Doctoral Internship

Florida Gulf Coast University Counseling and Psychological Services is a department within the Marieb College of Health and Human Services. Our services are designed to provide confidential, quality, short- term counseling and therapy, consultation, instruction, education, and assessment for the university community. Our services are based on acceptance, understanding, respect and care for all who seek services. All currently registered FGCU students are eligible for free services in the counseling center.

The staff is comprised of full-time and part-time professional counselors and therapists including licensed psychologists, masters level counselors, a psychiatrist, licensed social worker and supervised trainees. Our staff works well together and we respect and value our various theoretical orientations and interests. We function within a brief-therapy and wellness oriented model. Our Counseling Center is accredited by IACS (International Association of Counseling Services, Inc.). Please visit our CAPS webpage for more general information: https://www.fgcu.edu/CAPS 

We respect the diversity of individuals in their cultures, languages, lifestyles, identities, ideologies, intellectual capacities, abilities, appearances, personalities, political affiliations and the many other ways people may identify.  We strive to create an atmosphere of openness, trust, respect, integrity, and safety where all attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors can be openly shared and explored. 

We believe in the potential of every human being to change and to continue learning throughout the lifespan. We respect the dignity, worth, uniqueness, and potential of every individual.  We believe that through our services, students can develop a healthy, balanced lifestyle characterized by maturity, independence, healthy coping skills, resilience, civility, and effective decision making.

We are committed to the continued development of awareness and appreciation for individual differences within our diverse university community.  We work to challenge biases within ourselves and others. We believe in actively pursuing and advocating for social justice to prevent and decrease discrimination, exclusion, and oppression in society. 

We value and affirm the role of CAPS as an agent of positive change in the university community, at the individual, group, and system level. We believe that counseling, health, and wellness services directly and positively impact student retention and academic success.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) at Florida Gulf Coast University strongly values diversity and believes in creating an equitable, hospitable, appreciative, safe, and inclusive learning environment for its interns. Diversity among interns and supervisors enriches the educational experience, promotes personal growth, and strengthens communities and the workplace. Every effort is made by CAPS to create a climate in which all staff and interns feel respected, comfortable, and in which success is possible and obtainable. FGCU CAPS strives to make every effort to increase awareness, dispel ignorance, and increase comfort with multicultural experiences.FGCU’s training program includes an expected competency in individual and cultural diversity, and multiple experiences are provided throughout the year to be sure that interns are both personally supported and well-trained in this area.

FGCU CAPS welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds. The training program believes that a diverse training environment contributes to the overall quality of the program. CAPS provides equal opportunity to all prospective interns and does not discriminate because of a person’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other factor that is irrelevant to success as a psychology intern. Applicants are individually evaluated in terms of quality of previous training, practicum experiences, and fit with the internship. If an applicant or intern requires accommodations, he or she should contact the internship training director to initiate this process.

The doctoral internship at FGCU CAPS is designed for qualified doctoral students whose professional goals include:

• Working in a college counseling center
• Treating adults on an outpatient basis
• Becoming a generalist psychologist
• Supervising therapists in training
• Conducting outreach and consultation

Our aim is to provide a training experience that produces competent entry level health service psychologists and exposes interns to all of the roles of a counseling center psychologist.  Our training program functions in a practitioner-scientist-developmental model which means that we focus on clinically competent practice that is grounded in the science and evidence based practice of psychology.  We adhere to a developmental model of supervision and provide interns increasing levels of autonomy based on their skill level and needs. We also place emphasis on providing a mindful and respectful place for interns to grow professionally.

Element 1a:  Interns will be able to conduct clinical intakes in which they accurately assess the psychological needs of clients, make accurate diagnoses, and evaluate the need for brief individual or group psychotherapy, psychiatric evaluation, or other psychological interventions including referral.  Interns will also be able to document thoroughly (intake, case notes, and termination) and appropriately.

Element 1b:  Interns will be able to provide brief individual treatment to diverse clients with a variety of presenting concerns by the completion of the internship including case conceptualization and treatment planning. Interns will use evidence based practices and learn how to apply ideas and strategies of change from different theoretical approaches.

Element 1c:  Interns will be able to provide routine and crisis triage assessment and intervention for clients experiencing personal distress or acute symptomology. Interns will be able to help students in crisis reduce their immediate distress and mobilize resources. Interns will be able to make decisions about clients’ safety based on a risk-assessment of their danger to self and others.

Element 1d:  Interns will be able to facilitate process-oriented brief psychotherapy groups and/or theme-oriented psycho-educational groups.

Element 2a:  Interns will be able to competently select, administer, and score psychological tests according to standards and appropriate to their professional developmental level.  Interns will be able to clearly interpret and communicate results of tests and write reports to inform clinical treatment.

Element 3a:  Interns will effectively utilize supervision to increase their skills in clinical intervention and self-awareness.

Element 3b:  Interns will learn about the theory and practice of supervision from a developmental perspective.  Interns will gain competence in supervising Master’s in Mental Health Counseling trainees and be supervised by a licensed psychologist for supervision of supervision.

Element 4a:  Interns will be able to design and facilitate psycho-educational workshops and engage in other types of developmental programming and presentations.

Element 4b:  Interns will be able to provide consultation to/with faculty, staff, parents and others who are concerned about a student, and develop formal interprofessional consultation relationships with members of the campus community to help meet the needs of students.

Our training year will begin on July 31, 2023 and end on July 19, 2024.  The internship is a full-time, 40 hour a week experience.

$34,000 paid bi-weekly.

Interns receive 13 university holidays as well as 11 days of combined annual, sick, and professional development leave for dissertation defense, job interviews, and conferences.  The timing of this leave is subject to approval of the Training Director.  We highly encourage interns to take leave at semester break time as your workload will be reduced.  Leave is requested by submitting the proper forms to the Training Director.  Sick leave forms are submitted after return to work.

Interns have access to FGCU Health Insurance benefits.  Please see the following website for additional enrollment and plan details:

https://www.fgcu.edu/hr/benefits/

Each intern will have a private office with phone, video equipment, a personal computer, and library privileges.  Additionally, the administrative staff at CAPS will assist interns in scheduling, and the University IT department will assist with computer and technology concerns.  Interns will also be able to attend and assist with the annual CAPS workshop series. 

• Individual Counseling 14-16
• Group Counseling 1.5
• Triage Duty 3-6
• Supervision of Master’s Trainee 1.0
• On-Call  0-2
• Consultation and Assessment 0-2

• Training Seminar (General/ Multicultural) 2
• Group Supervision 1
• Individual Supervision 2
• Supervision of Supervision 1
• Supervision preparation 1
• Individual Supervision of Group Therapy .5
• Meeting with the Training Director .5 (monthly)
• Staff Meeting 1

• Admin/ Prep time 5
• Intern Project 0-2
• Outreach 0-2
• Specialty rotation (summer only) 0-2
• Professional Development/ dissertation time 0-2