Clinical Training Programs

The Rosemary Furman Counseling Center at Barnard College offers clinical training opportunities for psychology externs, social work interns, and postdoctoral fellows in psychology. Our program provides trainees with exposure to and training in the various functions assumed by mental health clinicians working in the university counseling center setting.

The Furman Counseling Center provides psychological services to a diverse population of 2,800 undergraduate students attending a residential, liberal arts, historically women’s college in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Furman offers intake assessments; short-term individual counseling; therapy and support groups; psychiatric evaluations; short-term medication management; crisis and emergency intervention; outreach, workshops, and trainings to the campus community; consultation; and referrals to long-term treatment. Our Center is housed within Barnard’s Office of Health and Wellness. We have a close-knit, interdisciplinary staff of approximately ten, including psychologists, social workers, and psychiatrists. We are a highly utilized campus resource, serving approximately a third of Barnard’s student body in any given year. As a staff, we are committed to providing high-quality clinical services and supervision, to furthering our own professional development and growth, and to collaborating with one another and with other campus departments. The Furman Counseling Center supports the commitment of Barnard College to diversity and social justice, raising awareness of systems of oppression as they impact mental health, addressing our own biases, and promoting equitable access to resources.

The Center offers training within an integrative framework that incorporates relational psychodynamic and social justice lenses and includes the use of evidence-based interventions (e.g., CBT, DBT, Mindfulness). As clinical supervisors, while we each have our own styles and areas of expertise, we share common goals of helping our trainees to develop their own unique clinical voices, to expand their repertoire of skills, and to deepen their understanding of and ability to work clinically with relational and cultural dynamics.

Trainees are required to provide proof of liability insurance prior to the start of their training at the Center.

All trainees are given routine informal feedback by supervisors throughout the academic year. At the end of each semester, formal written evaluations of externs and interns are completed and reviewed with trainees and then shared with their educational programs. We also openly seek input and feedback from trainees.

Psychology Externship Program

The Center has up to three psychology externs each academic year. Externs conduct intakes and provide short-term psychotherapy and outreach to the College community. They may be able to co-lead a group. Externs receive two hours of individual supervision per week and participate in a weekly meeting that alternates between group supervision / case discussion and didactic seminars. Examples of seminars typically offered include: suicide risk assessment; identity, power, and privilege in psychotherapy; DSM-5 diagnosis; eating disorders; substance abuse; trauma; psychopharmacology; case conceptualization / presentation; termination. Externs also participate in staff meetings, in which they learn the administrative workings of the Center, contribute to the monitoring of high-risk clients, and do a formal case presentation. Staff members and outside clinicians also give presentations during staff meetings on various topics for ongoing trainee and staff development. We have historically offered biofeedback as a service to Barnard students. While the biofeedback service has been suspended due to COVID-19, we continue to train our externs in the theory, research, and use of biofeedback.

Externs are with the Center from early September through mid-May and work 16 hours per week, minimally, spread across 3 days. Required hours are 10-2 on Wednesdays and one evening per week until 7PM.

The Furman Counseling Center at Barnard College participates in the externship match, following the guidelines approved by members of PSYDNYS (Psychology Internship Directors of NYS) and NYNJADOT (New York New Jersey Association of Directors of Training). Please see NYSPA's website for the full guidelines.

Interested students should apply though the APA portal: psychpracticum.apa.org. Please contact the Training Director, Kathleen Niegocki, with any questions at kniegock@barnard.edu. (Applications will not be accepted via e-mail.)

Psychology Internship Program

Interns from Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital may elect to do a rotation with us. Psychology interns conduct intakes, short-term psychotherapy, and outreach to the College community.

Interns are with us for one academic semester, and work 10 hours per week. Required hours are Wednesdays from 11-2, and one evening a week until 7PM. They receive one hour of individual supervision per week.

Psychology Fellowship Program

The Center has one full-time post-doctoral fellow in clinical or counseling psychology. The fellow conducts triage screenings, intakes, and short-term psychotherapy, and participates in the emergency on-call rotation as well as staff meetings and Client of Concern meetings. They may also pursue a special interest or cultivate an area of expertise under the mentorship of a Center staff member, e.g., running a group, developing a workshop, assisting with quality improvement projects.

Required hours are 11-2 on Wednesdays and one evening per week until 7PM. The fellow works 35 hours per week and receives two hours of individual supervision per week. The position comes with a competitive salary and benefits package.

Interested applicants should apply online through Barnard’s Human Resources website. Please see the link for the position for the 2023-2024 academic year. The application requires a cover letter, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and a graduate school transcript. The application deadline for 2023-2024 will be Tuesday, January 3, 2023. Please contact the Training Director, Kathleen Niegocki, with any questions at kniegock@barnard.edu. (Applications will not be accepted via e-mail.)

Additional Training Components:

Social work interns and psychology externs participate in a seminar series, in which they receive training in the following areas: diagnosis, high-risk symptoms, eating disorders, psychopharmacology, multiculturalism and biofeedback. Trainees also regularly present and offer feedback on cases in this seminar.

All trainees also participate in staff meetings, in which they learn the administrative workings of the Center, contribute to the monitoring of high-risk clients, and do a formal case presentation. Staff members and outside clinicians also give presentations on various topics for on-going trainee and staff development.

Evaluations:

Written evaluations are done at the close of each semester. Evaluations are reviewed with trainees, and copies are sent to their educational programs. Supervisors are also asked to regularly give informal feedback to their supervisees.

Malpractice Insurance:

All trainees are required to submit proof of their malpractice insurance before they may begin their training at the Center.

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