FAQ on Practicum & Internship - Ashland Theological Seminary

Frequently Asked Questions (<strong>FAQ</strong>) On Practicum & Internship“What is practicum and what does it involve?” The practicum is your first opportunity to work with bona fide clients utilizing the counseling skills that you have acquired to date. In short, to successfully complete the practicum students will acquire no less than 100 hours of which 40 are “direct” (i.e., counseling with clients) under the supervision of a Professional Clinical Counselor with supervisory status. Much more detailed information on the practicum experience is contained in the Practicum Handbook that is available for download on the web page for practicum. Please download the Practicum Handbook and read this thoroughly. It will describe all that is involved with the Practicum field experience. You may also want to download the Practicum Timeline and other documents such as the Practicum Affiliation Agreement and Loghseet of Hours (and Sample Logsheet of Hours for explanatory purposes). “Are these hours done during the cohort day?” No. The practicum hours are done outside of the cohort day as they will be served at various agencies. There will, however, be a practicum class that takes place during the cohort day. “When am I able to start my practicum?” Students will secure practicum sites in the spring quarter of the first year of the cohort. When you are in contact with any agencies and are asked, “When can you start?,” students are able to begin their practicum the first day of fall quarter in

their second year of the cohort. REMEMBER, you are asking about starting a practicum in the fall NOT an internship as they are different (as noted above). “Is there anything I can do now?” Students do not need to do anything about practicum until fall quarter. If, however, you want to get started there are a couple things you can do. First, you may want to get going on the Criminal Records Check that is required of all counseling students applying for Counselor Trainee status (necessary for Practicum and Internship students). Further information on this is available on the Ohio Counselor, Social Worker, and Marriage & Family Therapist web page (http://cswmft.ohio.gov/). Second, if you were to start looking for a site (or already had one in mind) to serve your practicum (and possibly into internship, PLEASE read through the Practicum Handbook so as to know what you are looking for. Dr Sadler-­‐Gerhardt is available to talk with about such contacts. We’ll be talking about many of these issues related to the practicum the first week of class in fall quarter so this is simply a starting point now. “Is there a list of sites available for students to use?” Yes. We have a list of sites that have used our students in the past. We do not guarantee that they still do but it is a starting point for making contacts. We will be sending this out to you. “Do I have to complete all 100 hours in one quarter?” No. In fact, most students take two or more quarters to complete the practicum. A number of factors are involved with how speedily one completes their practicum experience such as how much time students are able to commit to the practicum, schedule flexibility, client availability, etc.

“What happens if I don’t complete the 100 hours in one quarter?” Students will continue their practicum until it is complete. To do so, students will register each quarter for practicum as this is required by the State and our program. For example, in the fall quarter students will be enrolled in CC 836 Practicum in Counseling I. To continue into winter quarter, students would then register for CC 837 Practicum in Counseling II and so on. “What happens once I complete the practicum requirements?” As noted above, to complete the practicum students must fulfill all requirements listed in the Practicum Handbook. This includes a minimum of 100 hours with a minimum of 40 direct contact hours with clients. If a student completes the 100 hours within a quarter, they continue to accrue practicum hours through the end of the quarter. Once students complete the practicum requirements, they are eligible to begin their internship in the following quarter if they choose to. “Internship? What’s that?” The internship is a continuation of gaining experience with counseling. In short, to successfully complete the internship students will acquire no less than 600 hours of which 240 are “direct” (i.e., counseling with clients) under the supervision of a Professional Clinical Counselor with supervisory status. Similarly to that noted above regarding detailed information on the practicum, the Internship Handbook and other downloadable documents are available by selecting the link to the Internship web page. Internship also involves gaining experience in the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders.

“If internship follows practicum, how is that managed past the end of the cohort?” Students generally enter internship directly after finishing practicum (since they often do their practicum and internship at the same agency). This is often in the spring quarter of their second year of the cohort. Students beginning internship register for CC 896 Internship in Counseling I and begin accruing hours toward the 600 needed. Since students will need to continue counseling clients over the summer and into the third year to complete the requirements, they will sign up for CC 898 Internship in Counseling after that and attend these classes each quarter (they are 2 credits each). “How do I maintain Counselor Trainee” status between quarters?”If there is no change in your supervisor, site, or duties, we send in a list of registered practicum and internship students to the State and students retain their CT status over the break (sometimes it takes a while for Simeon Frazier to update CT status so please be patient if your status doesn’t change right away with a new “end date” for your CT status) and into the next quarter (the one being registered for). We do send in the list shortly after the registration ends so if students are late in registering, see next section. If a student registers late or have had a change in their supervisor (or added another supervisor in the case of having more than one practicum/internship site), site, or responsibilities, they must fill out the CT Extension form (http://cswmft.ohio.gov/pdfs/CTextend.pdf) and attach a copy of their transcript to retain CT status. These must be mailed or faxed to the State. “If I have more questions about Practicum or

Internship, who should I direct them to?” Great question! The best source of information on Practicum is Dr Sadler-­‐Gerhardt (Practicum Coordinator) and for Internship is Dr. Wetherbee (Internship Coordinator). Feel free to contact either via e-­‐mail or set up an appointment to talk.