Counseling INterns: Improving access
Connections Family Counseling, LLC believes that counseling has the power to transform individual lives, families, our community, and the world. This belief drives a passion to increase access to high quality counseling services. The best way to increase access is to increase the number of counselors working in our community. Therefore, Connections Family Counseling, LLC has partnered with Online and Local Universities to provide Internships for Counselors-in-Training.
Counseling Interns: Required Training
A counseling internship requires a minimum of 600 hours of experience working directly and indirectly with clients. Most internships must be completed over a minimum of 10 months and often take up to 1.5 years. During an internship a counselor-in-Training is required to meet with their supervisor every week. They also meet weekly with a faculty member from their university. All of this supervision is designed to help the student learn and to ensure the highest quality of care for clients. After completing their internship the student will graduate with their Master’s degree in counseling.
Counseling Interns: The road to Licensure
After graduating with their Master’s Degree the road to clinical licensure has just begun. All Counselors must continue to receive weekly supervision for an additional 3,360 hours of experience. In addition to hours of experience counselors must also pass two national examinations before licensure. The counselor must pass the National Counselor Examination (NCE) and the National Clinical Mental Health Counselor Examination (NCMHCE). Counselors are regulated by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and are required to obtain continuing education through out their career.
Counseling INterns: Connections Family Counseling, LLC
All counseling interns and pre-licensed counselors at Connections Family Counseling, LLC are supervised by practice owner Mark Vander Ley, Ph.D., LCPC. Mark obtained his Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision in 2018. He has been providing supervision and training to counselors since 2014. In addition to owning Connections Family Counseling, LLC, Mark is a full-time faculty member at Colorado Christian University.
The internship program at Connections Family Counseling, LLC includes individual and group supervision. Interns are challenged to develop their own style of counseling while gaining exposure to several evidence based counseling approaches. Interns learn about Emotion Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress (SPARCS) and Play Therapy. Beyond the weekly supervision all counseling interns are able to collaborate and learn from the fully licensed therapists/counselors working in the practice. These highly trained and experienced counselors have between 10 and 35 years of experience in the counseling profession.