SOC-OFE Doctoral Students - Field Experience Manual:

Internship Requirements

For Internship I, all students are required to complete a one-quarter, 200-hour, advanced clinical (Counseling domain) experience. Internship I consists of site-based counseling experiences, as well as weekly supervision, and coursework.

Internships II and III are each one-quarter, 200-hour experiences in multiple domains. Students will be assigned experiences in the Teaching and Supervision domains and will be required to secure their own experience(s) to meet the remaining hourly requirements for each quarter of the experience (see PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision Domains).

You are required to participate in field experience throughout the duration of your enrollmentin Internship, regardless of when you complete the required hours for the experience. Students are not permitted to start late, end early, or skip any week during the quarter.

In Internship I, participation at your field site includes at least 1 hours of supervision with your Walden-approved site supervisor (see Internship I Site Supervision) each and every week and at least 1 direct and indirect hour for each week of the quarter. The only exception to the minimum requirement for direct hours would be during the first two weeks of Internship I while the student is in training or orientation. In Internship II and III, participation requires accrual of at least 1 hour for each approved placement during every week of the quarter. If you are unable to meet the minimum requirements for participation at any point during enrollment, you should consult with your faculty supervisor.

Internship I (one term) requires the completion of at least 200 total hours, including:

• Indirect and direct hours at the approved field site (there is no a minimum number of required direct hours, but students are required to engage in direct hours during every week of enrollment in internship)
• 10 individual/triadic supervision hours with the Walden-approved site supervisor (for each quarter of enrollment), and
• 15 hours of faculty group supervision (for each quarter of enrollment).

Note: You cannot "bank" extra Internship I hours for Internship II and III. Each course requires a minimum of 200 hours.

Internship II (one term) requires the completion of at least 200 total hours, including:

• 100 teaching hours (Walden-assigned)
• 15 supervision hours provided to counseling masters field experience students (Walden-assigned)
• 30 hours from one student-initiated and Walden-approved placement in any of the PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision domains
• 30 hours from Intensive, if earned while enrolled in an internship course.
  • Intensive I should be completed during Internship II.
• 10 triadic supervision hours received from the Walden-assigned triadic supervisor, and
• 15 hours of faculty group supervision received.

Note: Additional hours may be needed for the student-initiated placement if Intensive is not completed while enrolled in Internship.

Internship III (one term) requires the completion of at least 200 total hours, including:

• 100 teaching hours (Walden-assigned)
• 15 supervision hours provided to counseling masters field experience students (Walden-assigned)
• 30 hours from one student-initiated and Walden-approved placement in any of the PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision domains
• 30 hours from Intensive, if earned while enrolled in an internship course.
  • Intensive II should be completed during Internship III.
• 10 triadic supervision hours received from the Walden-assigned triadic supervisor, and
• 15 hours of faculty group supervision received.

Note: Additional hours may be needed for the student-initiated placement if Intensive is not completed while enrolled in Internship.

You are required to keep a daily record of internship hours in the Meditrek® time log. You should enter hours in Meditrek® every day that they are earned, and all hours for the week must be entered in Meditrek® by Day 7 of each week of the quarter. Hours must be entered on the date corresponding to the date on which they were earned and should not be back-dated or combined across dates. Similarly, you cannot log internship hours prior to earning them. Daily time log entries must be approved by both site/triadic and faculty supervisors in order for the hours logged to count toward field experience requirements. Detailed information and instructions for the Meditrek® time log are available in the Meditrek® Student Guide.

Note: Direct service hours in the Counseling domain include those that use graduate-level counseling skills with actual clients. Direct service hours that are not of a counseling nature or not at the graduate level should be logged as "Other Indirect Hours" on the Meditrek® time log.

Faculty Group Supervision

You are required to participate in a 2-hour faculty group supervision videoconference with your classmates and faculty supervisor during each week of enrollment in internship, for a total of at least 15 hours during each quarter.

• Your Faculty Group Supervision Contract, which outlines the roles and responsibilities of you and your faculty supervisor for the field experience, must be completed (signed by both you and your faculty supervisor) for you to participate in faculty group supervision.
• Attendance at all faculty group supervision videoconference calls is expected, even if total group supervision hours exceed 15 hours during the quarter. Faculty are required to offer 18 hours of faculty group supervision during the quarter.
• You are required to adjust your schedule to accommodate the faculty group supervision videoconference, as needed.
• You will earn weekly points for attendance, professionalism, and participation on the faculty group supervision call.
• You must attend faculty supervision via both audio and video at the designated time.
• You must have reliable internet access and a backup plan.
• You must uphold confidentiality and attend group supervision calls in a private location.
• You must be fully present and engaged for the entirety of the weekly supervision call.
• You must refrain from engaging in distracting behaviors, multitasking, or driving.
• You must avoid unprofessional or inappropriate behavior, attire, and locations.
• You are not permitted to record group supervision sessions or anyone without their knowledge and permission.

Note for International Students: Like all students in field experiences, international students are required to participate in weekly videoconference group supervision. You will need to plan accordingly for any time zone differences.

Internship I Site Supervision

You are required to participate in at least 1 continuous hour of supervision with your Walden-approved site supervisor during each week of enollment in Intenrship I, for a total of at least 10 hours for the quarter. It is strongly recommended that supervision be scheduled for the same day and time each week. The Walden-approved site supervisor must perform the weekly supervision for the hours to count toward the required supervision hours, in order to for any direct hours that week to be counted, and in order to remain in compliance with the formally approved field experience application. You will submit a site supervision contract in your application for field experience outlining the roles and responsibilities of you and your site supervisor for the field experience.

Site supervision must be:

• Either individual (just you and the site supervisor) or triadic (you, your site supervisor, and no more than one other student). Group supervision cannot be substituted for this requirement.
• Continuous (the 1 hour of weekly supervision cannot be divided into shorter sessions).
• Live, either in person or videoconference (telephone supervision without a video component will not meet this requirement).

Note: If you see clients during the break weeks in between quarters, you must have weekly supervision from the Walden-approved site supervisor to count those direct hours.

Internship II and III Site Supervision

If you are completing an experience in the Counseling domain during Internship II or III, you need to have regular supervision with your identified site supervisor.

Triadic Supervision

You will be assigned a Walden faculty member, knows as the “triadic supervisor,” who will coordinate individual and/or triadic supervision while you are enrolled in internship. Your triadic supervisor will maintain communication with site contacts identified at your field sites and will use their feedback, as well as your work samples and information provided by you in weekly supervision, to support you in weekly supervision.

You are required to participate in at least 1 hour of supervision with your triadic supervisor during each week of enrollment in internship, for a total of at least 10 hours for each quarter. Students are expected to attend all schedule supervision sessions. If a faculty member must cancel a session, they will work with students to reschedule. Rescheduling may otherwise occur only at the discretion of the faculty supervisor.

Triadic supervision must be:

• Continuous (the 1 hour of required weekly supervision cannot be divided into shorter sessions) and
• Live, either in person or via videoconference (telephone supervision without a video component will not meet this requirement).

Students are evaluated on both their counseling skills and their professional dispositions throughout their field experience. The following evaluations of skills and dispositions are required for each quarter of enrollment in internship:

• Mid-Quarter Evaluation completed by your Walden-approved site supervisor (Internship I)/triadic supervisor (Internship II and III) in Meditrek® by the end of Week 5.
• Mid-Quarter Evaluation completed by your faculty supervisor in Meditrek®.
• End-of-Quarter Evaluation completed by the end of Week 10 by your Walden-approved site supervisor (Intenrship I)/triadic supervisor (Internship II and III) in Meditrek®.
• End-of-Quarter Evaluation completed by the end of Week 10 by your faculty supervisor in Meditrek®.

Counseling skills are rated as proficient (1) or not proficient (0). Professional dispositions are rated as adequate or deficient. In order to progress, satisfactory scores of proficient (1) on all counseling skills and adequate on all dispositions must be obtained from both the Walden-approved site supervisor (Internship I)/triadic supervisor (Internship II and III) and the faculty supervisor. Each supervisor has been formally approved based on their education, experience, and formal credentialing. As such, they are considered expert reviewers of your counseling skills and professional dispositions. Each will have unique experiences with you as a student and distinct observations. As such, it is not uncommon for you to be evaluated differently by each. In these instances, on evaluation is not deemed as more valuable or valid than the other. Rather, the student should receive proficient and adequate ratings on all items, across both supervisors, indicating mastery of the requirements across both the university and site settings.

The field experience courses consist of discussions, quizzes, skills demonstrations, and application assignments, similar to other courses in your program.

Note: For field experience courses, submitting any work for course assignments that has already been submitted for prior courses is considered plagiarism and will result in an academic integrity violation.

Internship Work Sample Policy

You will be required to provide at least three samples of your work during each term of enrollment in internship, reflective of your selected internship domains. This policy allows you to identify areas of progress and areas of needed improvement in your internship experiences, as well as to receive instruction from your triadic and faculty group supervisors. You will work with your faculty group supervisior to determine work samples that are appropriate and proportional to your Individual Internship Plan at the start of each term. Your faculty or triadic supervisor may require more than three work samples, if deemed necessary, for support or evaluation.

Recording and Alternative Assignment Policy

You will be required to submit video recordings of three full-length client sessions in Internship I at designated points in the quarter. Video recordings must occur during the same quarter of enrollment in the field experience course in which the recording is due. Recordings that occurred prior to enrollment (for example, in a previous term if you are repeating the course) cannot be used to fulfill this requirement.

The client session video recordings should be reviewed in your weekly on-site supervision sessions. This approach allows you to identify areas of needed improvement in a timely manner as well as to receive instrction from your site supervisor to assist with the counseling process. The client session recordings must be submitted in the classroom by the due dates indicated on the syllabus so the course instructor can provide additional feedback.

If you are at a site where video recording is not possible or where submission of recordings cannot be made to the Walden University classroom, you will be required to submit the site's recording policy to your field experience faculty supervisor who will provide you with the alternative assignment. You are expected to be knowledgeable of the recording requirements and inform your site of the recording requirements as part of the interview process.

Informed consent documents for recording purposes must be completed for all session recordings. You can either use site-based recording informed consent documents or templates provided in your field experience classroom at the discretion of the site supervisor.

Notes:

• The camera must always remain on you (and not on the client).
• If you are approved to provide TMH counseling and choose a TMH session for your recording, you should record yourself from an external device rather than recording the session on the device it is conducted on. This ensures the client's face and login name are not visible on your recording.
• You must get a signed parental or custodial consent for anyone under the age of 18 regardless of state and agency requirements.
• Recording informed consent forms are not to be submitted in the field experience classroom, as this would constitute a breach in confidentiality. They are for use at the site only and should not be viewed by Walden faculty members. Instead, informed consent documents should remain a part of your record or the client's record at your field site.
• You must delete all recordings from the classroom during Week 11 of each term, after grades and feedback from both videos are received.

   

   

  Proceed to Satisfactory Completion of Internship