Student Therapist Training
Ready for the Next Step?
We pride ourselves on being a teaching practice that values working with student therapists to develop the next generation of clinicians. We conduct interviews January through February each year for psychology only programs at this time.
Logistics: How Does It All Work?
Site Locations
The main training locations are Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, as this is where the most staff and supervisors tend to work regularly.
Some hybrid virtual options are also available.
Most of our trainees work at more than one location with more than one staff member to get the most diversified training experience.
Application Deadlines
Ongoing as different programs have different requirements. We tend to get the most applicants in December & January.
Training or exposure in the following areas is preferred
Correctional psychology, forensic psychology, substance abuse, trauma therapies, sex therapy, multicultural therapy, working with those who have sex offenses, assessment report writing, and/or group therapy.
No licensure is required but is preferred.
STRONG boundaries are required.
Group Interviews
Every January we hold a group interview since most are applying during that time to start in the Spring or Fall. Review the website to see if we are still accepting applications for that year. At times, we are able to accommodate start dates outside of the Fall through Spring training periods.
Number of Student Therapists Accepted Annually
5-7 (opportunities fluctuate depending on staffing, applicants, + services being offered)
Pre-Licensed Clinician Stipend
$100/m Part-Time or $200/m Full-Time
Licensed Clinician Stipend (Masters Level Practicum or Internship)
$250/m Part-Time or $500/m Full-Time
Licensed Clinician Stipend (Doctoral Level Practicum or Internship)
$500/m Part-Time or $1000 Full-Time
Training & Supervision Philosophies
DEVELOPMENTAL
We meet you where you are and scaffold on your prior training to build new clinical foundations over time, including increasing your approaches, skills, and clinical voice. We believe these are neverending tasks as a human and therapist. We prioritize this during our onboarding process with numerous trainings on caseload management, assessment and documentation, cultural, gender, and trauma responsiveness, crisis management, and more. We offer frequent opportunities to attend trainings and engage in specific skill-building trainings and consultation throughout the year.
FEMINIST
We pay attention to power dynamics, issues of equity and equality, advocacy, post-modernism (i.e., being skeptical of why ideologies are in place and seeing if they still fit in with modern practice and expectations; meaning is relative and symbolic), and postcolonialism (i.e., how people and systems were colonized and working to acknowledge or dismantle those systems and/or better understand the impact of those systems and experiences on individuals, groups, and communities).
CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
We take time to consider supervisee and supervisor identity components, how they may impact worldviews, how these can come into the therapist-client relationship, and help you to think from a lens of intersectionality when conceptualizing and treating clients. Things like oppression, power, cultural narratives, and implicit and explicit biases are a focus of supervision.
PSYCHODYNAMIC
We spend time identifying and utilizing dynamic concepts like transference, countertransference, and object relations within supervision and client relationships, providing layering of understanding, defenses, and greater depths and meaning of intervention.
RELATIONAL
We work side by side to co-create the supervision experience. We strongly emphasize countertransference processing to better conceptualize and understand your personal and professional selves and the client’s functioning based on the feelings they elicit in you. The supervisor models transparency and vulnerability, processing issues that are uncomfortable, and encouraging you to embrace your own vulnerability in this work.
Training Experience Opportunities
You will be exposed to numerous clinical and theoretical models, population types, service types, administrative and business management components, have the chance to provide umbrella or allied mental health supervision to others, provide internal training to staff, and the ability to design and implement new services of interest. This allows you to craft your own training experience ratio and preferences with highly trained and competent clinical staff to support your professional and personal growth! We ask that all trainees work with various services we offer before deciding if a service or population is not for them.
Require Background Checks: Because we service clients mandated by the State of Michigan to attend treatment, a State LEIN and fingerprint background check is required. Drug testing is not required.
Required Weekly Meeting: Team Consultations Tuesdays at 10a (virtually)
Private Therapy Services
Working with individuals, relationships, groups, and families, we provide insurance and direct pay services of all kinds for a variety of concerns, like depression, anxiety, PTSD, LGBTQIA+, substance use, and more. We offer various modalities to achieve healing: virtual, in person, EMDR, DBT, CBT, and others.
Sexual Health Services
Working with mandated clients with sex-related legal histories and individuals and families struggling with sexual behavior management, we address abuse prevention, behavioral regulation, risk assessment, re-entry into the community, family re-integration, and sexuality education from a sex-positive and strengths-based framework.
Assessment Services
Providing a variety of personality, trauma, risk, substance use, and neuropsychological assessments, we design test batteries, administer protocols, score, interpret, and write personalized reports and recommendations to those being assessed.
Wellness Services
Utilizing altered state experiences through psychedelic-assisted therapy, yoga, and meditation, we offer expanded perspectives, peak experiences, and other psychedelically- oriented healing therapies, as well preparation for and integration from these experiences.
Community Services
We offer a variety of one-time or recurring community education workshops, table various local events, sponsor advocacy events, + host events that trainees can develop or be a part of.
Testimonials
How Are MA & DOC Training Experiences Different?
All trainees will be exposed to a variety of services and modalities, with weekly individual and group supervision provided. Doctoral students will also provide supplemental supervision of master’s students throughout their training.
Assessment Services
Master’s trainees spend more time in shadowing, co-facilitating, and administration and scoring of assessments (psychological evaluations, substance use evaluations, ADHD evaluations). Doctoral trainees spend more time conducting more complex evaluations, report writing, and feedback sessions (ADHD and other neuropsychological evaluations).
Private Therapy Services
Master’s trainees spend more time in shadowing and co-facilitating services in the first third of their training, having a small caseload of their own clients for the remainder of their training.
Sexual Health Services
Master’s trainees spend more time in shadowing these services and then co-facilitate during their entire training experience. Doctoral students shadow, co-facilitate, and eventually conduct some of these services on their own.
Wellness & Community Services
Generally, all trainees will co-facilitate these services. Opportunities for trainees to develop and run their own one-time or ongoing service are provided (e.g., an anxiety group or a community education workshop), as well as attending agency sponsored or hosted events.