ABSTRACT
The Council for Standards for Human Service Education (CSHSE), using the terms fieldwork and internship synonymously, defined the internship experience in the following way: The advanced or culminating agency-based experience that occurs toward the end of students’ college or university experience. This usually requires the supervision from agency personnel and the college or university fac ulty, including regularly scheduled meetings with a faculty member. The experi ence provides a bridge between the academic experience and later professional employment (CSHSE, 1995, p. 12). The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) defined the internship experience in the following way:
Professional practice, which includes practicum and internship, provides for the application of theory and the development of counseling skills under supervision. The experience will provide the opportunity oppor tunities to counsel clients who represent the ethnic and demographic diversity of their community. (CACREP, 2007, p. 14)
The internship is intended to reflect the comprehensive work experiences of a professional counselor appropriate to the designated program area (e.g., mental health, school, college, community, career, gerontological) (CACREP, 2007, p. 15). The students receive both on-site and on-campus supervision. The American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) accreditation guidelines for doctoral-level internship in professional psychology (implemented in January 2008) identify the following criteria: The internship is an organized, structured, and programmed sequence of supervised training experiences of greater depth and intensity than practicum training. Supervision is regularly scheduled at a minimum of 4 hours per week, at least 2 of which are in individual supervision. The program requires
that interns demonstrate intermediate to advanced skill, competency, and knowl edge in “theories and methods of assessment/diagnosis and effective intervention including empirically supported treatments: theories and/or methods of consulta tion, evaluation and supervision; strategies of scholarly inquiry; issues of cultural and individual diversity to all of the above” (APA, 2007, p. 2).
