The SOC-OFE supports your development as competent scholar-practitioners and agents of social change in culturally and contextually diverse opportunities throughout practicum and internship. The Office of Field Experience is composed of the director of field experience, an academic team (School of Counseling faculty) and an operations team (Walden University staff).
Figure 1. School of Counseling Office of Field Experience (SOC-OFE)
Operations staff support the operational aspects of field experiences. They guide you to information about Walden policies and procedures and support you through the field experience application process. They provide procedural and technical support with Meditrek forms, time logs, and evaluations. The operations team consists of the operations director, operations coordinators, and assistant operations coordinators. Operations staff are available via live chat, email, or by telephone appointment. Specific contact information for the operations team is available on the SOC-OFE website.
Academic coordinators and field experience faculty support the academic aspects of the program, such as program-specific advice and consultation, contact to sites prior to field experience, and student concerns. The academic team consists of academic coordinators, course leads, and faculty supervisors (course instructors). Academic coordinators can be reached through drop-in support calls and e-mail (see the SOC-OFE website for specific contact information). Faculty supervisors (course instructors) are the main point of contact for you when enrolled in field experience and should be contacted via the field experience classroom or faculty group supervision calls.
Note: You should begin your inquiry at the level at which your questions are most likely to be answered. It is expected that you will be familiar with the policies and procedures in this manual before seeking additional information. Delays in obtaining information may result when you inquire first from an administrator and must be referred to the appropriate resource person.
In the doctoral practicum, as PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision students, you are supervised by a counseling professional at the field experience site. Prior to beginning practicum, you must identify a site supervisor that meets the Site Supervisor Requirements and who will fulfill all the Site Supervisor Responsibilities listed below. This individual must be listed as the site supervisor on the Meditrek® application for field experience and be formally approved by the SOC-OFE. Any changes to the Walden-approved site supervisor must be approved in advance by the SOC-OFE.
Site supervisors are responsible for:
A designee can be approved by the Walden-approved site supervisor for the purposes of acting in the case of a mental health or other emergency or supporting you upon request. Designees are not supervisors and do not provide supervision in lieu of the site supervisor. The Walden-approved site supervisor must fulfill the remaining Site Supervisor Responsibilities listed above.
In the doctoral internship, individual or triadic supervision will be provided by a Walden University faculty member. You will need to identify a site contact for each internship site. Site contacts do not need to provide individual or triadic supervision, and do not need to meet the requirements for site supervisors. They need to be employed by the field site and regularly on-site while you are participating in internship activities so that they can provide verification of and feedback about your work at the site.
Your individual or triadic supervision will be provided by a Walden University faculty member during internship. You will also be required to identify a clinical supervisor for doctoral internship experiences in the Counseling domain to provide regular supervision throughout the duration of the experience. The clinical supervisor must meet the supervisor requirements of the program, as described under Site/Clinical Supervisor Requirements.
Field experience is different from other courses in that you must take an active role in preparation for your field experience well before the coursework begins.
