Students must have professional liability insurance coverage prior to beginning their Internship experience. While specific course requirements for Internship may vary according to the instructor (see sample syllabus in Appendix IV), students are expected to complete at least 300 clock hours, per semester, of professional on-site work experience, including:
- At least 120 clock hours of direct service to clients. This may include individual counseling, group counseling, classroom guidance activities, workshop presentations, family counseling and other direct service activities. Observations of counseling sessions, assisting school age students with disabilities in testing (such as reading a test to a student), and role playing with volunteers or actors does not count as direct counseling service. See Appendix II for the breakdown of direct and indirect hours.
- Assessment of personal and professional strengths/limitations, and plan for continued professional development.
- An evaluation of the Internship experience.
Supervision – The minimum required supervision a student will receive in the internship semesters includes: 1½ hours of group supervision on campus each week and 4 hours of individual supervision with their Internship instructor throughout the semester. They will also receive 1 hour of continuous individual onsite supervision (minimum) each week at their field site. Some field sites require further supervision. The student will receive a Professional Counseling Performance Evaluation from their Faculty and Site supervisor. See Appendix V for the evaluation.
Time Log – Students are expected to log all of the hours they work during internship including direct and indirect services for the internship site. See Appendix IV. If students are unable to complete their Internship hours requirement they will receive an In Progress for the course and the Graduate Counseling Committee will meet to discuss a remediation plan.
Evaluations – Students will be evaluated in writing by their onsite supervisor at the mid-term and end of the semester. The student must provide the supervisor with the Loyola University Department of Counseling Faculty/Site Supervisor Evaluation of the Student. The student is required to provide the on-site supervisor with the evaluation as well as turning in the completed evaluation to their Internship Instructor. Students are also required to turn in their own personal evaluation of their site and site supervisor.
Informed Consent – Students are required to collect their client or parent’s/guardian’s of clients signed permission to receive counseling from a student in training. Students need to provide their clients with the program’s informed consent document and verbal explain that they are a student in training and make sure clients understand what they are signing. See informed consent document in Appendix VI.
Counseling - Students will counsel with clients as assigned, approximately one hour per week per client. Students will spend approximately 10-12 hours per week in direct contact with clients in counseling. Clients may be children, adolescents or adults, and may present personal or career concerns.
Consultation/ Observation - Students will conduct at least one observation per week of another student working with a client. Constructive feedback will be given to the student observed. If your site does not allow you to do live observation you may listen to another student’s audio tape.
Case Presentation – Students will be required to submit a case presentation of one of their clients to their on campus supervision group 2 times during the semester. The case presentation will be reviewed with an audio or video tape of the internship counselor in session with the client. A transcript of the session may also be required. Students may not use intake sessions for their case presentations. The case presentation guidelines will be outlined in the internship instructor’s syllabus.
Case coordination - Students will be required to maintain client records in accordance with center and internship policies. Although the internship is a three credit hour course, students should be aware that this is a laboratory course and that they will actually spend 20 hours or more per week completing the requirements of the course.
Between Semester Policy - According to the LPC Board students must be registered in a course and receiving supervision in order to see clients between semester breaks. The Department of Counseling Faculty has decided to continue to allow students to continue counseling their clients during semester breaks in order to avoid client abandonment and offer the best continuity of care possible.
Students will be given an In Progress (IP) grade for the semester prior to the break in order to maintain registration. In addition, students will be required to attend group supervision for one and a half hours each week on campus. This group supervision may be facilitated by a different University Supervisor. All students are required to be prepared for supervision, i.e., bring tapes to these supervision meetings. Formal case consultation will not be required, however, students are required to participate in informal case consultations, and you may be randomly chosen to present if no other student has volunteered.