• Emmons Health Center
• Psychological Services
• Training Opportunities

Training Opportunities

We appreciate your interest in our CAPIC-approved half-time pre-doctoral internship program at Emmons Health Center, Occidental College. Relevant information has been included on this website to help you determine if we are a compatible training site for you and your professional goals. We wish you well during this stressful application time.

Emmons Health Center hopes to attract interns who are interested in the opportunity to play several professional roles within a small, liberal arts campus.  In addition to providing counseling/psychotherapy, interns will have the opportunity to provide outreach, training and consultation to students, staff, and faculty. Given that Emmons emphasizes the integration of psychodynamic theory into practice with young adults, ideal applicants carry an interest in understanding relational approaches to psychotherapy with a young adult population.

Internship Overview

Our training places an emphasis on the development of the self of the therapist, specifically from a psychodynamic/relational approach. We hope that interns develop the following: a greater capacity to be present in the room with clients; deeper self-awareness; and improved theoretical sophistication.  Given the variety of presentations of Occidental College students from relational issues to adjustment disorders to separation/individuation work to anxiety and mood disorders, interns will be trained in the value of case conceptualization and treatment planning.  They will have the opportunity to provide short-term, solution focused work and short-term psychodynamically oriented relational work; group psychotherapy; and support groups.  Interns will also have an opportunity to engage with other departments on campus, such as, student affairs and residential life.

Interns are members of the Counseling Center at Emmons Health Center which includes psychologists, therapists, nurse practitioners, and physicians.  Their responsibility is to provide direct services (psychotherapy) to students of Occidental College and indirect services to the college community (activities connected with the residential/social life of the students.)  It is expected that they will interact and collaborate with all staff at Emmons and have the opportunity to collaborate with medical staff on students having medical conditions with psychological symptoms and mental disorders affecting medical conditions.

Interns will be expected to be at the site 3 and a half days per week and to provide 12-15 hours per week of direct service, and 6 hours per week of indirect service.  They will receive 2 hours per week of individual supervision and one hour of group supervision by licensed psychologists and attend 3 - 4 hours per week of didactic seminars, case conference, and staff meetings.

Applicants complete the standard CAPIC application found HERE.

About Occidental College and Emmons Health Center

Occidental College is a private liberal arts college that attracts students from across the United States, most of whom live on campus.  The population served is primarily in the 18-22 year age range with approximately 57% of students identifying as Caucasian. As a liberal arts college, Occidental College has as its mission excellence, equity, community and service.  It is committed to the development of critical thinking and the growth of both knowledge and understanding of the self. 

Emmons Health Center is a medical and mental health service provider for the students of Occidental College.  Emmons Health Center takes this mission and philosophical underpinning as the foundation of its approach to counseling services.