Responsibilities & Training
Postdoctoral Fellows are Expected to Provide:
- individual and group therapy services
- intake assessments
- initial telephone assessment
- consultation and advocacy for students, third-parties, and other healthcare professionals
- crisis intervention
- afterhours on-call for emergency consultation services in collaboration with a contracted external agency*
- training activities, including the selection of next year's Doctoral Interns using APPIC**
- outreach including Let’s Talk
- consultation with university and healthcare systems
- facilitation of staffing team which is a weekly meeting to discuss dispositions for intakes
- other administrative activities
*Some evening and weekend hours are required.
**The postdoctoral fellows at Chicago CAPS and Evanston CAPS may both serve as members of the CAPS Training Committee. Fellows are an integral part of the Intern Selection Committee that reviews, interviews, and ranks internship candidates for the APPIC national match.
Training Experiences
- Specialty Liaison Concentration: The Chicago Fellow will gain specialized experience with community-based intervention/outreach and clinical services for Northwestern’s medical or law students. To support their learning in one of these specialty liaison areas, the Chicago Fellow will be paired with either the CAPS Liaison to the Feinberg School of Medicine, or the Liaison to the Pritzker School of Law, who will serve as the fellow’s mentor throughout the 2023-2024 training year.
- The Feinberg School of Medicine Liaison Concentration may include the following experiences: developing and delivering population-specific group therapy services (e.g., psychoeducational, skill-based), outreach programming (e.g., new medical student orientation to CAPS; workshops/presentations on stress management, burnout, preparing for board examinations, impostor phenomenon); Let’s Talk consultation hour(s) for medical school students; and participating in Student Wellness and College Mentor meetings with Feinberg campus partners.
- The Pritzker School of Law Concentration may include the following experiences: developing and delivering population-specific outreach programming (e.g., new law student orientation to CAPS; Law School's Wellness Week activities, impostor phenomenon workshops); Let's Talk consultation hour(s) for law students; collaborating with the Law School's Wellness Team around mental health and wellness programming for law students; and participating in weekly Care and Coordination meeting with Law School campus partners.
- Although some activities are predetermined for the liaison concentration areas, the Chicago Fellow is encouraged to bring their own ideas and interests to shape the experience.
- Monthly Fellow Seminar: CAPS staff will facilitate a monthly two-hour seminar for CAPS Fellows on topics of interest related to the varied activities and roles of a psychologist in college counseling (e.g., clinical practice, community-based intervention/outreach, advocacy, and clinical supervision), as well as issues related to professional development.
- Providing Supervision: The Chicago Fellow may also have the opportunity to co-facilitate intern group supervision with a CAPS staff member.