Graduate & Postgraduate Training

The DU Health & Counseling Center offers doctoral and postdoctoral training in the art and science of psychology in order to produce professional mental health providers who effectively enhance the lives of individuals, groups, and communities. Opportunities include APA Accredited Doctoral Internships through the Graduate School of Professional Psychology's Consortium (four positions), Advanced Doctoral-Level Practica, and Postdoctoral Residencies (2 positions). Choose a program from the list below for details.

  • APA Accredited Doctoral Internship in Psychology

    The DU Health & Counseling Center (HCC) is a part of the University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology's (GSPP) Internship Consortium which is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). While students from GSPP are given preference, we accept applications from national candidates as part of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) matching process.

    The HCC offers unique training experiences. Core activities include individual, couples, and group counseling; crisis intervention/emergency services; prevention/consultation/outreach/organizational development; assessment/psychological testing; training/supervision; applied research/quality assurance; anti-oppression work; and psychological evaluation/treatment.

    Additionally, the Health & Counseling Center is an integrated health facility that allows interns to participate in regularly scheduled integrated care meetings with staff medical providers to discuss and coordinate the overall care and well-being of our clients. The professional counseling staff represents various disciplines and includes licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors, and licensed addiction counselors, which helps to broaden and foster holistic perspectives towards the provision of services.

    The goal of the HCC is to provide interns with strong generalist training, with a range of experiences that contribute to the development of a repertoire of well-integrated skills applicable to a variety of professional contexts. All interns have requirements in psychotherapy, psychological assessment, crisis intervention, outreach/prevention/consultation, and supervision. In addition, interns, with guidance from their supervisor, may select one minor emphasis area to focus on during the internship year. Example emphasis areas include but are not limited to substance use treatment, eating disorders, behavioral health, couples therapy, psychological assessment, outreach and consultation, suicide prevention, and equity and inclusion work.

     

    Supervision

    Interns receive 2 hours of individual supervision weekly by a licensed staff psychologist, 1.5 hours of group supervision weekly for assessment cases, 1 hour of weekly group supervision of supervision, and 1 hour of weekly supervision of group therapy. Additionally, they receive weekly supervision from their group therapy senior staff and/or postdoctoral resident co-leader (supervised by the group counseling coordinator).

    Our staff is committed to, and highly values, training future psychologists. Although we have a variety of clinical theoretical perspectives, an overarching value of our training is rooted in interpersonal process and development of each intern. We respect the limits that supervisees set with regard to exploration of how interpersonal processes may impact therapy, but we highly value when interns choose to explore and reflect on what interpersonal factors and history may be impacting their work with clients and clinical issues.

     

    Application

    Application for internship at our site is handled through the APPIC National Match. Please follow this link for the application process and instructions.

    Internship Specifics (i.e., Clinical load, seminars, and duties) can be accessed at the University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology's Internship Consortium.

    Please contact Anne Edwards Psy.D, our Associate Director/Training Director, at anne.edwards@du.edu  if you have additional questions about our training program.

     

  • Advanced Doctoral-Level Practicum

    The University of Denver Health & Counseling Center (HCC) is a fully integrated interdisciplinary facility with medical, mental health, health promotion, collegiate recovery, and gender violence education and support services working collaboratively within the same clinic. Approximately 13% to 18% of the 12,000 students at DU present to the HCC each year for counseling with problems ranging from transitional developmental stressors to severe psychopathology. The student population is composed of 5,500 undergraduates, 6,500 graduate students (including law students), and includes about 22% students with minoritized identities and international students. Counseling Services provides brief and longer-term individual counseling, couples counseling, group counseling, behavioral health consultation, daytime and after-hours crisis counseling, psychological assessment, and campus-wide outreach on various topics. The HCC is strongly committed to values of equity, social justice, anti-racism, and anti-oppression. Practicum students will attend a bi-weekly power, privilege, and oppression seminar to examine, reflect, and learn about structures of oppression and how they show up in the therapy room, as well as be challenged to push themselves to provide an equitable, anti-oppressive therapy experience to our students.

    We are currently offering advanced practicum opportunities in Assessment and in Sports Psychology.

     

    Training Program

    The HCC offers a wide variety of training experiences for Graduate Student Trainees (GSTs), including individual, couples, group, and crisis counseling. Additionally, all trainees at the HCC have the opportunity to provide campus-wide outreach. The GSTs receive supervision from a doctoral-level intern who is then supervised by a licensed psychologist. All trainees attend weekly rotating seminars on a variety of clinical topics, power, privilege and oppression, and psychopharmacology. The HCC also holds biweekly interdisciplinary team meetings, allowing counseling, psychiatry, and medical staff to collaborate on treatment planning with shared clients/patients. GSTs are invited to attend.

     

    Duties

    All GSTs work up to 20 hours per week throughout the academic year, including the majority of the DU winter break, as our counseling center serves many individuals who are on campus year-round. (The University, including the HCC, is closed the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. GSTs are encouraged to take the additional week prior to this off.) GSTs are also encouraged to take DU's spring break off. Clinical duties include providing brief and long-term individual and couples counseling. Additional duties include group counseling, campus-wide outreach, consultation, crisis intervention, participation in supervision, training seminars and staff meetings, and timely completion of all paperwork. The position requires a minimum of 8 clinical hours per week and a total of 20 hours per week. This results in a minimum of 500 total practicum hours for the training year.

     

    Requirements

    • Minimum one year of supervised clinical experience providing individual outpatient therapy to adults.
    • If you are selected, you will be required to be available for orientation which typically starts the third or fourth week of August and runs through the Friday before classes start (Monday–Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) as we will be coordinating orientation with other HCC staff trainings those weeks. Expected attendance for this practicum begins immediately following orientation week/first week of classes.
    • Previous experience with outreach/consultation, group counseling, and equity & anti-oppression work is preferred.

     

    Compensation

    While the Health & Counseling Center highly values the services the GSTs provide each year, we are currently unable to offer any additional monetary compensation for the training experience at the HCC.

    For more information, contact Dr. Anne Edwards, Associate Director/Training Director at anne.edwards@du.edu 

     

     

  • Sport & Performance Psychology Practicum

    Sport Psychology Training Program:

    The HCC offers two, unpaid, advanced practicum positions to gain experience providing clinical/sport psychological services for NCAA Division I student-athletes at DU. Of the two positions, one is considered a primary practicum position and the other is considered a secondary/supplemental position.

    The primary practicum position is approximately 20 hours or 2.5 work days per week, while the secondary/supplemental practicum position is approximately 10-12 hours or 1.5 work days per week.

    The primary practicum position is also involved in the same seminars, didactics, and meetings that the other GSTs are involved in, while the secondary/supplemental position is devoted solely to clinical work and is generally considered “separate” from the primary GST group.

    Description of Clients Served:

    Student-athletes are the primary focus for services in both positions. However, the primary practicum position is designed to mimic the role of a sport psychologist housed in a counseling center; as such, the primary practicum GST may/will have general undergraduate and graduate students on their caseload as availability allows. The secondary position will only see student-athletes.

    Approximately 8% to 10% of the 12,000 students at DU present to the HCC each year for counseling with problems ranging from transitional developmental stressors to severe psychopathology. A likely higher percentage of student-athletes utilize psychological services each year due to the de-stigmatization efforts within the Athletic Department and the connectedness with sports medicine providers (e.g., athletic trainers, team physician). The student population is composed of 5,500 undergraduates, 6,500 graduate students (including Law students), and includes about 22% ethnic minority and international students. The student-athlete population is nearly all undergraduates, though there are a significant portion of graduate level student-athletes.

    Services Provided:

    The training opportunities afforded by the practica positions will be contingent upon demand for services, though will likely include clinical assessment and intervention (individual and group therapy for student-athletes), cognitive/achievement testing (e.g., ADHD, LD), and performance psychology consultation to individuals, teams, as well as Pioneer Health & Performance staff within Athletics. Consultation may include applied performance psychology, injury prevention/recovery, and organizational and team psychology. The trainee may also be involved in program development and evaluation.

    For more information, or for information on how to apply, please contact Dr. Tommy Fritze, Sport & Performance Psychologist/Staff Psychologist at Thomas.fritze@du.edu

  • Postdoctoral Residency

    The postdoctoral residency is a year-long position that begins in August of each academic year. This position works within an integrated care model including:

    • Primary care services
    • Counseling services
    • Center for Advocacy, Prevention, and Empowerment (CAPE)
    • Health Promotion in the Health & Counseling Center
    • Collegiate Recovery Program (CRP)

    The postdoctoral resident provides direct counseling/psychotherapy, crisis intervention, and outreach/prevention services to DU students.

    We are currently offering two postdoctoral positions:

    • Generalist
    • BIPOC-focused

    These are full-time, 40-hour-per-week positions with medical insurance. The postdoctoral residents report to the Training Director and are supervised by a licensed clinical psychologist. The residents are responsible for participating in occasional after-hours outreach and crisis support services. Postdoctoral residents also serve in the backup to crisis services rotation with senior staff.

     

    Application

    To submit your application, please check the University of Denver job website or email anne.edwards@du.edu for more information.