Doctoral Psychology Training Program

UHS will be a national student health leader in the 21st century, providing the highest quality care in a fully integrated medical, mental health, and prevention service model that promotes the health and well-being of the campus community. UHS will pursue resources and maximize their use in an accountable, sustainable, and fiscally resonsible manner to acheive optimal outcomes for the university community while adapting to the demands of evolving healthcare, societal and economic conditions.

The postgraduate internship has its foundation in a generalist, practitioner-scholar model, which is a refinement of the traditional scientist-practitioner model. The primary mission of Mental Health Services is direct service to the University student community. The internship is designed to maximize quality service to that community and provide a challenging and supportive learning environment for interns.

A philosophy of holistic and integrated student healthcare drives the work of Mental Health Services staff, and this philosophy is reflected in intern training. The interdisciplinary nature of our staff provides interns with the unique opportunity to consult and work with health professionals from a broad range of backgrounds and approaches. Interns will collaborate with members of our psychiatry team in treatment planning for individual clients. Interns will also consult with primary care physicians, nutritionists, and exercise physiologists. In particular, interns will be exposed to UHS’s innovative behavioral health practice, which was initiated to further increase students’ access to collaborative care.

UHS plays a significant role in promoting academic success on campus. Using an integrative approach, UHS addresses students’ physical, emotional and psychosocial health throughout this important transition in their lives. UHS is dedicated to creating a healthy and safe enviroment for all community members.

• A commitment to excellence.
• A commitment to student-focused service.
• A commitment to providing culturally competent and respectful services to all students.
• A commitment to creativity and innovation.
• A commitment to employee health and wellness.
• A commitment to maintaining a supportive and respectful workplace.
• A commitment to professional development.
• A commitment to responsible stewardship of our resources.

The internship program is designed with professional and personal growth and development in mind. We expect that interns will enter the program with skills that need further development and that interns will experience some challenges that create problems that need to be addressed, either through an informal or formal process.

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Stipend: $36,500 per year

*Parking is not included in your salary. It must be purchased separately. 

Benefits:

• Interns are eligible to enroll in health insurance through the UW Madison Benefit Plan.
• Technologically-equipped office; technology provided to be able to work from home
• University library privileges
• Professional development funds: $500
• 10 vacation days and university-approved legal holidays
• Batched research time: ability to take off 40 hours as dedicated research time
• Flex-time accrued for required after-hours work
• Five days of approved conference attendance/Professional Development
• Personal time off/sick leave: 80 hours

Because of our goal to provide care that enhances students’ mental health and well-being, we offer many different types of services. Students access our services through a web-based schedule appointment and drop-in access. Telephone scheduled last about 20 minutes, during which time the provider makes a recommendation for treatment. Each intern is available to work a two-hour on-call shift during the week under the supervision of a licensed provider to address student needs that can not be met during access appointment.

The group therapy program at Mental Health Services is quickly becoming a treatment of choice for UW students. We offer interpersonal process groups, support groups, theme groups, and psycho-educational groups. Groups are co-facilitated, and most have a maximum of eight student members. Some groups run for one semester, and others are offered year-round. Students can attend an unlimited number of group sessions.

Students may also be referred for individual therapy. The primary individual treatment modality a short-term, brief and intermittent model. Students may be seen for weekly therapy, or up to once every 2-3 weeks. Our staff members offer a rich variety of theoretical approaches to brief treatment. We also offer single session therapy as an option for students.

In addition to individual counseling, students may be referred to a member of our psychiatry team for consultation and/or medication. Interns will receive guidance and training around making referrals to the psychiatry team. When medication and therapy are indicated, collaboration between counseling and psychiatry providers is required.

Among our diverse University Health Services staff are specialists in wellness, stress management, exercise, substance use, healthy eating and eating disorders, and tobacco cessation. Students benefit greatly from referrals to these services. Moreover, interns have opportunities for training in these areas.

Students can also access our services around campus through Mental Health Services’s program called Let’s Talk. Let’s Talk is a program through which Mental Health Services staff members provide drop-in consultations at locations around campus. This program is for UW-Madison students; it’s free and confidential, no appointments are necessary, and students are seen on a first-come, first-served basis. Let’s Talk is great for students who are not sure about counseling and wonder what it’s like to talk to a counselor; who aren’t interested in ongoing counseling or therapy, but would like the perspective of a mental health professional; who have a specific problem and would like someone with whom to talk it through; or who have a concern about a friend or family member and would like ideas about what to do. All interns participate in Let’s Talk.

Finally, it is important to note that interns are not the only professionals-in-training at Mental Health Services. Our agency provides comprehensive supervised training experiences for master’s-level counseling graduate students, postgraduate-level psychology students, postgraduate and psychiatry residents. Interns dedicate a portion of their weekly schedule to providing supervision to practicum graduate students. All trainees enjoy the opportunity to share with and learn from each other.

Direct Service – 20 hours/week

• Individual: 10 contact hours
• Group Therapy: 4  contact hours
• Behavioral Health: 2 contact hours
• Let’s Talk/Health Ambassador: 2 contact hours
• On-call: 2 contact hours

Training and Administrative – 20 hours

• Receiving Individual Clinical Supervision: 2 hours
• Receiving Group Supervision: 1.5 hours
• Providing Individual Supervision: 1.5 hours
• Receiving Group Therapy Supervision: 1.5 hours
• Intern Peer Consultation: 1.5 hours
• Staff Meeting: 1 hour
• Attending Seminars: 3 hours (Assessment, Supervision of Supervision, Multicultural, Campus Based Services, Behavioral Health)
• Administrative Time: 7 hours (supervision of supervision, group therapy work, individual clinical work , assessments, other agency responsibilities)

Typical internship 40 hour work week , there may be occasional times where more than 40 hours is necessary, this should be the exception to these guidelines.

The administrative staff are essential and valuable members of the Mental Health Services team. They manage the reception area, which includes the front desk, the waiting room, and the computer stations. Among the many responsibilities of the administrative staff are: welcoming and orienting students to the agency, answering phones and scheduling appointments, and assisting students with the required computerized surveys and assessments. They also collaborate with the Medical Records staff (8th floor), who handle release of information requests, file test results, and fulfill a variety of other documentation-related duties.

Group Therapy Seminar & Supervision

Group therapy training begins in August with extensive didactic instruction on referring students to group, conducting group screenings, and co-facilitating interpersonal process groups. During the academic semesters, group therapy supervision and seminar meets for 90 minutes weekly. Approximately 1 hour of this time is allocated for consultation and supervision on currently running groups. This includes review of digital recordings of group sessions. The other 30 minutes may be dedicated to further didactic instruction and/or professional development topics.

Supervision of Supervision Seminar

To inform the interns’ supervision of graduate practicum students, they attend a weekly, 60-minute seminar. During the early part of the Fall semester, interns read scholarly articles and gain knowledge of supervision theories and approaches. They learn about supervision contracts and discuss the preparation required to begin their work as supervisors. Interns work to apply supervision theory to their practice. As the training year goes on, the seminar time is devoted to didactics, supervision, administrative issues, video review of supervision sessions, and professional development, all in service to the interns’ roles as supervisors.

Multicultural Practice Seminar

This seminar meets throughout the year, every other week for two hours. Interns will engage in personal and professional development through didactic and experiential exercises, individual presentations, and case consultation.

Assessment Seminar

This modular seminar is multidisciplinary and is facilitated by senior staff. The goal is to enhance and refine interns’ judgments regarding how and when to employ various assessment instruments and techniques. Topics in this seminar include clinical interviewing, DSM V diagnosis, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, eating disorders, substance abuse, and lethality assessment.

Outreach Seminar

The focus is on building competence in each of the University Health Services Campus Based Services. The content includes developing one-on-one consultation skills, organizational consultation, program design and implementation skills, and the use of evaluation to assess outcomes.

Behavioral Health Seminar

The Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model effectively integrates mental health and medical services into a single system. Interns will identify common behavioral health problems in medical settings, understand the benefits of integrating behavioral health services into medical settings, and gain familiarity with core features of the PCBH model. Additionally, interns will gain exposure to clinical approaches, such as motivational interviewing, that are particularly valuable in medical settings.

The internship requires 2,000 hours of work, 500 of which must be direct clinical service (i.e., the provision of an intervention). Interns are responsible for tracking their hours. Interns have used various methods for tracking their hours, such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, web-based software (e.g. Time2Track), and/or the MHS Internship Exit Criteria. It is recommended that interns keep regular track of their hours; past interns have found it helpful to calculate hours on a monthly or weekly basis. The director of training for the internship program will require interns to submit a copy of hours earned to-date at the second quarter evaluation and the end of year evaluation.

Group therapy is an essential aspect of clinical service provided at UHS. Interns initially co-lead groups with senior staff members or postgraduate fellows, and may have an opportunity to co-lead a group with another intern or a postgraduate-level counseling trainee. Interns participate in a group therapy seminar with the group coordinator. All groups are co-facilitated and supervised by a senior staff member. Interns are expected to co-facilitate two groups per semester.

We offer individual therapy to students using a brief and intermittent, short-term model. Students may receive up to 10 sessions of individual or couples therapy in a 12-month period. Interns are scheduled to provide an average of 10 individual sessions per week. For students needing longer-term individual care, we provide community referrals. Our model of care routinely includes case management and consultation with crisis stabilization and psychiatry.

All interns participate in our on-call program by providing an average of two-hours weekly consultation service to students seeking services at UHS Mental Health Services. The on-call drop-in consultation provides an explanation of UHS to students who are seeking mental health services, support for students with urgent needs, and a determination of goodness of fit and referral for the services best suited to assist the student in meeting their mental health needs. All interns are partnered with a licensed provider during on-call shifts.

Comprehensive crisis training is provided in August before interns begin providing clinical services. Interns participate in crisis management through our on-call services and after-hours response as needed. Interns learn and enhance skills in the areas of suicide and crisis assessment; safety planning, referral, and follow-up; consultation and case management; community networking; and documentation.

Crisis management that occurs through ongoing clinical work is supervised by intern supervisors. Responding to a campus crisis is always done in conjunction with licensed staff and supervised by training director, clinical director, and co-directors of Mental Health Services.

Ongoing consultation from senior staff members is always available.

During orientation in August, interns will meet with Mental Health Services’s Coordinator for Campus-based Services to learn about our agency’s efforts towards reaching the 90 percent of students who do not seek help in our offices. There is a desire to especially serve underrepresented and underserved populations. Each intern is expected to establish a liaisonship to one UW-Madison campus organization. In this role, interns are encouraged to serve as consultants and provide presentations/workshops on mental health topics for students or staff within the organization for which they are a liaison. In addition, interns have ample opportunity to provide programming for other campus organizations. Interns must develop and present a minimum of four campus programs during the course of the training year. Their first presentations will be observed and evaluated by senior staff. Later, interns may conduct presentations with each other and/or on their own, if appropriate.

Interns also participate in Let’s Talk, a program that provides drop-in consultations at locations around campus. It’s free, no appointments are necessary, and students are seen on a first-come, first-serve basis. Consultations are informal, confidential, and can be anonymous. An intern will spend two hours per week at a pre-determined location on campus, offering one-time, brief consultation to students who drop-in.

Interns participate in Outreach Seminar, led by the Director of Campus & Community Engagement and the Assistant Director of Outreach. This seminar meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month throughout the academic year. This seminar is designed to support intern training and skill development in the areas of outreach and consultation work.

Goals:

• Provide training in existing MHS outreach activities, including Health Ambassador liaison relationships, Let’s Talk, and presentation and event staffing.
• Offer experiential learning in outreach program design, delivery, and evaluation.
• Support the development of advanced presentation and facilitation skills and training in cultivating collaborative, community based partnerships that support an integrated and coordinated campus response to student mental health concerns.
• Increase knowledge, awareness, and skills related to outreach as a culturally responsive and attuned form of mental health service design and delivery.

Seminar Requirements:

• Regular attendance and participation in seminar.
• Participation in agency outreach and a health ambassador liaison relationship.
• Development of an outreach presentation, workshop, or training based on the topic of the trainees choice (to be given in seminar and added to the outreach presentation database).

During the academic year, each intern typically supervises one master’s or post-graduate practicum intern from UW-Madison. Interns meet with their supervisee for a minimum of 1.5 hours of face to face supervision sessions per week. During this time, interns and supervisees discuss the supervisee’s clinical work, professional development, and experience within the agency. Additional options in supervision may include in-vivo supervision and co-leading or supervising group work.

A critical part of the interns’ experience as supervisors is the weekly group supervision-of-supervision. Before practicum students arrive, interns spend this supervision seminar learning about and discussing basic theoretical models of supervision and principles/techniques for conducting supervision. As interns begin practicing as supervisors, supervision seminar time is devoted to discussing interns’ experiences as developing supervisors and consulting on supervisees’ clinical and professional development concerns.

Staff Meeting

Interns attend and participate in weekly all-staff meetings. These weekly meetings are also a place for staff members to make announcements and to express appreciation for each other’s work. Other administrative items and topics with relevance to all staff are discussed at this time as well.

Intern Peer Support

Interns are allotted 1.5 hours each week for peer support. This time is intended as time for the intern cohort to bond and explore their development personally and professionally as the year advances. Year after year, our interns report intern peer support as a highlight of the UW-Madison Internship.

Blake Bettis
Degree: PsyD in Clinical Psychology
Year Licensed/State: Wisconsin 2023
Theoretical Orientations: Psychoanalytic (including time limited dynamic psychotherapy), incorporating critiques and integrations from Queer Affirmative, Feminist, and De-colonial theorists
Clinical areas of interest: Queer identity development; Gender affirming care; Sex, sexuality. kink -affirming care; self-image difficulties; artistic pursuits, creativity, and performance; existential concerns; family relationship concerns and trauma

Sarah Kohlstedt
Degree: PhD Clinical Psychology
Year Licensed/State: 2013 – present, WI
Theoretical Orientations: Psychodynamic, interpersonal, Feminist/strengths-based, mindfulness-based approaches
Clinical areas of interest: Anxiety, depression, Family of origin and relationship concerns, multi-cultural counseling, life transitions, holistic health and wellness

Felix Savino, Director of Training Programs
Degree: PhD Counseling Psychology
Year Licensed/State: 1988 – present, WI
Theoretical Orientations: Solution Focused, Humanistic, CBT
Clinical Areas of Interest: Substance use issues, Anxiety, Depression, Work-Life Balance, Life Transitions, Couples

Kathy Wierzchowski
Degree: PhD in Counseling Psychology from Purdue University
Year Licensed/State: Wisconsin and Illinois, 2021
Theoretical Orientations: Cognitive Behavioral, Interpersonal, Person – Centered
Clinical areas of interest: adjustment and transitions; career and vocational concerns; identity development; graduate student concerns; interpersonal communications and social relationships; assessment; holistic health and well-being

Mariessa Robles
Degree: PsyD in Clinical Psychology
Year Licensed/State: Wisconsin 2024
Theoretical Orientations: Psychodynamic: interpersonal and object relational, Dialectical Behavioral, Integrative.
Clinical areas of interest: Gender affirming care, gender exploration, life transitions, suicidal ideation, emotional dysregulation, first break psychosis, kink-affirming care, non-monogamous relationships, sexuality, relationship concerns.

Interns also participate in individual supervision with their group therapy co-facilitators. The co-facilitator has the unique opportunity to observe the intern’s work directly during the group therapy session. In the half-hour after group, the intern and co-facilitator engage in supervision and debriefing around the group content and process.

Individual Supervision

Interns receive 2.0 hours with a primary clinical supervisor. All primary supervisors are post-licensure psychologists. Assignments of primary supervisors are made based primarily on theoretical orientation and clinical areas of interest. Interns will have the opportunity to work with two different primary supervisors during the internship year, as new assignments are made half way through the training year; this is done in order to provide a diversity of experience in supervision. Interns are required to use digital-recording for a minimum of 20 client sessions, and these recordings are reviewed in supervision. There is also the option of 0.5 hours of individual supervision with the Training Director or Assistant Director.

Group Supervision

As a cohort, the interns meet with the Training Director and Assistant Training Director for one hour weekly. This group supervision involves discussion about many topics including, but not limited to: our agency’s administrative procedures, interns’ internship experience, clinical care in our setting, and professional development. It will also be a place to receive supervision or complex cases and consult, including on-call and behavioral health.

There is a supervisory component to Group Therapy, Let’s Talk, Supervision of Supervision, and Campus-based Services, Assessment, Multicultural Seminar, and Behavioral Health. Finally, our staff’s open door policy makes it easy to obtain supervision and consultation as needed. Throughout your training year, we encourage your questions and welcome your feedback.

Our internship program has implemented required competencies for psychologists to become Health Service Providers. The aim of our training program is to prepare psychologists to enter the profession at an entry skill level to work in outpatient mental health programs.

The competencies are as follows, and we will have elements, training practices, and outcomes for all competencies embedded in our evaluation forms and all our training practices.

Required Profession-Wide Competencies
• Research – develop skills and knowledge by using evidence-based practices in all areas of service delivery.
• Ethical and Legal Standards – develop skills and demonstrate competence as entry-level psychologists who engage in ethical behaviors and exhibit professional identities.
• Individual and Cultural Diversity – develop skills and demonstrate multicultural counseling competence (i.e., awareness, knowledge, and skills) as entry-level psychologists and engage in professional practice with students from diverse cultural backgrounds.
• Professional Values, Attitudes and Behaviors
• Communication and Interprofessional Skills
• Assessment – establish and expand knowledge, skills, and abilities as entry-level psychologists in various areas of psychological assessment through clinical interviewing, testing, and other methods.
• Intervention – develop skills and demonstrate competence as entry-level psychologists in a brief, intermittent treatment model to a diverse client population and in co-facilitation of interpersonal process groups; establish and expand knowledge, skills, and abilities as entry-level psychologists in on-call and crisis services.
• Supervision – develop skills and knowledge in providing supervision in a competent and developmental manner, as appropriate for entry-level psychologists.
• Consultation and Interpersonal/Interdisciplinary Skills – establish and expand knowledge, skills, and abilities as entry-level psychologists in liaison relationships and campus-based services; develop skills and demonstrate competence as entry-level psychologists in working in a multi-disciplinary, integrated, and collaborative student health care system.

Part of the internship experience here involves working in a multidisciplinary and integrated University Health Services system. In our context, change is ongoing, we adapt to challenges and we are continuously improving. Mental Health Services reserves the right to modify elements of the training program whenever changes in staffing, needs of interns, or needs of customers requires it.

The internship program is designed to provide an intensive, yet sufficiently broad, range of professional experiences. Professional growth (and, inevitably, personal growth) occurs when these experiences are accompanied by thoughtful, accurate, and straightforward evaluation and feedback. There are numerous ways in which interns are evaluated during their training year.

Weekly supervision by the intern’s primary clinical supervisor and by the Training Director are forms of ongoing evaluation and feedback, and are also the foundation upon which more formalized and thematic feedback is built. All intern supervisors meet regularly to develop an integrated picture of each intern’s performance within the agency and evolving competencies and growth areas. Every three months, staff members complete written evaluations of each intern’s work and progress, which is then compiled and presented to the intern. Twice-yearly, this evaluation and feedback is also provided by the Training Director to the intern’s graduate program director. In addition, interns may receive quarterly evaluations from their supervisees, and they may be evaluated by clients who are welcomed to provide feedback during and following treatment.

• MHS Intern Quarterly Evaluation
• MHS Intern Evaluation of Training
• MHS Intern Evaluation of Supervisor

• Completion of 2,000 hours in a 52-week postgraduate internship year
• Completion of 500 hours of direct service (25%) during the postgraduate internship year
• Completion of all requirements in End Of Year Internship Evaluation
• Receiving a score of 3 (meets expectations for this level of training/competence consistently meets expectations in all essential areas, at times exceeding expectations, and the quality of the work overall is very good) in the following areas identified in the quarterly evaluations:
  • Research
  • Ethical and Legal Standards
  • Cultural and Individual Diversity
  • Professional Values and Attitudes
  • Communication and Interpersonal Skills
  • Consultation/Interprofessional/Interdisciplinary
  • Supervision
  • Intervention
  • Assessment

All Interns who successfully complete the internship receive a certificate of completion of their 2000 hours

In a complementary process, interns provide written feedback to their primary supervisor and to the Training Director twice during the year (at the midpoint and end of the internship year). The Training Director receives copies of these written evaluations. The Training Director meets regularly with the interns throughout the internship year to receive feedback on the training experience. At the midpoint, and again at the end of the internship year, interns provide written feedback on the internship training experience as a whole.