Doctoral Practicum Training

The Lafayette College Counseling Center strives to create an affirming, accessible, and welcoming environment that embraces and celebrates the diversity of our Lafayette community. We provide high quality counseling and educational programs designed to help students learn how to identify and meet their intellectual, interpersonal, and developmental goals and to promote a healthy, equitable, and positive campus community. The Center also provides crisis intervention and consultation to faculty, staff, and parents to assist them in their efforts to promote student learning and well-being.

• Individual Therapy: The Counseling Center provides individual counseling to current Lafayette students enrolled in a degree program. Each semester, practicum trainees schedule between six and eight individual clients per week, depending on their readiness. A short-term counseling approach is utilized at the Counseling Center. In general, our scope of practice includes most developmental concerns faced by college students including managing stressors associated with academic performance, relationship issues, identity concerns, sexuality, substance use, negotiating family roles, trauma, discrimination, grief and loss, and career exploration.
• Consultation Clinic: Practicum trainees will be assigned to “consultation clinic duty” one-two hours weekly, between 10:00-11:30 am and 1:00-3:30 pm. Students who have a time-sensitive or urgent concern that can be addressed by a brief consultation with a counselor can “drop-in” without an appointment to meet with a counselor. These sessions are intended to be 30 minute, solution-focused interactions and not a standard counseling appointment.
• Outreach: The advanced practicum position provides the opportunity to cultivate a specialization in outreach. Trainees will be responsible for designing, implementing and assessing one outreach program each semester to promote student learning and well-being. They can select an outreach based upon their interests and the needs of the campus community. Trainees are always welcome to co-facilitate additional outreach programs, schedules permitting. Outreach supervision will be provided by the Counseling Center’s Outreach Coordinator.
• Group Counseling/Workshops: Each semester, various groups are offered by staff on topics that are perceived to fulfill important needs for students. Practicum trainees may be able to co-facilitate a structured or process group dependent upon trainee interest, available group openings, and schedules. The professional staff member who is co-leading the group will provide training and supervision for the experience. Occasionally, trainees are able to independently facilitate workshops or psychoeducation groups after being approved by their supervisor.

• Individual Supervision: Each practicum trainee is supervised one hour per week by a staff psychologist during the fall and spring semesters.  Trainees will have the opportunity to switch supervisors during the mid-point of the training year. This will be determined based on training needs as well as staff availability. 
• Group Supervision: Practicum trainees will receive bi-weekly, one-hour of group supervision with a staff counselor.
• Case Consultation and Professional Development: Schedule permitting, practicum trainees are invited to attend our weekly case consultation and bi-weekly professional development meetings. Trainees are required to present at least one case conceptualization each semester during case consultation meetings. The case conceptualization may include, but is not limited to, clinical decision-making processes, ethical concerns, differential diagnoses, treatment planning, and multicultural issues.

• Applicants must be enrolled in a doctoral program in counseling or clinical psychology and have had at least one year of practicum experience or previous work experience in a counseling-related field. 
• Applicants will have completed coursework in counseling, multicultural theories, and ethics.

• We will be accepting applications on a rolling basis starting in November.
• Interested applicants should submit a (1) cover letter, (2) CV, (3) name and contact information of three references, including two clinical references. 
• Upon review, interviews will be arranged with applicants under consideration. 

Please email applications to Ms. Jamie Kardelis at kardelij@lafayette.edu

For additional questions regarding the practicum position, please contact: 

Asmita Pendse, PhD
Training Coordinator
Email: pendsea@lafayette.edu
Phone: 610-330-5005