Pre-Master’s Mental Health Internship – Counseling Center

Diversity issues are considered in every aspect of training as our patient population includes broad differences in age, disability status, race, ethnicity, immigration experiences, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, religion and spirituality, socioeconomic status, and family life. Through targeted seminar topics, supervision, and clinical work, trainees are informed and sensitized to diversity issues to prepare them to provide effective and culturally responsive mental health treatment.

KPCC Mental Health Trainees will be given opportunities to attend advanced trainings offered by the Mental Health Training Program’s Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Officers to promote cultural competency and cultural sensitivity. The trainings are designed to support all trainees and provide them with a safe space to reflect on their experiences without judgment.

Trainees will complete didactics within their training at KPCC and have opportunities to attend regional seminars through Mental Health Training Programs (MHTP). Didactics will include clinical topics and explore culturally responsive care, as well as supporting developmental milestones/needs of our trainees within the training year. Our trainees will have live and asynchronous exposure to various speakers and topics.

In collaboration with KP Mental Health Training Programs:

• Regional Seminars
• Professional Development and Wellness Opportunities
• FIC Case Consultation
• EID Forums
• EID Consultation Hours

Our program provides consistent and close supervision through weekly individual or triadic supervision and group supervision for each trainee. In addition to this, trainees attend weekly didactic seminars on clinically relevant topics and are given numerous opportunities to shadow colleagues and supervisors conducting intake evaluations and psychotherapy sessions. Our trainees also video and/or audio record their sessions for supervision purposes and are directly observed by supervisors to allow for live feedback during therapy sessions.

The Kaiser Permanente Counseling Center offers training in evidence-based treatment within a culturally responsive and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) framework for all trainees entering our clinic. It should be noted that the primary focus in training is adult generalist psychotherapy with optional entry into specializations, when it is developmentally appropriate for the trainee. Trainees will evaluate and diagnose mental health conditions based on DSM-5 and ICD-10 criteria, develop treatment plans, and learn how to articulate those plans to their patients. Trainees will also be taught to deliver interventions within a feedback informed care model that includes the use of outcomes monitoring at each session.

The Kaiser Permanente Counseling Center supervisors and management team work closely with educational institutions to meet graduation guidelines. Thus, hourly commitment to the Counseling Center, patient care hours, supervisory needs, and indirect patient care will be determined with these criteria in mind.

This specialty provides exposure and training in working with children and families and increases opportunities for trainees to gain relational hours. Trainees in this specialization provide child family therapy interventions to patients within NCAL experiencing mild to moderate distress.

• Participate in weekly didactic (1 hour)
• Participate in weekly group supervision (2 hours)
• Following 2 months of concentrated didactics and group supervision, trainees begin providing therapy to children and families.

This specialty provides basic training and practice in facilitating couples therapy across a number of evidence-based practices that may include Solution Focused Brief Couples Therapy, Gottman Method, and Emotion Focused Therapy. Trainees in this specialization provide enhanced brief couples therapy to patients who are experiencing mild to moderate relationship distress.

• Participate in weekly group supervision (2 hours)
• Participate in weekly didactic (1 hour)
• Must be recommended by primary supervisor to participate based on trainee readiness

The Kaiser Permanente Counseling Center Spanish Training Track offers trainees necessary skills and knowledge to effectively provide counseling services in Spanish.

• Our aim is to ensure that members from diverse linguistic backgrounds receive access to culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate mental health care.
• Trainees must complete a self-assessment form and participate in a 20-minute informal interview with one of the Spanish Track Supervisors to determine level of fluency and readiness to provide services in Spanish.
• Minimum Spanish language requirement is basic conversational fluency and/ or QBS2.

Training is 2-Tier

• Tier 1: Shadowing – Trainees observe/shadow the weekly didactics and case consultation to develop bicultural skills and get exposure to cultural norms with the end goal of providing services in Spanish.
• Tier 2: Delivering Services – Once the trainee is comfortable in speaking Spanish with ease and fluency within a therapy session, the trainee can move from Tier 1 to Tier 2. Supervisors will be noting fluency during didactics and case consultation to determine readiness for Tier 2.
• Participate in weekly didactic (1 hour)
• Participate in weekly group supervision (2 hours)