Practicum and Internship

Because of the traditional academic year occurring August/September through June, practical counseling experience for school counseling students is broken up between your second and third years. Practicum occurs during the winter quarter in your second year and internship occurs August through June of your third year.

Practicum quarter requires a minimum of 100 clock hours; 40 of which are “direct hours” and 60 are “indirect hours”.  CACREP defines “direct” and “indirect” but generally speaking, a direct hour is time spent providing counseling; where an indirect hour is spent doing tasks that support counseling such as recordkeeping, attending supervision meetings, researching intervention strategies, etc.

The counseling programs have a dedicated Internship Coordinator who supports you as soon as you enter the program with discerning the right internship experience, including monthly workshops on how to research sites, prepare a counseling resume, prepare for interviews or initiate opportunities with new internship sites. The program has a robust system of resources and support for the internship search process.

School Counseling students have found internships in both public and private schools, at the elementary, middle and high school levels.

Most of our students end up pursuing internships at schools where students have worked before. However, we support the coordination of unique internship opportunities. Student internships are governed by regulations set forth by CACREP, Washington state administrative codes and program advisory councils.  In these cases, we will work in collaboration with students to explore how the unique internships can meet practical counseling experience requirements.

Though they are rare, there may be an opportunity to be hired by the district as a conditionally/emergency-certified school counselor.  Again, these opportunities are rare, and they are only available to interns (not available during practicum).