Doctoral Internship Planning and Implementation Guidelines

for the Family-School Relations Specialty

1. Identify a site in the student's area of residence that will offer the opportunity to work with families of school age children under appropriate supervision.

2. Identify on-site supervisors that have appropriate training in working with families. The supervisor of record must be a doctoral level school psychologist, clinical psychologist, or psychiatrist. Social workers with family therapy training may also provide secondary on-site supervision to the student. Field supervisors must provide a vita for faculty review and approval.

3. The student must submit a written internship plan prior to beginning work for approval by the intern's faculty supervisor. This should include: A) a site description, B) names, addresses, and phone numbers of all supervisors, C) a description of the anticipated internship activities including types of cases to be seen, kinds of interventions, the theoretical orientation of the setting and/or supervisor, and the type and schedule of the on-site supervision. One to two hours of supervision per week is required depending on the case load being carried by the student. How the internship activities will be evaluated should also be included in the plan.

4. The faculty supervisor will make phone contact with the site supervisor prior to starting the internship and periodically during the experience.

5. The student should keep a log of their experiences, noting the amount of time for direct preparation, client contact, and intern supervision. A minimum of 300 clock hours is required for the specialty internship.

6. Twice during the experience, the student will submit to the University supervisor case notes and a videotape of a family therapy session or other family interventions. Included will be a treatment plan for the case, as well as goals for the session illustrated on the videotape.

7. The site supervisor will be asked to complete internship evaluation form twice during the experience. Verbal feedback will also be obtained through periodic phone contacts with the site supervisor. It is important that the student keep the faculty supervisor apprised of their progress by submitting partial logs and making phone contacts on a regular basis.