Professional Training Programs
Hello there! On behalf of all my colleagues at the Counseling Center and the broader university community, I would like to extend a very warm welcome! I am so pleased that you have stopped by to check out our training program at the University of North Florida’s Counseling Center (UNFCC). The training program is an essential part of UNFCC’s vision (i.e., to and purpose), and our staff is deeply committed to the clinical competency, professional and personal growth, and overall wellbeing of our trainees.
Professional Training Programs:
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Doctoral Internship in Psychology
The doctoral internship program in health service psychology is designed to facilitate the transition from graduate student to independently practicing psychologist. Interns are met with a balance of support and challenge as they refine their unique professional identity and philosophy of care and expand their knowledge base and skill set. This is accomplished through a variety of clinical experiences, didactic seminars, and supervision.
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Clinical Mental Health Counseling Practicum and Internship
The Clinical Mental Health Counseling practicum and internship program provides CMHC students with a generalist training experience, in which they are exposed to a broad range of clinical opportunities. These hands-on experiences are coupled with high-quality supervision and didactic seminars in order to build a solid foundation of clinical knowledge and skills.
More about the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Internship program >
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Master of Social Work Internship
The Master of Social Work internship program offers MSW students a comprehensive and supervised clinical experience in collegiate mental health. Under the guidance and support of our supervision team, interns provide individual and group counseling, case management, crisis intervention, and outreach services to the UNF community.
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Nurse Practitioner Preceptorship
The nurse practitioner preceptorship program provides nurse practitioner students at any stage of their program with a unique and challenging clinical opportunity in the collegiate mental health setting. Interns work closely with a professional nurse practitioner to provide the UNF student body with in-depth and quality care, with plenty of time set aside for supervision and mentorship.
With that said, I would like to take this opportunity to explain my role as the Director of Training at UNFCC, and then to explore UNFCC’s core values as they pertain to professional training.
Who am I, and what is my role?
I am a licensed clinical psychologist, and I deeply believe in meeting ourselves and our world with a culture of compassion, authenticity, and curiosity. The work that I do matters to me, and I am not being hyperbolic when I say that being a clinician is such an honor to me. I believe in doing my work well, out of respect for my own values as well as the folks who give me the opportunity to do this meaningful work (i.e., my clients and now, my trainees).
I pursued the role of psychologist to be of service, and I see the Director of Training role as further evolution of that aim. Whether playing the role of educator, consultant, advocate, or so on, my job is to help you learn the practices needed to do our work well. That means accompanying and standing witness as you figure out what sort of therapist you would like to be and as you navigate this uniquely meaningful and personal development process. That also means helping you to create relationships, outside of ours, that can further facilitate that process. At every turn, my role involves working with you and the rest of our community to foster a training culture that is kind, open, and rigorous.
 Katie White, PsyD
Director of Training UNF Counseling Center University of North Florida |
Core Values
The work done at UNFCC is built upon its core values: integrity, respect, accountability, innovation, transparency, empathy, and flexibility. These principles guide our actions across the board, including the context of our training program. For more information on how we integrate these values into our training, expand each section below.
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Integrity
We believe in doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason. Within the context of training, that means “showing up” for you in whatever way you might need, whenever you might need it, both for you as a clinician in training and, more simply, for you as an individual person. We aim to support you as you learn to rise to the occasion for your clients, each of whom also deserves to be met with a clinician who “shows up” for them. -
Respect
The Center seeks to treat everyone with kindness, to stay informed by the perspectives of others, and to draw strength from individual differences. We value you as individuals and as clinicians and want to help you identify and utilize all the unique gifts and wisdom that you have to offer clients. We also deeply respect the therapeutic process, our clients, and the work that they allow us to do. We hope to model, and instill within you, an unwavering commitment to rigor, self-awareness, and humility in your clinical practice, out of respect for the opportunity provided by our clients to do this meaningful work.
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Accountability
We are here to be of service to our clients, to our trainees, and to the greater good. We take that responsibility seriously and want to do our part in developing clinicians who take that responsibility seriously, as well. Accountability looks like fostering training experiences that are rigorous, engaging in reflective practice, acknowledging where we can improve, and doing what we can to continuously grow in our individual and collective practices. We also expect trainees to take responsibility for their own development by learning the lessons the moment has to offer them.
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Innovation
The fields of psychology and behavioral health are relatively new, all things considered. Mental health work is constantly evolving and changing, and that state of flux mirrors the ever changing human experience. We aim to utilize evidence-based practices with a spirit of creativity and inventiveness, holding a willingness to reexamine the status quo when needed, in service of our clients and of you as a member of the next generation of mental health professionals.
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Transparency
We strive to openly share information within our Center, to the extent that everyone’s role allows. This means providing clear, accurate, and relevant information to you as a trainee about clinical practice and your own unique development, individually. We strive to foster relationships with you and, in turn, to help you foster relationships with your clients, that are forthcoming, collaborative, and empowering.
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Empathy
The capacity to understand the experiences and feelings of another is at the heart of mental health work. You likely already have a natural inclination for empathy – in fact, that is probably what drove you to pursue a career as a mental health professional. We commit to helping you hone that natural adeptness by pushing the boundaries of the experiences for which you hold compassion and helping you to utilize that compassion to facilitate growth in your clients. The process of becoming a clinician can also be a uniquely vulnerable and personal journey, and we strive to hold space for you throughout.
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Flexibility
We are here to be of service. That means holding the structure of the training program loosely enough for it to be molded by your unique interests, needs, and growth edges. Just as the training program needs to be flexible, so too does our system for our community. We aim to create clinicians who can dance that dance, in service of the collective good.
Final Thoughts
Thank you for taking the time to learn about our training program. Should your path lead you to train with us, I look forward to supporting you in whatever way you might need, during and beyond your tenure at UNFCC. Regardless of where you may land, however, I wish you a career that is as fulfilling to you as mine has been to me. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me at kathryn.white@unf.edu for further inquiries or dialogue!
Training Photo Album
