In 2003, Catholic Social Services became a part of the APA-accredited Nebraska Internship Consortium in Professional Psychology (http://www.unl.edu/nicpp/). The pre-doctoral internship serves as the final year of clinical training before receiving a doctorate in psychology.

PROGRAM PHILOSOPHY AND OBJECTIVES:

The primary objective of the CSS Clinical Program is to provide the highest standard of psychological services in an environment that respects the psychological and spiritual needs of its clientele. While remaining grounded in an empirically based approach to mental health care, CSS seeks to integrate into its services a philosophy and language that provides for effective working relationships with people of Christian faith.

The CSS Clinical Program has been recognized nationwide as a leader in the integration of modern scientific psychology and traditional Christian view of the human person. As such, we are striving toward the development of a psychological framework that effectively addresses both the physical and spiritual nature of the person. Consequently, CSS is an environment where the clinical staff engages regularly in the study and discussion of traditional philosophical and theological principles. We work collaboratively to apply these principles to the psychological and social needs of individuals and organizations within Lincoln Diocese. In support of these efforts, psychologists, theologians, and philosophers outside the agency are frequently involved in the didactic components of the CSS Clinical Program.

Another unique aspect of the CSS Clinical Program is the emphasis on community outreach and prevention. In order to more effectively serve those outside of the Lincoln area, a model of outreach and consultation has been developed. Specifically, both direct and indirect services are provided in rural areas of the diocese. Regarding direct service provision, satellite sites have been organized to serve clients in the David City, Auburn, Nebraska City, Falls City, and Hastings areas. Clinical staff, including interns, travel weekly to these sites to provide direct counseling services. Indirect services are provided to outlying areas through consultation with priests and Catholic school personnel on an as-needed basis.

Consistent with the needs of our community and the guiding philosophy of CSS, Clinical Interns are expected to establish or develop their competency in several key areas:

Knowledge of primary psychological foundations including development, learning, psychopathology, behavior analysis, biological bases, social foundations, and cultural diversity.
Competence with a full range of psychological services, including preventive/indirect services and remedial/direct services, as well as an ability to think systemically and ecologically about client and community mental health needs.
Mastery of primary psychological techniques including cognitive and personality assessment, consultation, and psychotherapy.
Effective integration of principles of the Catholic Faith with empirically based treatment modalities.
Knowledge of and ability to work with individuals in the Catholic structure (e.g., priests, women religious, parochial school personnel, parishioners, specialized social service groups).
Appreciation of the unique needs of clients from a broad range of socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds.
Competency in managing a diversity of clinical roles consistent with the strictest ethical and legal guidelines.

Given the mission of the agency in supporting the needs of the local diocese, CSS Interns may be particularly well suited for employment in other diocesan or parish-based mental health service systems, or in academic settings that provide for the integration of psychology, philosophy, and theology.

STRUCTURE OF INTERNSHIP ACTIVITIES:

The CSS Clinical Program funds 2 pre-doctoral interns each year, beginning August 1 and concluding the following July 31. Each intern is expected to work 40 hours per week. A majority of the interns’ time is be spent engaged in direct clinical services and consultation. Training and supervision are strongly emphasized as well. Interns have a minimum of 3 hours of face-to-face supervision and two hours of group supervision each week. In addition, regular didactic training is provided at CSS and monthly training is provided through the various consortium sites. Interns are required to conduct site-visits of at least two other consortium sites during their training year.

Direct Clinical Services

The Immaculate Heart Counseling Center in Lincoln provides care to Catholics and non-Catholics and individuals of all ages. The Counseling Center clientele reflect the ethnicity of the Lincoln community, with the majority of clients being Caucasian. Program service fees come from direct payment, third-party payment, and charity grants that are provided by donations to the Agency.
The CSS Clinical Program also operates out of several satellite sites located in parish facilities. Clinicians travel to these outreach sites (e.g., Auburn, Nebraska City, Falls City, David City, and Hastings) on a weekly basis to offer direct and indirect services. Although the intern travels regularly to satellite sites, the primary internship site is the Immaculate Heart Counseling Center in Lincoln.

Psychological and Academic Assessment. CSS provides a full range of psychological and academic assessment services to the general public. In addition, psychological evaluations are provided for candidates to seminaries and religious orders. Consistent with the objectives of training, the intern are expected to become proficient with traditional methods of psychological assessment (including the MMPI-2, MMPI-A, WISC-V, and WAIS-III) and adopt a scholarly approach to the use of these methods within outpatient, educational, and religious settings.

Counseling Services. Clientele at CSS are quite diverse, encompassing a broad range of age, SES, and presenting problems. Interns gain experience treating marital problems, depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, personality disorders, parenting concerns, and childhood behavior problems. Individual, family, and group therapy is conducted based on the clients’ needs. As the interns conduct clinical services, they are expected to broaden and strengthen their knowledge of empirically-based interventions and begin to effectively integrate that framework within a traditional Catholic anthropology. Interns work collaboratively with parish priests, educational personnel, physicians, and other significant professionals with clients’ consent.

Crisis Response Team. Clinicians at CSS are part of a Crisis Response Team which represents a joint effort with the Diocesan Education Office. CSS provides organizational assistance and crisis counseling in parochial schools and parishes up to 72 hours following a traumatic event (e.g., death of a student). Interns are trained as members of the Crisis Response Team.

Crisis Pregnancy and Post-Abortion Healing. Psychologists and counselors from the CSS Clinical Program assist pregnant women and their families in exploring alternatives available to them, including parenting and adoption. The interns are taught to assist women with the many difficult decisions associated with unplanned pregnancy. CSS also offers counseling services for women facing emotional difficulties following an abortion.

24-Hour Emergency Service. In order to facilitate accessibility to crisis counseling services throughout the diocese, a counselor is on-call 24 hours a day to answer emergency phone calls. Interns receive training to handle such emergency situations and will be included in the rotating “on-call” schedule.

Indirect Service Delivery

Consultation. In an effort to provide comprehensive services, CSS clinical staff frequently consults with other mental health professionals, priests, and school personnel as appropriate for each client. Consultation serves as a means to provide multi-systemic interventions for individuals and families. In addition, CSS clinical staff continues to foster an on-going relationship with church leadership and educational personnel in an attempt to actively respond to the needs within the Catholic community.

Public Speaking/Training Workshops. The CSS Clinical Program personnel are available to speak to various groups about topics including parenting skills, helping teens with sexual and abortion-related issues, suicide prevention, coping with the death of a student, friend, or family member, and building strong families. Speaking engagements are typically held at individual parishes in order to strengthen relationships and build the local community. In addition, CSS can provide workshops aimed at helping individuals in the community provide specific services to their parish and school communities. These workshops and speaking engagements offer valuable opportunities for interns to develop or enhance professional presentation skills.

DIDACTICS:

Given the diversity of clinical roles and the complexity of integrating the Catholic faith with the practice of psychology, interns will receive specialized training. Two to three hours of weekly readings are provided in connection with a year-long seminar that establishes a foundation for the integration of the Catholic faith. Additional readings in consultation, organizational development, marital and family therapy, and clinical technique are made available as a supplement to weekly supervision. In addition, presentations on a wide range of clinical and spiritual topics are conducted by CSS Clinical Staff or by affiliated psychologists, theologians, and philosophers. Furthermore, interns are allowed paid time off to attend local and regional APA accredited in-service trainings. Interns are also provided a stipend to attend one national training or conference.

In addition to the training provided at Catholic Social Services, interns also participate in a monthly consortium-wide training. It is through these monthly trainings that interns learn about the alternate consortium sites. These trainings provide interns with exposure to diverse treatment settings including schools, residential treatment facilities, and campus counseling centers.

SUPERVISION:

The CSS Interns participates in a minimum 2 hours of individual supervision each week with the Training Director and a minimum of 1 hour of supervision by a secondary supervisor. Initially, the interns are encouraged to observe other staff members or provide conjoint services with them. The interns attain greater independence as his/her comfort level and expertise increases. In addition to individual supervision, the interns participate in weekly staff meetings that include group discussion of current cases.

FACILITIES AND BENEFITS:

The interns is provided with their own fully furnished offices, equipped with a variety of software packages, access to the Internet, the University of Nebraska Library services, and email. The interns also have access to all available counseling materials and secretarial support.

The internship stipend for the year is $23,660. Health and dental insurance is available to the interns. Ten paid vacation days and 5 personal/sick days are provided as well as approximately 12 paid holidays including Holy Days of Obligation. The intern also receives time off for approved professional development activities (e.g., dissertation defense, attendance at approved professional conferences).