Internship

This is the second supervised clinical experience for counseling students. Students will be attached to counselling agencies to practice concrete skills learned. They will attend to actual clients and participate in individual and group supervision. The aim is to continue develop conceptual and professional skills related to their practice at a field site during the practicum course (GIC2206). Students will practice various specified counseling and other related activities during a minimum of 180 hours at an agency or educational setting. Satisfactory performance at the field placement and during on-campus class meetings will be evaluated before a student is awarded a grade.

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, students will be able to:-

• Make highly accurate responses to client's statements by responding to client needs, feelings, cues, and behavior.
• Appropriately share experiences, feelings, and ideas in an open, non-dogmatic manner while keeping the focus on the client.
• Apply ethical and legal considerations in professional counseling to real life situations.
• Appropriately apply counseling skills to problems presented by a variety of individuals in an agency or school setting.
• Establish an ongoing counseling relationship with a client(s) based on accurate case conceptualization and help clients set action oriented goals related to their identified problems.
• Evaluate their opinions, practices, and ethnicity, religious and spiritual values and sseparate personal reactions to an issue from those of the client.
  

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

1. Field Placement: The student will negotiate a field experience contract with his or her onsite supervisor prior to the period of placement. This contract constitutes an agreement between the student, field supervisor and KIU; and specifies the student's activities, hours, and supervision arrangements.
2. Practicum Hours: The student will complete 180 clock hours of supervised field practice. At least 40 of these hours will be direct service work with clientele appropriate to the student's field setting. Of these 40 direct hours, at least 10 should be group work. Hours are to be recorded on the Practicum Log.
3. Site Supervision: The student will complete at least one hour per week of individual supervision with their site supervisor. The student will attend all individual supervision sessions.  If they miss more than one session appointment with their supervisor, it will affect their final grade.
4. Group Supervision. The student will complete at least 2 hours per week of group supervision with other practicum students. This supervision will be provided by a faculty member and/or an assigned, supervised doctoral graduate assistant. Students are required to bring recordings to each session and other useful materials. One of the recordings will be of a group counseling session. The class or small group will listen/view recordings and use them as a stimulus for group discussion and supervision. Each student will select an intervention to demonstrate/roleplay for the class, with a fellow classmate role-playing as the client.
5. Case Summaries: These involve case analyses, recordings or transcripts. Students are required to videotape or radio record counseling sessions with clients from their field sites. Three recorded counseling sessions will be submitted to the instructor for supervision feedback. Recordings may include a typed transcript, conceptualization, and self-evaluation of your counseling skills.
6. Individual Counseling: Students are required to conduct at least one weekly counseling session with individual clients for the rest of their practicum experience.
7. Group Counseling. Students are required to lead one psycho-educational or counseling group (minimum 4 sessions) in their site setting. They may lead a group session in a community setting. Recording of at least one group sessions is required for in-class supervision.
8. Needs Assessment: The student will complete an evaluation of field site needs during the first week of the placement. These evaluations will be filed with the University supervisor. It is through this needs assessment, that the student shall complete a practicum project at the conclusion of the practicum experience.
9. Practicum Project: The student will complete an implementation project during the last three weeks of the placement. These projects will be videotaped, radio-recorded or systematically written down, clearly outlining the procedures taken to intervene on key concerns identified in the needs assessment exercise. The report of the project shall be compiled and submitted to the University supervisor.