Becoming an internship site

What is necessary to become a GW Art Therapy internship site?

A Master’s level, licensed or certified mental health professional to provide clinical supervision for a student, one hour a week; this person must be an art therapist, LPC, social worker, psychologist, psychiatrist, expressive arts therapist or other mental health professional. *If your site is community-based, and/or without a licensed or certified mental health practitioner, we will need to collaborate to explore how to ensure this mandatory aspect of the partnership is addressed. Students must be supervised by a licensed clinician BEFORE they begin work with clients.
Space in which to provide art therapy; this can be designated space or shared space, as long as it is conducive to providing art therapy.
Supplies; basic art supplies. The intern can help with ordering, collecting supplies that are free (magazines, containers for glue/paint, etc.).
Willingness to train and work with a graduate student intern and provide a designated hour of weekly clinical supervision.

“Nuts and Bolts” Overview of Art Therapy Internship

Interviewing students

Begins in Feb/March for second year students, who start their internship in Aug/Sept; begins in June/July for incoming (first year) students, who start in Aug/Sept (and sometimes October).
Once a year supervisors are contacted for updates; site and contact information is updated.
Students sign up for their top 2 or 3 sites
- **Note: Supervisors are notified of the interested students, and are referred no more than 3 students for interviewing (The exception is if a site is hosting more than o1 student…then we refer 3-5 students) If there isn’t a good match out of the 3 referrals, they can request more students
Supervisors are notified about who will be contacting them; students are given contact information and must set up interviews; they are expected to go to all the sites for interviews. They should email or bring their resumes and portfolios if requested.
Supervisor makes choice of best match, offers placement to the student. Supervisors are encouraged to speak with GW Internship Coordinator before making a choice if they have any questions or concerns. Supervisor and student notify GW of placement.
Supervisor and student arrange for orientation, start date, schedule, etc. Students can start orientation in August, and observing, but can’t officially work with clients until September, when on-campus supervision starts.
The affiliation agreement must be signed by all parties and are sent out as needed. The signed agreement assures students are covered by GW liability insurance, so it is very important.
- GW has a standard affiliation agreement for all sites and processing can take between one to two weeks.
- If your site needs an affiliation agreement different than GW’s standard agreement you should factor in at least one month for processing.
Once a supervisor has an intern it is important to set expectations for the students; research shows that having defined expectations results in more successful and mutually satisfying internships. Each student and supervisor pair will take their first one or two supervision meetings to complete the “Week One Internship Checklist.”

Weekly Supervision

Schedule a regular, weekly supervision time.
Discuss with student what kinds of questions, concerns, issues they bring to supervision; Artwork should be looked at/discussed in supervision, even if supervisor isn’t an AT.
Other considerations: Do you have a model of supervision? Doing artwork in supervision? Any required readings that would help student learn about client/patient population?
Hours: Students need 900 total hours and 400 direct client contact hours to graduate from the program; some may choose to get 1000 total hours if the state they will live in requires it.
Students need to be interning about 16 hours/week as a first year, first semester student; hours can increase after the first semester.
Second year students can intern 16-24 hours/week. There is some flexibility depending on site and student, but generally, 16-20 hours is the ideal.
Generally first year students have classes all day Tuesdays and Wednesdays, leaving Mondays, Thursday and/or Fridays for internship; second year students are generally in class all day Wednesdays and Thursdays, leaving Mondays, Tuesday and/or Fridays for internship. Students must prioritize class on those days and cannot move their coursework to accommodate internship hours.

Evaluation

Students are responsible for keeping track of hours; supervisor must sign off on them.
Evaluations are sent out a month before they are due, to supervisors and students
Evaluation must be discussed and signed by both parties; some supervisors have students fill out a copy also and then discuss and look at differences in each others’ assessment of work
Evaluations are due by the end of the semester; the due date will be on the form
- Mid-semester evaluation: for first year students it’s very important, and is filled out at about the midpoint in the semester, or after 100 hours.
On-campus supervisors are responsible for grading students; they contact the site supervisor to check in during the semester; on-campus and site supervisors work as a team in terms of making sure student is on track and working out any problems. See the Problem-solving Procedural Flow Chart in the Supervisor’s Handbook.

FAQs

What happens if I need to leave my job midway through the year?

Accordion content 1.Generally, it depends on the site and situation. If you have a second year intern, sometimes they may be hired at the site, at least through the end of the semester; another appropriate person is found on-site to continue supervising. Worst case, the student must find another internship site. Please contact the Internship Coordinator if you are leaving your job to decide what is the best option for the student.

Can supervision be virtual?

Yes. We encourage face-to-face supervision on-site but we recognize that each site has unique needs. This is especially welcomed if the licensed supervisor is not stationed on-site

What should I do if I’m going away for vacation?

Let the on-campus supervisor or internship coordinator know you’ll be out for awhile. Then make sure the student has another person to go to for supervision while you’re away, and knows what to do while you’re gone (groups, notes, etc.).

What if I can’t do an hour of supervision every week?

Weekly supervision is non- negotiable and must happen; AATA (American Art Therapy Association) requires 1 hour of supervision for 10 hours of direct client contact. If you can’t make the same time every week, this needs to be discussed with your student and scheduled when possible. If you miss a week, the following week should be a longer supervision session. Occasionally something unexpected happens and supervision can’t take place, but this should be rare, and make up supervision should happen the following week.

What happens if my intern is consistently late or has high absenteeism?

The student needs to be spoken with, first by the site supervisor. If that doesn’t change anything, then the on-campus supervisor needs to be informed. He/she will discuss with the student. If this continues to be an issue, the clinical placement coordinator needs to be notified.

What kind of support will the GW Art Therapy Program offer me?

Supervisor’s training workshop, 1-2 times/year that include Continuing Education Credits
Supervisor’s Handbook (updated yearly)
All students have an on-campus supervisor (also knows as a Practicum professor), who is your direct contact person and ally whenever student issues arise.
The Internship Coordinator is also available to you for questions or concerns.
Occasional or as needed articles that are useful for supervision are emailed to supervisors.

Steps to becoming a site

Requirements

Read all of the information on this page, requirements and “Nuts and Bolts” Overview of Art Therapy Internship.

Set up a meeting

Schedule a meeting with Sone-Seeré Burrell, GW Art Therapy Internship Coordinator or email [email protected]

Information and affiliation agreement

After meeting with Internship Coordinator and agreeing to be a site, you will be sent a google form link to give GW your site information and a standard affiliation agreement. Some of the information on the Google Form will be given to students during the internship sign-up time.

If your site needs an agreement that is different from our standard one, please allow more time for processing since it needs to be reviewed by our legal team.

Update information

Update the Internship Coordinator if there is a change in supervisor or major changes at the site via email at [email protected]

Contact information

Sone-Seeré Burrell, GW Art Therapy Internship Coordinator, [email protected]

General program information - [email protected]