All students are required to complete a two-quarter, 600-hour internship experience. The 600 hours include counselor education and supervision experiences in at least three of the following domains: Counseling, Supervision, Teaching, Research and Scholarship, Leadership and Advocacy. You will work with program faculty to develop your Individual Internship Plan based on your experience and training, goals of the internship, and appropriateness of the field sites. Internship activities completed at the approved field sites should reflect most of the activities of an individual who is regularly employed in that setting.

Counseling

For this domain, you will participate in an advanced clinical experience beyond or in addition to practicum, such as pursuing a unique or advanced certification in a clinical specialty area. Your experience should meet some or all the following CACREP training standard(s):

• Incorporate advanced theories relevant to counseling,

• Demonstrate conceptualization of clients from multiple theoretical perspectives,
• Apply evidence-based counseling practices,
• Adapt methods for evaluating counseling effectiveness, and
• Incorporate ethical and culturally relevant counseling in multiple settings.

Hourly requirements for counseling in internship should reflect the same 2:3 ratio of direct-to-professional hours that exists in practicum. For example, a student seeking to complete 100 hours of counseling will need to complete at least 40 direct client contact hours, with the remaining hours as professional development hours. Site requirements mirror the practicum experience.

Counseling Hours Earned Prior to Internship

Students may elect to lead master’s-level groups for their Group Lab course, earning up to 56 hours in the Counseling domain prior to enrollment in internship. These hours should be accounted for on your Individual Internship Plan and will need to be entered in your Meditrek® time log so they are factored into your hourly requirements for internship. You should keep a record of these hours with faculty signature.

Note: The counseling hours earned during Group Lab prior to enrollment in internship do not count toward the minimum of 100 hours required if you elect to complete hours in Counseling as one of your three required internship domains.

Supervision

For this domain, you will provide clinical supervision grounded in your personal evidence-based supervision approach. Your experience should meet some or all the following CACREP training standard(s):

• Demonstrate skills of clinical supervision.
• Develop and apply a personal style of supervision.
• Employ the assessment of supervisees’ developmental level.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the application of modalities of clinical supervision and use of technology.
• Practice evaluation, remediation, and gatekeeping in clinical supervision.
• Incorporate legal and ethical issues and responsibilities in clinical supervision.
• Adapt culturally relevant strategies for conducting clinical supervision.

Supervision Hours Earned Prior to Internship

You will accrue at least 15 hours of internship credit in the Supervision domain while participating in COUN 8135 Clinical Supervision. These hours will be accounted for on your Individual Internship Plan and will need to be entered in your Meditrek® time log so they are factored into your hourly requirements for internship. If you earn more than 15 hours and wish to include them on your internship time log, you should keep a record of these hours with faculty signature.

Required Supervision Hours

An additional 50 hours of supervision will be received in both individual/triadic and faculty group supervision each term of internship. These supervision hours will be accounted for on your Individual Internship Plan should be recorded weekly on your Meditrek® time log.

Note: The supervision hours earned during COUN 8135 and those received during enrollment in internship do not count toward the minimum of 100 hours required if you elect to complete hours in Supervision as one of your three required internship domains.

Teaching

For this domain, you will apply your pedagogical approach to your instructional role for graduate-level counseling students. Your experience should meet some or all the following CACREP training standard(s):

• Apply specific pedagogy and teaching methods in counselor education.
• Participate in instructional and curriculum design, delivery, and evaluations methods in counselor education.
• Develop effective approaches for online instruction.
• Employ screening, remediation, and gatekeeping functions relevant to teaching.
• Implement assessment of learning.
• Demonstrate ethical and culturally relevant strategies in counselor preparation.
• Practice mentoring in counselor education.

Teaching Hours Earned Prior to Internship

You will accrue 40 hours of internship credit in the Teaching domain while attending Pre-Practicum I and II. These hours will be accounted for on your Individual Internship Plan and will need to be entered in your Meditrek® time log so they are factored into your hourly requirements for internship.

Note: The teaching hours earned during pre-practica do not count toward the minimum of 100 hours required if you elect to complete hours in Teaching as one of your three required internship domains.

Research and Scholarship

For this domain, you will apply ethical and culturally relevant research and scholarship approaches to an identified research and scholarship project. Your experience should meet some or all the following CACREP training standard(s):

• Implement research designs appropriate to quantitative and qualitative research questions.
• Apply models and methods of instrument design.
• Produce professional writing for journal and newsletter publication.
• Create and submit professional conference proposal(s).
• Design and evaluate research proposals for a human subjects/institutional review board review.
• Produce and submit grant proposals and other sources of funding.
• Demonstrate ethical and culturally relevant strategies for conducting research.

Note: Students cannot count time spent on dissertation research toward the internship requirements for the PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision program.

Leadership and Advocacy

For this domain, you will apply ethical and culturally relevant leadership and advocacy practices. Your experience should meet some or all the following CACREP training standard(s):

• Participate in leadership and leadership development in professional organizations.
• Exhibit leadership in counselor education programs.
• Demonstrate knowledge of accreditation standards and processes.
• Practice leadership, management, and administration in counseling organizations and other institutions.
• Establish leadership roles and strategies for responding to crises and disasters.
• Incorporate the role of counselors and counselor educators advocating on behalf of the profession and professional identity.
• Apply models and competencies for advocating for clients at the individual, system, and policy levels.
• Implement strategies of leadership in relation to current multicultural and social justice issues.

Internship (two terms) requires the completion of at least

• 600 total hours (in accordance with the Individual Internship Plan),
• 10 individual/triadic supervision hours with triadic supervisor (for each quarter of enrollment), and
• 15 hours of faculty group supervision (for each quarter of enrollment).

Individual Internship Plan Changes

Your actual earned hours may vary up to ± 25 hours from your Individual Internship Plan. Any further deviation from your approved Individual Internship Plan must be approved by the director of field experience or a designee.

Documentation of Field Experience Hours

As with practicum, you are required to keep a daily record of field experience hours in the Meditrek® time log. You are encouraged to enter hours in Meditrek® every day, 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. You will need to enter the hours accrued prior to internship on the first day of the term in which you are enrolled (only hours for COUN 8135, Pre-Practicum I and II, and Group Lab may be accrued prior to enrollment, as described above). Daily time log entries must be approved by both triadic and faculty supervisors to count toward field experience requirements. Detailed information and instructions for the Meditrek® time log are available in the Meditrek® Student Guide.

Faculty Group Supervision

As in practicum, 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 (see Faculty Group Supervision under Practicum Supervision Requirements).You will need to plan accordingly for any time zone differences.

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. count toward the required supervision hours.

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).

Clinical Supervision

If you are completing hours in the Counseling domain, you will also need to participate in regular supervision with your clinical supervisor (see Clinical Supervisor).

You will develop goals for each of your internship domains at the start of each quarter of internship. These goals will be entered in your Internship Self-Assessment in Meditrek®. Throughout the term, you will work toward these goals, providing evidence of completion in work samples that you will submit at the end of each quarter (see below). Both your triadic and faculty supervisors will review your Internship Self-Assessment and the associated work samples at the end of each term in your final evaluation for the course.

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 supervisor 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.

Counseling and Supervision Recording or Live Observation Requirements

If you elect to participate in Counseling or Supervision during your internship, you will be required to submit video and/or audio recordings as your corresponding work samples for those domains. If you are at a site where recording is not possible, you are required to clarify this to your faculty supervisor and determine an appropriate alternative work sample (see Recording and Alternative Assignment Policy for additional information).