Seminars
Interns attend weekly seminars (2-3 hours) during the course of the year, at which time professional and clinical issues are presented by training staff and other professionals from the greater Philadelphia area. These didactic/interactive seminars are organized into modules which are further described below. Additional topics of interest are also selected collaboratively by the training staff and each intern class, including such areas as working with anger, psychological consultation to the corporate arena and private practice.
Orientation
This series of seminars and activities are organized to facilitate the intern's understanding and integration of their role at a university counseling center and the resources available at Penn. They also serve to familiarize the interns with the center's staff, services, policies and procedures. Throughout this time, each intern meets individually with the Director of Training to discuss goals and objectives for the training year with regard to their clinical and professional development. The interns are also immediately engaged in the developmental process of "shadowing" senior staff in the provision of intake assessment as well as crisis intervention (On-Call Counselor). The interns proceed in their own pace through a process of observing staff, providing service in tandem with the staff, being observed by staff to the end result of providing the above clinical activities independently. During this time, interns also begin to see individual clients and discuss case material in the various specific seminar modules.
Assessment
Training in assessment at CAPS is conceptualized as integrating the learning from: Assessment seminars, career testing seminars, and Psychophysiology/ Psycopharmacology seminars. The overall goal in assessment training at CAPS is to provide interns with opportunities to conceptualize clients at intake from a variety of vantage points, increase their familiarity with scientific literature regarding a wide range of diagnoses and increase their diagnostic skills, hone their relationship skills with clients from the outset of treatment and sharpen their abilities to present cases parsimoniously in a multidisciplinary setting for purposes of treatment disposition.
The goal of the Assessment Seminar module is to enhance interns' understanding of assessment based upon test instruments and clinical interview. Tests used at a university counseling center as well as a variety of treatment settings are reviewed. Selected areas of focus include assessment from various theoretical perspectives, career assessment, and screening for learning disabilities/ADHD. Seminar sessions consist of discussing theory related to practice as contained within assigned readings and examining case material from interns' own intake assessments at the center.
Psychotherapy
This didactic/interactive seminar series exposes interns to several time-limited/empirically-supported treatment models, seeks to integrate theory and practice, and explores ways of dealing with a range of clinical issues as they arise in a time-limited therapy modality. Particular emphasis is also given to treatment with special populations, career counseling and ethical dilemmas in clinical practice. In addition to brief therapies, this seminar series includes such topics as: couples therapy, motivation in psychotherapy, working with alcohol/substance abuse, countertransference, therapeutic issues with gay/lesbian clients, grief and loss and treatment of personality disorders. In addition, a group psychotherapy seminar series focuses on introduction and review of various short-term group therapy models, recruitment and screening procedures, developmental group process, multicultural issues as well as exploring techniques such as working with difficult clients and creating group cohesion.
Psychophysiology/Psychopharmacology
The goals of this seminar series include increasing interns' understanding and utility of the DSM IV, broadening their knowledge of physiological correlates of mental health and illness, developing their understanding of the role of medication in treatment and increasing their knowledge of how and when to seek psychiatric consultation. Seminar leaders assign readings discussed at length in the seminar and highlight appropriate clinical material from their own caseloads. Largely facilitated by the psychiatric staff, interns are exposed to a broad range of DSM criteria and case material involving the use of psychotropic medication. Strengths and limits of psychopharmacological intervention are reviewed and interns discuss clinical material.
Multicultural Issues
This seminar series exposes interns to effective models of treatment with culturally diverse and international clientele with an emphasis on understanding how the therapist's and client's sociocultural identities impact the therapeutic relationship. The overall objective of the seminar series is to 1) develop in our interns a deepened self-awareness of themselves and their clients as cultural beings, and 2) develop their understanding of how psychological, sociopolitical, and economic forces affect the counseling needs of a diverse client population.
Outreach/Consultation
This seminar series trains interns in the provision of outreach and consultation at a university setting. Interns read and discuss in the seminar relevant literature on models of outreach and consultation, stages of the consultation process, workshop design, development and delivery, services to diverse populations and assessment and evaluation procedures. As the interns typically engage in 40 hours of outreach/consultative activities over the course of the training year, the seminar uses discussion, group activities and role-play to train the interns in actual design and presentation skills necessary for effective delivery of outreach services. Within the context of the seminar, interns also learn how to conduct needs assessments, critique outreach and consultation activities and evaluate service delivery.
Ethics
Formal training in ethical and legal issues applicable to various areas of service delivery is infused throughout the Orientation Seminar Series as well as in the various training modules (e.g., Psychotherapy, Supervision of Supervision, Outreach/Consultation). Ethical issues are also discussed in individual and group supervision as well as in team meetings as are relevant to assessment, intervention and treatment intervention. The ethics seminar series focuses on contemporary thought about the ethics within the practice of psychology and the developmental trends over the past twenty-five years. Topics covered in the seminar include issues of supervision, consent, confidentiality and differences between legal and ethical issues and where they overlap. Assigned readings of current literature as well the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association and legal and ethical rules governing the practice of psychology in the State of Pennsylvania are discussed in this primarily discussion oriented seminar series that encourages interns to identify and discuss ethical dilemmas from their own clinical practice.
Research
This seminar series utilizes methods of scholarly inquiry to address agency and /or training-related issues. While theoretical and empirical literature is discussed throughout the various seminar modules specific to the topics discussed (i.e., evidence-based treatments in Psychotherapy Seminar, models of supervision in Supervision of Supervision Seminar, etc.), this seminar meets every other week and focuses on supporting Interns' progress on their dissertations. In addition, interns are invited to learn about and participate in ongoing research projects at CAPS.
Contact Us
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
133 South 36th Street, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Hours: 9am - 5pm, Monday - Friday
Emergencies: 215-349-5490 (ask for CAPS Clinician On Call)
Tel: 215-898-7021
Fax: 215-573-8966
Email: caps@pobox.upenn.edu
