The varied supervision experiences within Behavioral Health are among the strongest aspects of the program. Past interns and the recent APA site visitors comment on the high quality of supervision provided as well as the "open door policy" leading to easy access of supervisors. Interns receive supervised experience through exposure to a variety of clinical activities. The primary training model is experiential as interns are expected to provide direct service to children and families. Interns have an independent caseload, but also sometimes accompany staff members during assessment, intervention, and consultation cases, thus having the opportunity for direct observation/modeling. While much supervision is provided informally during the week by “dropping by” to discuss cases, weekly formal one-to-one supervision is provided for both therapy and evaluation experiences. In addition to "in-room supervision," training also is augmented through behind the mirror observation of colleagues, group supervision via videotapes, didactic exposure via seminars, continuous mentoring, and consultative guidance.
Training rotations and supervision are designed in order to permit exposure to the entire range of clinical, consultation, and research activities represented by the clinical staff. Supervision is developmentally based in that it is geared to the clinical and personal developmental levels of each individual intern. As the year progresses and the intern becomes more independent, interns and supervisors discuss fading in-room supervision to a more consultative relationship. A minimum of four hours, including three hours of one-on-one supervision, is regularly scheduled each week. However, interns typically receive far more individual supervision in that faculty have an "open door" policy, meaning that they are available on an as-needed basis. Additional one-on-one supervision is provided to prepare for inpatient consultations, for specialty rotations, when additional review of complicated assessment cases is needed, and for crisis intervention. Specifically, supervisors are frequently in the room for at least 50% of the time during evaluation procedures. Interns receive four hours/week of behind the mirror supervision for the Behavioral Consultation Clinic. In addition, interns participate in weekly assessment (one-hour) and therapy (one-hour) group supervision seminars. Videotaped supervision is provided both individually and in the Family Therapy Seminar. Thus, supervision is intense and comprehensive, far surpassing the requirement of four hours per week.
One last note, because we are in a Division of Behavioral Health, we also have three psychiatrists who also give generously of their time to share perspectives on case management. It has been our experience that our Interns learn a considerable amount about psycho-pharmacology during their training year.