PLEASE NOTE: The predoctoral internship program in psychology at UCLA's Counseling and Psychological Services invites applications for the 2010-2011 training year. The deadline for applications is November 15, 2009. We welcome and encourage applications from diverse individuals. Our program is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association and we are members of APPIC. Our program participates in the APPIC Match (Program Code 113511) and adheres to all APPIC Match policies.

Interviewees will be selected on December 15th. Applicants selected to be interviewed will be notified by e-mail on December 15th to arrange an interview time. Applicants not selected will be notified by e-mail by December 17th. Interviews will be conducted by phone or in person on January 4th, 5th, and 7th, 2010.

The University

The University of California at Los Angeles is nestled at the base of the Santa Monica Mountains, five miles from the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by an impressive array of cultural, entertainment and recreational opportunities. Established in 1919 as the second campus of the University of California system, UCLA is the largest of the ten campuses comprising the University of California system and enjoys an international reputation for academic excellence. The campus is consistently ranked among the top ten public institutions and research universities in the United States.

UCLA's student population is among the most diverse in the world, drawn from all fifty states and more than 92 countries. More than half of the approximately 38,000 students identify themselves as members of cultural or ethnic minorities.

Now ranked among the top five research libraries in North America, the UCLA library system consists of 13 separate branches, and has more than 6 million volumes. The largest location, the University Research Library, focuses on the special needs of graduate students and faculty.

UCLA has also distinguished itself as a leader in the visual and performing arts. Considered a mecca for local, national and international artists, the UCLA Center for the Performing Arts stages more than 200 public events annually. The Mathias Botanical Gardens, the Carter Japanese Gardens, UCLA at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center, the Geffen Playhouse, the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the Murphy Sculpture Garden, the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts and the Wight Art Gallery all contribute to an enriching environment for students and visitors. In addition, UCLA has a long tradition of excellence in athletics and has gained recognition for its strong combination of academics and athletics.

The Staff and the Setting

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is a multidisciplinary mental health center for the UCLA community, offering individual, group and conjoint counseling and psychotherapy to students; outreach, prevention, consultation and education to students, staff and faculty; and training programs for graduates in the mental health professions. We are a multiethnic and multicultural staff of psychologists, clinical social workers and psychiatrists, all of whom have varied training and interests. Our staff is one of the most diverse in the nation.

Students present with a full range of concerns, from normal developmental issues to severe psychopathology. CAPS offers a variety of interventions to address these concerns. Last year we provided direct clinical services to over 6,000 UCLA students and outreach services to more than three times that number, thus offering an unusually rich opportunity to work with a large and diverse population in a variety of modalities.

Philosophy of Training

The CAPS training program adheres to a Scholar-Practitioner model.  Focusing on the clinical application of scientific findings, a broad array of supervised clinical, outreach and prevention experiences and formal and informal didactic settings promote the acquisition of practice skills and the development of critical thinking.

We regard our predoctoral interns as professionals in training, and accordingly the training program is developmental in its focus.  We believe that professional development and competency as a newly-practicing psychologist results from cumulative and developmental immersion in broad clinical experience rooted in empirical evidence and supported by skilled professionals serving as teachers, supervisors, and role models.  While our full-time interns provide the same types of clinical and outreach services as our licensed supervisory staff, however, we are keenly aware of our joint responsibilities to our interns and to the student population who ultimately rely upon those interns to provide professional services.  Recognizing that interns begin their internship year at varying developmental levels, an assessment is made of their training needs at the start of the year and expectations are individually tailored.  After a year of close supervision, we expect each intern to have developed an increased level of clinical competence and autonomy, heightened professional identity and ethical awareness, and an enhanced understanding of self in preparation for independent functioning as a clinical psychologist.

We train our interns to be generalists, with particular expertise in working with a college population. Over the course of the year, interns provide individual, couple and group psychotherapy, crisis intervention, emergency response and psychological assessment to university students. In addition, interns perform outreach, prevention and consultation to the university community and supervise advanced practicum students from the UCLA Psychology Department’s APA-accredited Ph.D. program in clinical psychology. Interns are encouraged to develop specific expertise with special populations and these interests are taken into account when making assignments; however, such interests are considered as secondary to generalist training. 

An appreciation of human diversity is a cornerstone of our training program. Our highly diverse clinical staff trains interns in the competent provision of services to UCLA's pluralistic student body. The diversity of our staff and our clientele provides interns with an unusual opportunity to gain specific clinical experience and expertise with a broad spectrum of individually and culturally diverse clients across a full range of health and psychopathology.  Over the course of the year, interns are expected to refine their sensitivity and competence in service delivery to students of varied racial, cultural, religious, gender, sexual orientation, physical and age groups. Professional diversity is also valued, as our staff consists of psychologists, clinical social workers and psychiatrists, and trainees from psychology, social work, and psychiatry residency programs.

Intensive supervision is a distinguishing feature of CAPS internship training and encompasses a variety of theoretical frameworks.  Interns are frequently asked to reflect on personal issues potentially affecting their professional functioning as therapists, trainers, consultants and colleagues. While we strive to respect interns' privacy rights, the disclosure of personal information pertinent to interns' professional roles in the context of their supervision is routine and expected.

Finally, our training program operates in a context of ongoing reciprocal evaluation and feedback. Such periodic evaluation ensures that interns, as well as supervisory staff, are progressing in their individual and professional development goals.

Goals of the Training Program

The CAPS training program prepares psychology interns to function as competent and ethical professionals with specific expertise in addressing a diverse college or university population and a clear sense of their early professional identities. 

Consistent with this aim, the internship has the following three objectives:

1.  Facilitation of interns' clinical competence across the full range of professional services targeting a diverse student clientele

2.  Promoting interns' ethical behavior and sensitivity to ethical and legal issues

3.  Fostering interns' professional identity development as psychologists

The full-time, twelve-month internship in clinical and counseling psychology provides trainees with the opportunity to receive an intensively supervised experience in delivering mental health services. Interns receive training in brief and intermittent individual therapy, group and couple therapy, emergency response, crisis intervention, psychological assessment and diagnosis, consultation and outreach, ethical and legal regulations and practices, and supervision of practicum students.  Training occurs experientially via clinical work, case consultation, and outreach to the campus community, and in a variety of formal and informal didactic settings.

CAPS provides interns with the opportunity to interact with colleagues in other disciplines without the artificial hierarchical constraints present in many other clinical settings. Observing and functioning within the CAPS community of psychologists, clinical social workers and psychiatrists is an invaluable experience in the development of interns' professional identity, integrity and independence. Routine interdisciplinary interaction is present throughout the department, in clinical collaboration, case conferences, committees, staff development activities and training activities.

Description of Training Activities

Individual and Couple Therapy
Interns are expected to carry a caseload of 16-18 individual client hours per week. Most CAPS clients receive short-term treatment.

Group Therapy
CAPS offers general psychotherapy groups, interpersonal process groups, and a variety of theme-oriented groups and groups targeted to specific population. Interns participate in ongoing interpersonal process psychotherapy groups. Our Wellness Skills Groups offers structured three- to five-session groups focusing on various stress management techniques and topics, including cognitive-behavioral approaches, biofeedback, procrastination and test-anxiety. Our groups include assertion training, bereavement, eating disorders, personal exploration and students with chronic health problems. Support groups have been offered for ADD/ADHD, HIV infected/affected, women, gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual students, and writers of theses and dissertations. Full-time interns co-lead one or two groups with a staff member or post doc and may have the opportunity to create a group.

Emergency Coverage
When they are familiar with CAPS and University and community resources, interns join the staff rotation, responding to students presenting with urgent or emergency concerns. On average, each intern provides walk-in emergency coverage 6 -8 hours each month.

Supervision
Interns receive two hours weekly of one-to-one supervision of their individual therapy cases from licensed staff members, and participate in two supervision groups weekly. Additional supervision is provided weekly for group psychotherapy and psychological assessment.

Crisis Intervention Group Supervision
During the first quarter, this meeting is devoted to intensive case supervision of the "Crisis Model", a brief treatment model taught and used at CAPS.

Campus Outreach
Serving as consultants, trainers and educators, the CAPS staff participates in many efforts to enhance the quality of student life, and offers services not only in our offices but throughout the campus. Members of the staff lead discussions and make presentations to such groups as residence hall advisors, peer counselors, faculty and academic support service staff. Interns are expected to participate in the department's ongoing projects and encouraged to initiate, design and implement others in which they have particular interest.

Training Seminars
Interns attend a full time, 3 week Summer Orientation Seminar, led by various staff members and local mental health professionals. These seminars orient new interns to the UCLA CAPS service, campus community, and clinical procedures, and focus on training the interns in the variety of activities they will engage in during the year. These include specialized treatment topics, emergency management and consultation, CAPS policies and procedures, and designing workshops. The weekly Training Seminar addresses an array of clinical and professional issues, such as clinical proficiency in the treatment of ethnic minorities, specialized interventions and treatment topics, sport psychology, eating disorders, and mental health law and ethics. In addition, interns attend two summer seminars on Psychotherapy Models, which provide instruction in theories and interventions such as CBT, mindfulness, CBASP, group psychotherapy, and psychodynamic and contemporary analytic psychotherapy.

Psychological Assessment
Interns complete a minimum of three psychological assessment reports focusing on ADHD and questions of differential diagnosis.  The weekly ADHD psychological assessment seminar provides an overview of testing instruments and methods typically applied in these assessments.  Interns receive group supervision of assessment cases throughout the training year within the weekly seminar

Staff Meetings and Staff Development
Interns attend weekly staff meetings. Additional meetings are devoted to in-service training for the entire staff.

Supervision of Psychology Practicum Trainees
Each psychology intern provides clinical supervision for third-year Ph.D. students. Oversight is provided during a weekly 2-hour group supervision focusing exclusively on intern's supervision tasks.

Sample Schedule

Stipend
The stipend for a full-time twelve month appointment is $25,000. Benefits include generous vacation, sick leave, medical coverage and up to 40 professional development hours.

Accreditation
The CAPS doctoral internship in professional psychology is accredited by the American Psychological Association. Any inquiries regarding the accreditation of our internship training program may be directed to:

APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
750 First Street, NE • Washington, DC • 20002-4242
Phone: 202-336-5979

The University also prohibits sexual harassment. This non-discrimination policy covers admission, access, and treatment in University programs and activities.

For additional information, please click on the following link:
UC Non-discrimination Policy (pdf)

Application Process

Our application deadline is November 15, 2009.

By the start of internship, applicants should have completed all required coursework, a minimum of 1000 hours of practicum experience (400 hours of which are face-to-face client hours) and comprehensive examinations in an American Psychological Association or Canadian Psychological Association accredited clinical or counseling psychology program.

Applicants should submit an APPI application. A complete application for our internship program includes the following standard and supplemental materials (please note that the first four items are automatically included with the application submitted via the APPI Online service):

• A cover letter
• A complete and current curriculum vita
• Copies of all graduate school transcripts
• Three letters of reference, at least two of which must be from supervisors who are familiar with your psychotherapy skills
• Undergraduate Transcripts. Applicants are instructed to scan, upload, and attach undergraduate transcripts as supplemental materials to their APPI application.

An interview (either in-person or by telephone) will be required of all finalists.

Please note:

UCLA-CAPS adheres to all APPIC internship selection policies.

Please refer to the APPIC web page http://www.appic.org/ for the most recent copy of Internship Offers and Acceptances. The AAPI can be downloaded from an APPIC link http://www.appic.org/match/5_3_match_application.html.

For correspondence and inquiries, please contact :
Intern Applications Coordinator
e-mail: internshipgroup@caps.ucla.edu