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.
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):
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.
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.
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):
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.
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.
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):
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.
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):
Note: Students cannot count time spent on dissertation research toward the internship requirements for the PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision program.
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):
Internship (two terms) requires the completion of at least
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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).
