DOCTORAL PSYCHOLOGY INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

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Baruch College Counseling Center
137 East 25th Street, 9th Floor
New York, New York 10010
646-312-2155

Description & Mission of Baruch College

Baruch College, named after Bernard M. Baruch in 1953, originated from the United States’ first free public higher education institution, the Free Academy. It was founded by Townsend Harris who, in 1847, challenged the city to “let the children of the rich and poor take their seats together and know no distinctions save that of industry, good conduct, and intellect.” This later became the mission of Baruch College. Mr. Baruch graduated from City College, as the Free Academy was renamed, in 1866. He became a financier, philanthropist, and advisor to eight presidents. He established a school for business and college government administration in 1919. The School became informally known as “City College Downtown” and has since generated countless business and civic pioneers. In 1968, Baruch separated from City College and became a distinct senior college of the City University of New York. Comprised of undergraduate and graduate schools, Baruch sustains its original mission.

Baruch College of the City University of New York remains dedicated to being a catalyst for the social, cultural, and financial mobility of a diverse student body, reflective of its historical mission. Baruch College educates men and women for leadership roles in business, civic and cultural affairs, and academia. It offers rigorous baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral programs to qualified students who seek careers in business, public affairs, and the arts and sciences. Integrating professional education with the arts and sciences for undergraduates, Baruch College's faculty cultivates its students’ analytical ability, critical thinking, cultural awareness, and ethical sensibility. The College’s graduate programs focus on professional preparation that enables students to become leaders and innovators in their fields. The faculty’s contributions to knowledge reflects a commitment to teaching, research, scholarship, public policy, and artistic creativity. Through executive education, continuing studies programs, and public events, Baruch engages the larger civic and international community which includes its supportive alumni, extending the College’s visibility and nurturing its global reputation.

Baruch attracts motivated students of proven achievement, who are seriously committed to making their dreams a reality, while offering a high-quality, low-cost education to students who might not otherwise be able to attend college. Baruch students reflect the ethnic diversity of New York City. The College has been ranked the most ethnically diverse masters-level college in the United States for well over a decade, according to U.S. News & World Report’s rankings. They are predominantly immigrants, children of immigrants, and international students - 60% are Asian, Hispanic, or Black; 40% were born outside the United States; more than half speak English as a second or third language, representing 107 languages and come from 170 countries. Baruch students also represent members of disadvantaged and underserved communities. Baruch, which draws the majority of its students from New York City’s public and parochial schools, serves many students with limited financial means - 40% with household incomes of $25,000 or less and almost 70% with household incomes of $50,000 or less; almost 40% are the first in their family to attend college; and 76% work at full- or part-time jobs while enrolled.

The Counseling Center

The Counseling Center, named democratically by the student body in 1995, has been offering psychological services since the 1970s. The mission of the Counseling Center is to help students realize their educational, career, and personal goals. We understand that Baruch students’ first priority is to successfully earn their degrees. The Center staff assist them in addressing the stressors and conflicts that may distract them from achieving their full potential. The Center is a safe place for students at the College to ask for and receive help and support in managing the struggles that threaten to overwhelm them. Approximately 75% of students who use the Center’s services are either recent immigrants or international students, for whom the pressures of adapting to life in the U.S. while being the first in their families to attend college are particular stressors. Many of the students who come to the Counseling Center typically would not—or could not—obtain or pay for mental health services (services at the Center are free). In line with national trends, the Counseling Center has observed an alarming increase in the demand for its services and severity and complexity of student symptoms over the past several years. Nearly 60% of students coming to the Center have significant symptoms of depression, the leading predictor of suicidal and homicidal behavior. About 5% of students require hospitalization and about one-‐third of students require medication in addition to psychotherapy to address their symptoms.

The Center offers an array of diagnostic, treatment, referral, and case management services, including depression and alcohol screenings. To respect students’ ethnic diversity and accommodate their specific clinical needs, all students seeking treatment at the Center are initially assessed by the triage team and specialized treatment recommendations occur during our collaborative multidisciplinary disposition meetings. Treatment recommendations include individual therapy, group therapy, crisis management, consultation and referral, educational workshops and programs, psychological testing, psychiatric consultation, and medication management. Treatment models, frequency of sessions, and duration of treatment are discussed during our disposition meetings, during on-going supervision, and during semesterly chart reviews to accommodate each student’s clinical needs. The Center’s outreach activities create collaborative opportunities with the Student Health Center, the Campus Intervention Team (CIT), Residential Life, Office of International Students, Office of Students with Disabilities among other units within Student Affairs.

The Center is staffed by four full-time and five part-time licensed psychologists, one part-time psychologist with a license in mental health counseling, one full-time post-doctoral candidate, and an office manager. Our training class typically consists of two full-time doctoral psychology interns, two part-time psychiatric residents supervised through our affiliate hospital Beth Israel Medical Center, two part-time CUNY doctoral fellows, eight part-time graduate level psychology practicum externs, and three members of the Mental Health Service Corps.

Doctoral Psychology Internship Program

The American Psychological Association Accredited Doctoral Psychology Internship Program at the Baruch College Center offers two full-time funded positions every year. Our internship training program follows a practitioner-scholar model whereby clinical practice is informed by scholarly inquiry. The emphasis is on clinical practice in which scholarly skills including critical thinking, conceptualization, problem-solving, and involvement in research are embedded. We are committed to training reflective and informed practitioners. As part of a university setting, Baruch’s Counseling Center is connected to a wider academic environment. We believe in the importance of teaching interns not just a set of skills; rather, we are committed to teaching interns how to learn, be reflective about their work, and assess the ways their experiences fit with what they have learned.

The term practitioner-scholar best defines the Baruch College Internship Training Program model. The professional practice of psychology is the primary focus of the training program. Psychological practice must be informed by scholarly inquiry. The integration of practice and scholarship defines the Training Program, as does a developmental approach to intern training. Expectations of minimum competency gradually increase as interns proceed through the sequence of didactic training, and supervised clinical practice. The program is designed for interns to assume increased responsibility and independence as they progress through the internship year.

Upon completion of the program, graduates are expected to be able to function as competent and ethical psychologists providing scholarship-based psychological services to individuals, groups and organizations.

Another important philosophy is our awareness that we are training interns to work in a diverse world. As noted, Baruch is a remarkably diverse environment which offers an invaluable opportunity to develop competency working with a wide range of students. Our model stresses the need to learn about various populations and specifically to:

1. become aware of one's own assumptions about human behavior, values, and biases
2. actively attempt to understand the worldview of one's own culturally diverse clients without negative judgments and
3. develop and practice appropriate, relevant and sensitive intervention strategies and skills in working with culturally different clients. Our commitment to this area goes beyond one domain and it runs across the different modalities we offer.

The internship training program at Baruch follows a practitioner-scholar approach to research. Specifically, research is “directed by clinically immediate practice concerns” and “the topics, populations, methods, and measures related to these concerns” (Stoltenberg et al., 2000, p. 627). We are involved in research that informs our professional practice and our practice, in turn, offers the site for research attention. Our belief in the importance of, and connection between, both practice and science underlies our commitment to this component.

Consistent with the practitioner-scholar model, it is our belief that one’s professional identity is not a static phenomenon that ends once one completes a terminal degree or achieves licensure. Instead, we conceive of training and professional development as part of lifelong learning that continues to evolve as the field does. As a staff, we continue to be involved in learning and improving our work.

We value a trauma-informed multi-disciplinary approach to working with students. As a training staff, our backgrounds are in clinical and counseling psychology, and we offer a range of perspectives – including humanistic, psychodynamic, and cognitive-behavioral. We model the value of utilizing different approaches to understanding and treating a diverse college population through our multidisciplinary collaborations and supervisory activities. Our professional staff includes psychologist, psychiatrists, and mental health counselors. We benefit from incorporating multiple perspectives in working with students.

We conceive of internship as a “bridge year.” We are aware that students are coming to internship with their own prior experience, background, training and individual characteristics which we want to honor and develop further during· the year. As we offer training in skills necessary for successful professional functioning, we also offer them an opportunity to develop their own “voices” as clinicians and developing professionals.

The Internship Program provides experience throughout the adult life span that may be tailored to meet individual educational, counseling, and training goals. As part of their experience, and because we value an interdisciplinary approach to care and training, interns will work with other professionals including psychiatrists who are on staff. Interns’ training include attending two didactic seminars weekly as well as three supervisions (a minimum of two individual and one group for individual therapy cases) among other training activities. Designated supervision is provided for every modality the intern participates in at the Center. For example, interns will attend one hour of group supervision called disposition meeting for their triage intake assessments at least two times per week. Details of the various treatment modalities are outlined in the next section.

As noted, the Counseling Center provides triage intake assessments, crisis intervention, consultations and referrals, individual psychotherapy, psycho-educational workshops and group psychotherapy, psychological testing, and psychiatric services for students requiring medication management. With the exception of psychiatric services, interns participate in all other modalities provided by the Center. The majority of interns’ time is spent providing individual psychotherapy which is coupled with extensive supervision. Students seeking treatment at the Center are from varied social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds and present with a wide range of concerns. All students seeking treatment at the Center are screened in a triage assessment for their first appointment. Interns serve as members of the Triage Team and present their assessments during our disposition meetings where senior supervisory staff provide treatment recommendations. During these meetings interns have a voice in designing their caseloads based on experience level and interest.

Since 2001, the program has been a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC; 17225 El Camino Real, Onyx One - Suite #170, Houston, TX 77058-2748, Phone: (832) 284-4080, E-Mail: appic@appic.org).

Interns receive a stipend of approximately $25,000 plus health insurance benefits; accrue sick time; can request dissertation, professional development, and licensing exam release time; and have four weeks of vacation. Interns also have access to the college's library and gym.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Please find below an outline of the program's professional training goals and objectives.

Goal 1: To facilitate clinical competence

Objectives:

1. Interns will show competence in individual therapy
2. Interns will show competence in group therapy
3. Interns will show competence in assessment
4. Interns will show competence in outreach and consultation planning
5. Interns will show ability to integrate supervision into clinical interventions

Goal 2: To promote the development of professional identity, standards and demeanor

Objectives:

1. Interns will demonstrate knowledge and appropriate application of APA ethical policies and procedures
2. Interns will demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between science and scholarship in psychology and clinical practice
3. Interns will be professional and conscientious in their interactions with clients, with colleagues, and their involvement in the training program

Goal 3: To facilitate multicultural knowledge, skills and awareness

Objectives:

1. Interns will acquire knowledge in the area of cultural diversity
2. Interns will develop skills that will allow them to work competently with a diverse population
3. Interns will develop an appreciation for the importance of self-reflection and awareness of internal process

CLINICAL SERVICES

Interns typically engage in the following work activities in addition to training options according to their interests:

• providing individual psychotherapy treatment
• co-leading one psychotherapy group
• conducting approximately six weekly triage assessments for first appointments
• conducting a minimum of two psychological test batteries with a target of five batteries, depending on demand for this service
• delivering approximately two psycho-educational outreach workshops per semester
• providing consultation and referrals to students
• providing crisis intervention
• writing intake summaries for assigned individual therapy cases
• supervising undergraduate peer counselors, if aligned with interns' interest
• serving as mentors to junior training staff at the Center

SUPERVISION

All supervision is conducted by NYS licensed psychologists:

• two hours of weekly individual supervision for individual psychotherapy cases
• one hour of weekly group supervision for individual psychotherapy cases
• one hour of weekly group supervision for group psychotherapy
• two hours of group supervision for triage assessments held during disposition meetings
• one hour of individual supervision for testing cases
• workshop, outreach, consultation, referral, and crisis supervision as needed
• in-depth group supervision for individual cases during case conferences held approximately five times per semester

CURRICULUM

The following describes seminars and meetings that are available to interns:

Weekly seminars are required for our doctoral interns and are open to all Center staff. These two-hour didactic seminars range in topics relevant for the internship and follow a developmental sequence in learning. At the beginning of the year, these training seminars are devoted to topics that relate to intern orientation into the duties at the Center, the Center’s operations, and its place in relation to others student services and the university as a whole. Training staff receive specific instruction in Center procedures and policies, including professional ethics and relevant issues in treatment. For example, during the fall semester, these weekly seminars are devoted to diagnosis, suicide and mental status exam assessment, charting, and writing intake assessments. In-service seminars are also provided by the various student service centers within the Department of Student Affairs. These include the International Students Office, where training staff learn about the legal requirements of international students, Academic Advisement to learn of student's academic requirements, Health Center to review the use of primary care to support mental health services, issues in working with students with disabilities, and services offered at the early childhood learning center.

Each seminar is planned in sequence to address the needs and responsibilities of trainees in their work at the Center and in anticipation of their future careers. As noted, seminars start with general instruction such as mental status assessments including suicide assessment, pharmacology, group therapy, assessment of psychotic disorders, multicultural counseling, trauma therapy, layers of the personality and psychological testing. As the internship progresses, seminars have a more specialized focus such as DBT training, sexual assault and domestic violence, eating disorders, addiction disorders, working in correctional settings, supervision, LGBTQ issues, and ethics and professional development. Seminars are conducted by invited experts and senior staff at the Center.

Intern Classes

• Multicultural Counseling Competencies:
  Given the ethnic diversity of the Baruch student body, all treatment services offered at the Center are provided with a strong emphasis on multicultural perspectives and competencies. As such, interns attend a weekly one-hour class in multicultural counseling. This opportunity is also open to any of training staff. In this class, interns cover relevant issues in multicultural counseling and develop self-awareness. Interns explore the various identities that they carry with them, including gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class and sexual identity. The impact of these issues on clinical work is thoroughly discussed.

• Psychological Testing and Assessment:
  Interns at the Counseling Center receive training and supervision in conducting assessment with college students. The Counseling Center receives requests from the Students with Disabilities Services Office to provide assessments for students. Frequently, testing is aimed at determining if a student has a learning disability or other condition which may indicate academic accommodation in the classroom as provided by Section 504, the Americans with Disabilities Act. In the assessment component of the training program, we are responsive to interns' level of experience and interests. We aim to provide an opportunity for inexperienced interns to develop a basic level of familiarity and competence in assessment, as well as a chance for experienced testers to refine their skills. All interns are required to conduct two assessment batteries each during the year, with an opportunity to complete more if they wish. Our testing supervisor conducts an introductory training session during orientation and continues from October through the academic year with weekly didactic and supervisory sessions. Test selection, scoring, results, referrals, and relevant ethical and multicultural issues are addressed.

• Treatment of character disorders with a multicultural perspective
  During the spring semester, interns (and other trainees who can) attend a seminar on the study of character disorders though a multicultural lens. Interns are assigned readings from Stephen M. Johnson's text Character Styles, and case presentations are delivered using clinical material from the intern's caseload to illustrate the theories from the text.

Case Conference

Two-hour case conference presentations occur approximately 5 times per semester in lieu of the two hour didactic seminar. Interns and externs take turns presenting in-depth on an individual psychotherapy case with a written intake and case conceptualization. Senior supervisory staff and junior training staff collaborate on the progress of the weekly therapy sessions, noting the nuanced aspect of psychotherapy work. Interns and externs present one case per semester.

College-Wide Activities

There are many college-wide activities, events, programs, and offices in which interns may choose to participate or get involved with such as Freshman Orientation, Early Childhood Learning Center, Career Development Center, Health & Wellness Fair, Women's History Month, Black History Month, Depression Screening Day, and Alcohol Screening Day. Outreach and workshop efforts may be college-wide or focused on more specific subpopulations or groups. In addition, Baruch College boasts more than 100 clubs and organizations that span a wide range of interests and sponsor a wide range of student-led activities and events. Thus, the potential for Counseling Center involvement is vast.

EVALUATION

Evaluation of the interns' performance by supervisors is part of the training process. Interns have continuing opportunities to evaluate their own progress as the internship evolves via the close relationships that are fostered with their supervisors. Both midyear and final evaluations will be discussed with interns in order to consolidate feedback. These written, formal evaluations will be forwarded to the Directors of Training. The aim of evaluative feedback given to interns is to assist them to best learn essential clinical skills.

Interns are also asked to formally evaluate their internship experience. In addition, interns are asked to anonymously evaluate each weekly didactic seminar for both the usefulness of the topic and the clarity of the presenter. These seminar evaluations are used to determine program changes where necessary. Interns are also asked for an evaluation of their supervisors and of the quality of the program in general. These formal evaluations are conducted at the end of the Fall and Spring semesters. The internship follows guidelines for due process and grievance procedures should there be a concern about the program or an intern's performance.

TIME REQUIREMENTS

The internship is fulltime and requires 40 hours weekly and runs a full calendar year. Two-thirds of an interns time consists of direct clinical service, the majority of which is individual psychotherapy. The remaining one-third of an intern's time is engaged is supervisory or didactic training. Treatment, testing, supervision, and all other counseling activities are continuous and, thus, require full attendance. Internship runs from approximately September 1st through August 31st. Interns accrue 4 weeks of vacation and 11 sick leave days.

During the year, interns' assignments or aspects of their program may be modified in accordance with new opportunities and needs of the Counseling Center. Some experience may be arranged offsite.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

The Internship Program at the Baruch College Counseling Center strives to select interns from a diverse pool of applicants who have demonstrated that they are prepared for beginning their doctoral internship. To maintain a minimum set of standards that would help ensure that an applicant is prepared for the demands of our training program, we require that the following qualifications are met before applying:

• Applicants must be enrolled and in good standing in a doctoral program in counseling, clinical or school psychology.
• Applicants must have completed at 400 AAPI Intervention, 200 hours indirect hours and 0 Assessment Hours.
• Applicants must have completed at least 600 AAPI Grand Total Practicum Hours.
• Applicants must have completed all course work prior to beginning internship.
• Applicants must have completed their comprehensive exams prior to beginning internship.
• Applicants must have obtained a letter of readiness to begin internship from their doctoral program's Training Director.

In addition to the above qualifications, our Selection Committee will review all submitted application materials with particular attention being paid to applicants' who demonstrate experience, training, or interest in:

• Working with college students
• Issues of multicultural competency
• Working clinically with patients from diverse populations
• Conducting psychological assessments
• Providing psychoeducational workshops and trainings
• Consultation and outreach
• Working with an interdisciplinary team that includes on-staff psychiatrists

Applicants whose qualifications and experiences are judged to be the most compatible with our training program are invited for interviews.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

Applicants should submit an APPIC application, a cover letter, their resume or curriculum vitae, three (3) letters of recommendation, one sample testing report, and an official transcript from their doctoral program by the application deadline. All complete applications will be reviewed, and a proportion of applicants will be invited for a required interview. We regret that volume renders us unable to grant an interview to all applicants. If you are not invited for an interview, you will not be considered for our internship. Intern applicants will be notified of match results via the APPIC Internship National Matching Services in which the Counseling Center has been a participating member since 2001. Applicants should, therefore, complete and submit an Applicant Agreement form to National Matching Services. This internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant. Our program code is: 178511.

Applications and inquiries should be addressed to:

Teresa Hurst, Ph.D.
Acting Director and Director of Training
Baruch College Counseling Center
137 East 25th Street – 9th floor, NY, NY 10010
Office: 646-312-2167
Main: 646-312-2155
Fax: 646-312-2156
Email: Teresa.Hurst@baruch.cuny.edu

(Download the PDF version of the Program Description and the APA Program Tables)