UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Counseling and Psychological Services, also known as CAPS, a unit of Student Affairs, has received full accreditation again for its doctoral internship program in Health Service Psychology by the American Psychological Association (APA) for 10 years.
CAPS offers a full-time, 12-month doctoral internship in health service psychology designed to provide high-quality training in the multiple functions within a major university counseling center. The doctoral internship program in Health Service Psychology at CAPS has been fully accredited by the American Psychological Association since 1983.
“We are very proud of our CAPS training philosophy and program and thrilled with the news that we are accredited to continue to provide high-quality, comprehensive, multi-disciplinary training for the next 10 years,” said CAPS Senior Director Natalie Hernandez. “Training is embedded into each component of our unit and one of the foundational pillars of our operation.”
The internship program's overarching goal is to train “generalists,” highly competent and versatile professionals, who keep abreast of changes in the field and use this information to inform their clinical practice, said Hernandez.
The training facilitates the development of profession-wide competencies as outlined in the Standards of Accreditation in Health Service Psychology through the American Psychological Association (APA). These competency areas include assessment, communication and interpersonal skills, consultation and interdisciplinary skills, ethical and legal standards, individual and cultural diversity, intervention, professional values and attitudes, research and supervision.
“We are pleased with the reaccreditation of our Doctoral Internship Program," Hernandez said. "Training future clinicians and ongoing professional development for all our staff is highly valued at CAPS. In addition to bringing new knowledge and experiences into the CAPS system, our training programs diversify the services we offer to best meet the needs of Penn State students."
The doctoral internship trains psychologists whose expertise extends to a variety of clinical domains, including assessment and diagnosis, consultation/outreach, individual and group psychotherapy, intake, multicultural counseling, and substance use counseling, to name a few.
For more information about the internship visit the CAPS doctoral internship webpage.