Training | Counseling Center

Training Philosophy

In accordance with Oregon Administrative Rules (858-010-0012, 833-030-0011), our practicum/internship provides experiential practice of applied therapeutic and systemic intervention in a university counseling setting, supervised by licensed professionals in the field with supplementary support from un/pre-licensed professionals as appropriate.

We subscribe to a practitioner-scholar (i.e., Vail) model, integrating developmental (Stoltenberg & McNeill, 2010) and competency-based (Falender & Shafranske, 2004, 2012, Kaslow, 2004, & Rodolfa et al., 2005) approaches to learning and evaluation. We strive to engage in a collaborative, apprenticeship relationship with trainees, supporting the development of awareness and skills for the general practice of counseling/psychology. Additionally, we provide opportunities for supervised experience in the activities and roles associated specifically with a university/college counseling model, including supporting students in their development, engaging in the living/learning environment, and providing crisis/urgent services within a short-term therapy framework.

Clinical Training Learning Objectives

The aspirational learning objectives of our training experience are informed by our values of embodying ethically sound practice, engaging in self-reflection and awareness of our impact on others, and engaging in our work from a non-pathologizing, anti-oppressive, and systemic perspective.

In addition to utilizing program-specific evaluations, we also will be evaluating trainees based on the aspirational learning objectives stated above and utilizing an evaluation tool adapted from the “Cube” Model (Rodolfa et al., 2005) adopted by the American Psychological Association in 2007 to measure competence in professional psychology (APA 2007), we have integrated the following competencies into our learning objectives for the year:

1. Professional Values and Attitudes: Integrating the behavior and comportment that reflect the values and attitudes of psychology.
2. Individual and Cultural Diversity: Awareness of personal intersectional identity markers and world view; awareness of personal role in power dynamics with clients and colleagues; awareness, sensitivity, and skills in working professionally with diverse individuals, groups, and communities including adapting interventions to fit with individual socio-cultural factors.
3. Ethical Legal Standards and Policy: Application of ethical concepts and awareness of legal issues regarding professional activities with individuals, groups, and organizations and ability to seek appropriate consultation (e.g., knowing what information to gather and when/how to solicit help) to aid in skills acquisition and ethical mindset.
4. Reflective Practice/Self-Assessment/Self-Care: Practice conducted with personal and professional self-awareness and reflection; soliciting feedback from clients and colleagues; awareness of personal competencies and growth areas; appropriate self-care.
5. Relationships: Relate effectively and meaningfully with individuals, groups, and/or communities with effective empathic attunement.
6. Scientific Knowledge and Methods: Understanding of research, research methodology, techniques of data collection and analysis, biological bases of behavior, cognitive-affective bases of behavior, and development across the lifespan. Respect for scientifically derived knowledge.
7. Research/Evaluation: Generating research that contributes to the professional knowledge base and/or evaluates the effectiveness of various professional activities
8. Evidence-Based Practice: Integration of research and clinical expertise in the context of patient factors.
9. Assessment: Assessment and diagnosis of problems, capabilities and issues associated with individuals, groups, and/or organizations.
10. Intervention: Interventions designed to alleviate suffering and to promote health and well-being of individuals, groups, and/or organizations; skills for risk assessment and safety planning; developing skills for assessment, treatment planning and assigning appropriate disposition dependent on relevant client, therapist competencies, and scope of practice factors.
11. Consultation: The ability to provide expert guidance or professional assistance in response to a client’s needs or goals.
12. Supervision: Values the supervisory relationship and understands roles related to being supervised (as appropriate) and providing supervision (as appropriate); Supervision and training in the professional knowledge base of enhancing and monitoring the professional functioning of others.
13. Interdisciplinary Systems: Knowledge of key issues and concepts in related disciplines. Identify and interact with professionals in multiple disciplines.
14. Management-Administration: Management of the direct delivery of services (DDS) and/or the administration of organizations, programs, or agencies (OPA); case management and appropriate referrals for care and social support.
15. Advocacy: Actions targeting the impact of social, political, economic or cultural factors to promote change at the individual (client), institutional, and/or systems level.

These learning objectives will be met through clinical experiences (e.g., provision of individual therapy, outreach activities, case management), individual supervision, professional development seminars, small group supervision and process spaces, all staff case consultation, case presentations, introspection, autonomous dedication to professional identity development, and through the trainee’s own interactions with staff and peers. The SCC has a strong commitment to training new professionals and seek to cocreate this experience with you by honoring the wisdom derived from your embodied, cultural, and ancestral ways of knowing and being.
 

Training Philosophies of Primary Supervisors

Dr. Amanda Guerrero, Staff Psychologist

In my supervision style I strive to develop a trusting, collaborative, and transparent relationship with my supervisees. I hope to cultivate this relationship through an emphasis on mutual respect, discussions encouraging the exploration of intersecting and divergent identities, and open conversations around power and privilege. In my therapeutic approach I attempt to integrate Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) and multiple other modalities with a multicultural, social justice lens. Meaning I engage with my clients with the understanding that my role is to provide them with guidance, empathy, skills, knowledge, and compassion as they explore and identify means to engage in values that align with their unique worldview. In this process we deepen their awareness of systems that they live within, examine explore interpersonal relationships, cultural contexts, and their various intersecting identities to help them create tools and feel empowered to make the changes they want in their life. Similar to work with my clients, I plan to work alongside my supervisees to help them increase awareness of both their personal and professional values and identities, and address how these influence their clinical work. I am excited to assist my supervisees in their journey of uncovering their strengths, in their exploration of theoretical orientations and clinical techniques, in developing knowledge and skills about college mental health, and increasing their cultural responsiveness. 

Dr. Jaya Bhojwani, Staff Psychologist

I believe that vulnerability, continuous reflection, cultural humility, and a collaborative relationship are core to successful supervision. I draw from Humanistic-Relationship Oriented and an Integrated Developmental Model in supervision, bringing a strengths-based and multicultural approach. In doing so, I respect your unique strengths and learning needs and center your experiences both as a person and a clinician. Core to my supervision style, are conversations around the cultural backgrounds of the triad (supervisor, supervisee, and client). I challenge myself and my supervisees to continue learning and reflecting on how our identities, biases, and privileges impacts our relationship and your work with clients. Much like my therapy style, I often do this through interpersonal process-oriented questions and reflections. I recognize how important a good supervision experience is for your growth at a site and thus use this process orientation to check in and prompt feedback about our relationship. Ultimately, I see supervision as core to my professional identity and am intentional about providing a space centered on you and your needs within the specific systems you are a part of as you foster your own professional identity. I recognize that the ways in which we engage in conversation about this will shift based on our held identities and levels of comfort to lean into vulnerability. Thus, I shift my approach throughout the year to be responsive to your changing needs at the site. In my theoretical orientation and clinical wok, I incorporate an intersectional approach to therapy, viewing healing as a holistic and systemic process that requires attending to the wellness of the person and the systems within which they operate. I draw from techniques in interpersonal process (IPT) and multicultural therapy through a systemic framework in my work with clients.

Dr. Keiko Aoyagi, Staff Psychologist

My approach to supervision integrates person-centered supervision with a multicultural lens, the integrated developmental model (IDM), and process models. I value a supervisory relationship as fundamental to individually tailored, meaningful supervision experience. As such, I focus on getting to know each other to appreciate ourselves not just as clinicians, but also as whole unique persons with their own intersecting identities, interpersonal styles, values, and worldviews, whose lived experiences in a multitude of ecological systems inform our clinical practice. By doing so, my hope is to co-create a supportive, culturally responsive, respectful, and hopefully empowering space to facilitate my supervisees’ therapeutic work with their diverse clients. To further facilitate rapport building and effective collaboration, I work on attuning myself to my supervisees’ training goals and paying careful attention to the power differential inherent to the evaluative nature of supervision. I strive to meet my supervisees where they are and facilitate my supervisees’ professional development as autonomous, culturally responsive, and intentional clinicians with their own clinical approaches through implementing flexibility in supervisory roles/foci, support, and developmentally appropriate challenges. My theoretical orientation is integrative, drawing primarily on humanistic therapy and skills-based approaches (ACT; CBT; DBT). I also utilize motivational Interviewing and solution-focused brief therapy and engage in continuous learning of interventions to help respond to clients’ various presenting concerns and varying readiness for change.

Dr. Laura E. Stallings, Director and Staff Psychologist, Dean of Student Wellbeing

My approach to supervision encompasses an integrated developmental feminist multicultural approach with a keen attention to centering collaboration, transparent discussions on power differentials, intersecting cultural dynamics within our relationship, and incorporating a social justice lens to acknowledge how ecological systems impact our work. It is my hope to collaboratively create a transparent, brave, and vulnerable supervisory relationship where my supervisees can take risks to explore the intersections of their personal and professional selves and how those intersections impact their clinical work and professional identities. It is a great joy to walk alongside my supervisees as I empower and encourage them to acknowledge and utilize their strengths and lived experiences, to experiment with utilizing various theoretical orientations and clinical interventions, increasing cultural responsiveness, building knowledge and skills about college mental health, and empowering them to reach their professional goals. It is important to me to remain flexible in my supervisory style, so that I can consistently seek out feedback and be responsive to each unique supervisee’s needs. In my clinical practice, my passions and expertise include working with clients who are impacted by mass trauma, interpersonal trauma, and bereavement. My theoretical orientation is integrative and primarily encompasses postmodern humanistic approaches, interpersonal process, phase-oriented integrated trauma models, and feminist and multicultural framework to understand and address the disempowering systemic factors in my client’s lives. I also incorporate secondary approaches when clinically appropriate including: brief-therapy modalities, developmental theories, and skills-based approaches (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectical-behavioral therapy).

Clinical Training Information

Our Clientele

Our center serves all enrolled students at our four campuses with offices on two campuses (i.e., Forest Grove and Hillsboro). In an effort to minimize dual relationships, many of our training activities take place at the Forest Grove location and trainees from the School of Graduate Psychology will work exclusively at our Forest Grove location. Trainees from programs outside of Pacific may work on both the Hillsboro and Forest Grove campuses. All trainees will have the opportunity to engage in clinical work with undergraduate and graduate students. 

Our clients present with a wide-range of concerns and life experiences, and trainees can expect to gain experience supporting clients through life transitions; academic stressors and navigating academic systems; grief and loss; managing changes in health status and disabilities; healing from racial, interpersonal, and other forms of trauma; acute crises; intersecting identity development; navigating familial and other interpersonal relationships; along with other presenting concerns.

Training Activities

Individual Client Services

• 8-11 scheduled individual clients per week for short-term individual therapy.
• Two 30-minute scheduled initial consultations per week that includes triaging client concerns and determining appropriate treatment disposition (e.g., short-term therapy, group therapy, referrals).
• One-hour of crisis/walk-in consultation coverage per week.
• Case management and referral services for clients whose concerns fall outside of our Scope of Practice.

Group Therapy

Group therapy options vary depending on staff availability, clinic demands, and client interest. Possible group offerings include

• Interpersonal Process Groups
• Psychoeducational Skills-Based Groups
• Support Groups

Outreach and Consultation

Our center is committed to community engagement to raise awareness of mental health concerns, participating in prevention efforts, and reaching traditionally underserved populations. Trainees engage in a minimum of one outreach activity each term and are encouraged to engage in more as activities become available that meet trainee interests and style. Trainees will also have the opportunity to develop skills in systemic intervention through a mentored project. We hope for our trainees to apply their passion and fresh eyes to our system to engage in a project focused on improving SCC service to our historically underserved communities on campus.

Supervision and Training Support

• 2-day orientation to our center and staff (~16 hrs/yr)
• 1.5 hours per week of individual supervision with primary supervisor; review of video/audio tape included in supervision (~50 hrs/yr)
• One-hour per week of administrative staff meetings and clinical consultation with the entire SCC staff (~35 hrs/yr)
• Group supervision for racial healing, professional consultation, and developing anti-oppressive practices on a bi-weekly basis (~15 hrs/yr)
• Professional development seminars on a bi-weekly basis on a range of topics pertinent to college mental health (~15 hrs/yr)
• Practicum Students engage in a case presentation once per semester
• SCC senior staff encourage consultation and operate with an open-door policy to support trainees in skills-acquisition

Logistical Considerations

• We do not offer telecommuting/work from home options for training.
• Training occurs primarily at the Forest Grove location.
• Clinic operating hours are Monday – Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm. 
  • Outreach programming is occasionally scheduled outside of normal business hours.
  • We require that all staff including trainees be available Wednesday mornings for staff meetings, case consultation, and training activities.
  • There are several clinic closures during the academic year including Thanksgiving break, Winter break (typically mid-December through New Year's Day), and Spring break (typically the last week of March). Please check the Arts & Sciences Calendar for exact dates and note that these dates may not align with your own academic breaks
• Our Clinical Psychology Practicum experience is open to SGP students in their second or third practicum, who have not been in ongoing therapy* at the SCC. 
• Training dates typically are mid-August through May with evaluation periods for Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters for SGP students.

Application Process

If you are interested in applying for a training experience at the SCC and meet the aforementioned criteria, please submit your current resume or curriculum vitae and a cover letter expressing your interests in our site to counselingcenter@pacificu.edu for review. We encourage you to apply December-February and interviews typically occur in mid to late February for training beginning in August.

Questions can be referred to our Training and Supervision Team at counselingcenter@pacificu.edu. We look forward to hearing from you!

* Students from Pacific University's School of Graduate Psychology receive psychotherapy and crisis services from SCC senior staff only. Clinical training staff do not have access to any scheduling or clinical information regarding their peers. More detailed information regarding how we manage our dual role with SGP students is available in the Information for Pacific University Graduate Psychology Students Accessing the Student Counseling Center.