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• APA-Accredited Doctoral Internship in Health Service Psychology
• Direct Service Activities

Direct Service Activities

Interns work full-time for the Evanston CAPS office, which serves approximately 8,000 undergraduate students and 8,000 graduate students.  At this time, CAPS direct/clinical services are delivered via both telehealth and in-person modalities.

Individual Therapy

Each interns conducts approximately fourteen hours of clinical services per week, the majority of which will be individual therapy.  CAPS does not use set session limits, and how many sessions a client is seen for is determined primarily by a combination of the client’s progress towards their goals, as well as managing the intern’s overall caseload and the site’s clinical capacity.  Interns are responsible for the case management, advocacy, and clinical documentation for their clients. 

Initial Assessment, Consultation, and Crisis Intervention Services

Students’ first point of contact with CAPS is typically in walking in for a Same-Day Access (SDA) appointment, or making a scheduled Initial Assessment (IA).  The IA is a biopsychosocial and diagnostic clinical interview, with the purpose of determining the most appropriate next steps for the client.  While SDA appointments can be IAs, they can also be routine consultations or situations with more distress or risk.  Interns participate in both the SDA rotation and the scheduled IAs.

When meeting with students for scheduled or same-day initial assessments, the provider gathers information about a client’s concerns and symptoms, clinical presentation, background and demographics, and risk level, and determines the services and resources that are recommended to address their needs.  From the initial assessment, next steps may include additional assessment, group therapy, short-term individual therapy at CAPS, referral to off-campus treatment (with assistance from CAPS Care Coordinators), follow-up case management, or community-based intervention/outreach programming.

On occasion, same-day appointments will also involve consultation with third parties (e.g., peers, parents, faculty, staff, and community providers) to facilitate a student's access to crisis support/treatment or provide guidance for those with concerns about a student's mental health.  The same-day access system is monitored by a member of the CAPS Leadership Team, who is available for clinical and administrative consultation.  To be effective in the role of same-day access clinician, like staff, interns are encouraged to consult as needed.

Group Therapy

Interns co-facilitate at least one therapy group with a permanent staff member. CAPS typically offers interpersonal process  groups and a table-top roleplaying therapy group, each running for 90 minutes and meeting once per week.  The 30 minutes after the group are reserved for individual supervision with the licensed staff who cofacilitated regarding that day’s group.  Interns assist in clinical documentation, pre-group meetings, and as appropriate curriculum development.

Community-Based Intervention

In the spirit of community-based prevention and strengths-based positive psychology, outreach and educational programming are group-based interventions aimed at fostering the mental wellness of °µÍøTV community, including students, staff, and faculty.

Community-based intervention programming varies by topic and format, and might include presentations on cultural, developmental, and mental health issues for students (e.g. acculturative stress, relationship and communication skills, body image and eating disorders, depression, test anxiety, sleep, mindfulness), paraprofessional skill training sessions for staff and faculty. Community-based intervention also includes support following campus critical incidents, informational sessions about CAPS services, social media programming/campaigns, and campus liaison collaborations.

Afterhours Coverage