to "show interest" and hopefully improve my chances of getting ranked high? No. However, feel free to contact us if you have any questions that are not addressed on our website or that were not addressed during the interview. Email is often the easiest way to reach us.

Do you have an Open House? Previously we have hosted an Open House for intern applicants who received an interview. We have not decided if we will host an open house this year.

What do interns do after they leave? All kinds of things. Usually two out of the three doctoral interns complete a postdoctoral fellowship to gain hours for licensure (sometimes with us); many interns apply for staff positions in counseling centers; some go on to teach at universities; and a few interns have left to work as consultants. Post-MSW interns work in a variety of settings to continue to gain hours for licensure. Some have gone on to get positions at eating disorder outpatient clinics, county mental health and counseling centers. Some find community practitioners to supervise them in their private practice.

Do doctoral interns and post-MSW fellows get preferential consideration for job openings? Not really, although several doctoral interns, post-MSW fellows and postdoctoral fellows have joined our staff at some point after finishing their training experience. Having worked here helps you understand the challenges and rewards of working at CAPS and SOS and thus gives any applicant somewhat of an advantage during an interview.

How do doctoral interns and post-MSW's survive on the stipend? It is a challenge but many of our interns have found creative ways to get by on the salary. We suggest contacting current interns directly for more information about this particular issue.

My program requires that internship sites complete our own university's evaluation form. Will you do that? At the end of every semester, the Director of Training sends the Academic Training Director a letter summarizing the intern's performance to date along with a copy of the primary supervisor's evaluation of the intern. Therefore, if you are enrolled in an academic training program that requires additional training contracts and/or evaluations, these will not be completed by our training staff. Your program may choose to use the data from our evaluations to complete their own forms. You are strongly encouraged to consult with your Director of Clinical Training or Claytie if you have questions about this policy.

Could you describe the diversity of your staff? Our counseling center prides itself with the diversity of the staff. Our staff is diverse with respect to age, gender, ethnicity, ableness, sexual orientation, religion/spirituality, and size. In addition, theoretical orientations and areas of expertise vary among staff members.