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Does the program or institution require students, trainees, and/or staff (faculty) to comply with specific policies or practices related to the institution’s affiliation or purpose? Such policies or practices may include, but are not limited to, admissions, hiring, retention policies, and/or requirements for completion that express the mission and values.
__YES
x NO
Briefly describe in narrative form important information to assist potential applicants in assessing their likely fit with your program. This description must be consistent with the program’s policies on intern selection and practicum and academic preparation requirements:
Indiana University’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) offers a 12-month, APA-accredited Doctoral Internship in Professional Psychology. Our internship employs a developmental model to provide interns the experiences and education to become proficient at offering professional-level psychological services to a wide range of clients. Our primary focus is to develop professional psychologists who offer high-level individual therapy and group counseling services. Additionally, we expect our doctoral interns to demonstrate proficiency in providing supervision of professionals-in-training, outreach services, emergent clinical interventions, and consultation. As such, our selection committee is committed to interviewing intern applicants who demonstrate an interest in these core areas. IU CAPS training staff expect our interns to continue developing professional skills and knowledge applicable to a diverse population. We encourage interns to be curious about themselves as agents of change with any therapeutic context and therefore expect interns to explore their own processes as they relate to all clinical interventions. IU CAPS can be a high-paced working environment. Colleagues are always available for consultation and support, but we also expect interns to be responsive and responsible for themselves and their work. We have demonstrated a history of providing supervision, support, and mentoring for interns to thrive in a university counseling center environment. Our internship prepares interns for success in all types of entry-level positions in health service psychology.
Does the program require that applicants have received a minimum number of hours of the following at time of application?
Yes.
If Yes, indicate how many:
Describe any other required minimum criteria used to screen applicants:
We utilize a complex amalgam of number of adult clinical hours, including number of intakes, individual intervention hours, group therapy hours, and substance use intervention hours. University Counseling Center hours are privileged over other settings (and we have matched with many superb interns who have had no UCC hours).
Please note: Programs are not required by the Commission on Accreditation to provide all benefits listed here.
Here we provide an aggregated tally for the preceding three cohorts (2020–23).
| Placement | PD | EP |
|---|---|---|
| Academic teaching | ||
| Community mental health center | ||
| Consortium | ||
| University Counseling Center | 3 | 1 |
| Hospital/Medical Center | 2 | |
| Veterans Affairs Health Care System | ||
| Psychiatric facility | ||
| Correctional facility | ||
| Health maintenance organization | ||
| School district/system | ||
| Independent Practice setting | 2 | |
| Other |
Note: PD = Post-doctoral residency position; EP = Employed position. Each individual represented in this table should be counted only one time. For former trainees working in more than one setting, select the setting that represents their primary position.
The doctoral internship in professional psychology at Indiana University’s Counseling and Psychological Services is designed for qualified doctoral students whose professional goals include:
The internship prepares students for work in university counseling centers and other outpatient settings.
The internship is a one-year (Beginning of August to end of July) training program that combines practical clinical experience with mentorship from experienced practitioners and rigorous didactic training. Participants progress from a highly structured and supportive experience into practicing with increased autonomy. The doctoral internship in professional psychology is an independent training program from other (Ph.D. in Psychology practicum, Master of Social Work practicum and Master of Counseling internship) training programs offered at CAPS.
The Doctoral Internship in Professional Psychology has been accredited since 1996 by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the APA Commission on Accreditation at:
Office of Program Consultation and AccreditationThe internship follows the recruiting practices outlined by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). In order to be considered for an internship, candidates must fulfill the following qualifications:
Note: Due to dual role conflicts, anyone who has accessed IU Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) services, beyond an initial consultation/case management appointment, is not eligible for an internship at IU CAPS.
Indiana University and Indiana University Student Health Center CAPS are committed to being open and accessible to clients, staff, and trainees from all diverse identities. CAPS and the internship fully abide by Indiana University’s Non-Discrimination/Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action policy
Learn how to applyThe internship is designed and administered by the CAPS training committee. Its members include:
This training committee meets regularly to discuss program parameters, trainees’ progress, and address problems as they arise.
The doctoral internship in professional psychology includes these components:
Each week, interns will conduct three or four initial intake appointments lasting approximately 50 minutes. Interns typically continue to meet with these clients but may also refer them for other services. Interns may initially start out with 5 intakes a week in order to rapidly build their caseload, but it is not expected that they will continue at this pace.
Interns will spend approximately 16 hours a week meeting with individual clients. At the start of the internship, all sessions will be recorded via webcam and stored on a secure Student Health Center server for review by the intern’s primary supervisor and concentration supervisor, though this requirement may be relaxed as interns progress through the program. Interns will spend 3-4 hours a week providing daytime emergency service for patients in crisis. They will assess students, work with them to manage their crisis, consult via phone or in person with family, friends, or other concerned parties, and collaborate with their supervisors and CAPS psychiatric staff to facilitate hospitalization when needed. Interns are encouraged to consult with members of the training committee as needed, and independently licensed senior staff members will be available for backup.
Interns will spend 1.5-3 hours a week co-facilitating counseling groups with senior staff. Group counseling sessions typically last 1.5 hours a week and meet for 10+ weeks over the course of the academic year. Interns usually start co-facilitating an interpersonal process group with senior staff during the fall semester. In the spring semester, they continue that group and then add another group which can be a support group, psychoeducational group, or another interpersonal process group. In the later stages of the internship, interns may consider co-facilitating a group with another intern.
Group counseling is supervised as follows:
CAPS interns will spend 1.5 hours a week supervising predoctoral psychology practicum clinicians. Each supervisory session is recorded via webcam. All practicum clinician notes are signed off by the intern supervisor and the practicum coordinator. CAPS interns will spend 1.5 hours a week in supervision seminar with the practicum coordinator. Practicum clinicians also receive 1.5 hours of group supervision with the practicum coordinator.
Interns initially “shadow” senior staff in outreach projects of presentations to students and campus groups. As they gain experience, interns will eventually develop outreach projects in line with their own interests and in collaboration with the outreach coordinator, who manages incoming requests for presentations from the campus community. Each intern must individually facilitate at least three outreach presentations per semester and one tabling event.
Aims of the program include:
Competencies:
For more information on evaluation in these competency areas please see training goals for internship.
Interns are supervised by a licensed psychologist for all individual counseling work. They meet for two hours each week with their supervisor to review clinical interviews, webcam recordings of therapy sessions, written reports, and other work related to clinical contact. Interns are expected to notify their supervisor of any emergent issues with their clients, including possible threats to self or others, hospitalizations, or psychosis. Supervisor relationships last for around six months. Interns can submit a list of their supervisor preferences from the psychologists available:
*Available to provide supervision if doctors Zalasin, Arthur, and Wells are not available.CAPS offers 10 separate year-long concentrations:
After a thorough orientation to all ten concentrations, interns will submit a ranked list of their top three options. The training committee will then appoint each intern to one of the concentrations. Because our agency works with many students with a diverse range of presenting concerns, interns will have opportunities to work with clients whose concerns lie outside the scope of assigned concentrations.
Concentrations are supervised conjointly by licensed staff who specialize in the concentration area and by the intern’s primary individual licensed psychologist supervisor.
At all times, we work diligently to provide culturally sensitive and relevant services for students, embracing their gender identity, race/ethnicity, sexuality, religion/spiritual beliefs, and all other representations of diversity. In addition, we are committed and willing to make a public stand for actively supporting human rights and influencing a positive campus environment, even when others may not popularly receive these in the community. This reflects qualities such as compassion, acceptance, and respectfulness that demonstrates values of social justice.
The annualized salary for psychology interns for 2025-26 is $33,425.60. Thus far, the interns' salaries have increased annually. Each intern position is formally titled “Doctoral Intern in Professional Psychology.” Intern positions are full-time (40 hours per week) for 52 weeks. The positions carry with them the benefits listed here and in the APA accreditation Implementing Regulation c-27i.
Interns participate in multidisciplinary team and staff meetings as professional members of our interdisciplinary staff.
Time for individual research needs to be discussed with and approved by interns’ supervisors and the Associate Director of Training. Interns may be granted time during periods of low clinical demand, specifically between fall and spring semesters and after spring semester, to pursue the completion of their dissertation or to participate in outside research projects.
Limited funding is available to help defray travel and registration expenses for conferences, workshops, or seminars. Educational leave requests are subject to the approval of the Associate Director of Training.
Interns may elect to participate in the university-subsidized health and dental plans and are covered by the university’s group life insurance plan. See Benefits at Indiana University for up-to-date plan information.
The program includes 4.31 hours of vacation and 3.70 hours of sick time which are accrued each biweekly pay period, plus university holidays. Time off is subject to the approval of the Associate Director of Training. Use of paid time off during periods of peak training or clinical activity is discouraged. Interns should be aware that states vary in their requirements for the number of internship hours, and utilize paid time off accordingly.
Several features of Counseling and Psychological Services make it a training site that prepares interns to seek careers in a number of settings. These features include:
While the primary focus is on college mental health, interns have exposure to a number of opportunities that could facilitate their moving in other career directions.
Past interns have found post-doc or permanent positions in the following:
We are looking for applicants whose professional interests align with the needs of our clientele, including group psychotherapy, consultation, outreach, and working in a multidisciplinary setting.
Minimum requirements for internship application include:
Approximately 30 applicants will be invited to participate in virtual interviews and to attend an optional CAPS open house (virtually or in person) to meet our entire clinical and training staff, including clinical supervisors and the Associate Director of Training.
You must register with National Matching Services, Inc., to apply for a CAPS internship. There, you can apply to our internship online at the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) portal.
Your application must include:
The IU CAPS Doctoral Internship in Professional Psychology APPIC program code is 128911.
Applications for the 2025–26 academic year must be submitted by midnight on November 1, 2024.
APPIC does NOT require its member programs to complete evaluation forms/materials requested by the academic program in addition to those created by the internship program itself.
From the APPIC Application for Psychology Internships
As an APA-accredited internship, we have demonstrated that our learning objectives and the manner in which we assess them are acceptable by the American Psychological Association’s Commission on Accreditation. Additional details about the eleven primary goals of our internship, and the manner in which our evaluations are done, are available HERE. Requests to complete additional/supplemental evaluations from students’ home departments are redundant and not an appropriate use of our training staff time. Therefore, we will respectfully decline to respond to such requests.
