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Counseling Services
THE PROGRAM : Applied Skills
Overall Goals, Objectives, and Competencies
The program's goals, objectives, and expected competencies in summary are to assist interns toward developing intermediate to advanced level of skill in the provision of clinical and professional services at a university counseling center or comparable setting, including acquiring and/or refining knowledge and skill in individual and group psychotherapy, clinical and diagnostic interviewing, utilizing psychological testing as it informs clinical practice, crisis assessment and intervention, outreach, consultation, and providing clinical supervision to counselors in training, as well as competency in integrating science and scholarly activity with clinical practice. Additionally, we work to assist interns in beginning to develop a sense of professional identity that is consistent with professional ethical standards, incorporates diversity/multicultural awareness and appreciation, and is congruent with their personal sense of self, values, strengths, and interests.
A full description of the program's goals, objectives, competencies, and training methods and procedures is included in the Intern Training Manual that is provided to interns at the start of the internship year. (View the manual now online as a 120 page, PDF (401kb) or Word (910kb) file.)
Psychotherapy and Counseling
Direct treatment of clients is the cornerstone of our training program. All staff members provide individual, couples and group counseling. Accordingly, the intern is provided with experience in a number of treatment modalities, including crisis intervention and individual short- and long-term treatment. The intern may expect that about 50% of their time will be spent in direct clinical service provision. A typical weekly schedule in the fall semester involves 12 - 14 individual clinical hours and 1 - 2 therapy groups.
Clinical Assessment
Clinical assessment is primarily done through the interviewing of incoming clients during the initial clinical assessment. During the clinical interview, the intern is responsible for delineating the presenting problem, assessing the severity and need for immediate or crisis intervention, providing appropriate diagnoses and initial clinical impressions, and recommendations for treatment. Training in diagnostic interviewing takes place during the August orientation though didactic presentations and observation. Interns typically provide 3 - 4 hours of intake interviews per week.
 Objective and projective psychological tests may also be used to aid clinical and/or career assessment and the therapy process. Psychological testing is addressed in intern seminars. Additional training may occur throughout the year for interns who wish to receive additional testing experience. Testing may be supervised by one of the intern's supervisors or by another staff or consulting psychologist chosen by the intern.
Crisis Intervention
Each staff and intern provides 1-3 hours per week of walk-in crisis intervention during regular Counseling Services hours to students who require immediate attention due to significant lethality risk or deterioration of functioning. Each staff and intern also participate in a rotating after-hours on-call system several weeks throughout the year. Training in risk assessment and crisis intervention takes place during the August orientation, intern seminars, through didactic presentations and observing/shadowing staff.
Outreach and Consultation
The Counseling Services has an active and extensive outreach program, providing a wide variety of workshops and other presentations to the campus community. Interns are regular participants in this programming providing a minimum of 3-4 workshops each semester. Topics are numerous, and open to intern interests and expertise.
Interns have opportunities to provide mental health consultation to university students, faculty, staff, and parents, or develop consultative relationships with various university organizations (academic departments, student service offices, student groups). This may involve such activities as working with university faculty, staff, or students on crisis management and intervention (e.g. dealing with a disturbed student in a class, responding to a suicidal student, processing the death of a student), providing training workshops on a variety of topics (e.g. lethality assessment, conflict management), or aiding better understanding and communication among staff personnel. Interns also have the opportunity to participate as a Counseling Services liaison/consultant on university committees, where they will have regular contact with non-Counseling Services university staff. Additionally, interns respond to phone consultation requests and emergency crisis consultation meetings with university students and staff. Training in outreach and consultation takes place during August orientation, intern seminars, and working as co-presenters or co-consultants with staff.
Supervision
In addition to the APA accredited professional psychology internship, Counseling Services also provides training to social work interns, practicum students from UB's Counseling, School, and Educational Psychology doctoral program, and externs in masters programs in Mental Health Counseling from area universities. Psychology interns participate in the provision of supervision to counseling practicum and extern trainees throughout the year. Training in the provision of clinical supervision takes place during August orientation seminars, directed readings, and weekly meta-supervision with the Training Director throughout the year.
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