Counseling & Psychological Services
Graduate Training
Graduate Training Program in College Student Psychotherapy at CAPS
During their placement at Haverford, trainees work with highly intelligent students who are reflective and often well-tuned to notions of psychological causality. The students often eagerly avail themselves of psychotherapy. They also frequently present with complicated situations; few are straightforward. Consequently, trainees have excellent opportunities to learn psychotherapy, often in challenging situations.
At CAPS, we offer two types of graduate training opportunities: (1) doctoral student externships and (2) graduate social work internships.. These opportunities vary in terms of the number of hours they entail commensurate with the requirements of the programs from which trainees come. Practicum positions extend from late August to mid-May.
Unlike most college and university counseling services, Haverford does not set a limit on the number of sessions that students may have with a therapist. Hence, trainees get to work the greater part of the academic year with several students. About 35% of the student enrollment (approx. 1350) consult with a counselor each year. Trainees may also have opportunities to co-facilitate psychotherapy groups on campus with senior staff or graduate fellows.
Our college counseling service is committed to maintaining a staff that truly works as a team. We value sharing clinical material and working collaboratively where such work is possible. trainees are expected to manage their cases with care, appreciation of confidentiality, and sensitivity to their own assumptions about what the "good life" is. We are interested in finding trainees who, as persons, are interested in wondering about life, especially the "inner world", and who are able to engage others towards this end by virtue of their openness to "not knowing" and their ability to listen.
Our chief goal in our training program is not to teach technique, but to facilitate an in-depth experience with the role of the unconscious in the communications and feelings of both the psychotherapist and client. While we expect trainees to bring rigorous intellectual thinking to their work, we also expect them to be willing to question all assumptions about the meaning of symptom clusters and therapeutic interventions. Trainees will receive training mostly in individual therapy. However, they may also have opportunities to run groups or conduct workshops in accordance with their interests and the needs of our college students.
Our core staff is comprised of five part-time clinical psychologists and one clinical social worker. We also have a consulting psychiatrist on campus 3 days a week who joins us for psychiatric rounds and case conference.
All the positions, entail two hours of individual supervision with two different supervisors, a two hour clinical case conference, one hour group supervision and a weekly reading seminar. In past years, we have read the writings of Wilfred Bion, Donald Winnicott, Jacques Lacan, Thomas Ogden, Philip Bromberg, Masud Khan, and Jessica Benjamin. We have also chosen topics such as attachment, suicide, or eating disorders and the body, or intersectionality. In addition, there may be opportunities to collaborate on research and/or writing projects with senior staff.
Interviews with selected candidates begin in late January. Applicants should send a letter of introduction and resume or curriculum vitae by January 22 to:
Pamela Lehman, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Training
CAPS, Haverford College
370 W. Lancaster Ave.
Stokes Hall, Suite 203
Haverford, PA 19041-1392
(610) 896-1290 | plehman1 [at] haverford.edu