Description

1 CE Hour.

This session is designed to support postdoctoral psychologists involved in internship training by examining effective approaches to teaching and evaluating the Profession-Wide Competencies (PWCs) of Professional Values, Attitudes, and Behaviors and Communication and Interpersonal Skills. The program will explore common challenges training sites encounter when operationalizing these competencies, including translating broad competency language into observable behaviors, providing developmentally appropriate feedback, and managing remediation when concerns arise.

By the end of the session, participants can expect to gain practical tools for designing intentional training experiences that promote professional identity development, ethical conduct, self-awareness, effective communication, and collaborative interpersonal functioning among interns. Participants will also actively practice adapting these strategies to their own training contexts, with attention to varying institutional resources and trainee developmental levels.

The content is specifically tailored to postdoctoral psychologists who serve as supervisors, training directors, or faculty within internship programs. The session builds on their advanced clinical and supervisory knowledge, emphasizing leadership, program development, and competency-based education. Participants will leave with concrete strategies to enhance the quality and consistency of training in these critical profession-wide competencies within their internship programs.

Learning Objectives

Attendees will be able to:

1. Describe the specific behaviors associated with internship level competency in the areas of Professional Values, Attitudes, Behaviors and Communication and Interpersonal Skills.
2. Identify at least 2 strategies to promote intern’s ability to respond professionally in increasingly complex situations with a greater degree of independence.
3. Identify at least 2 new activities for training interns in the areas of Professional Values, Attitudes, Behaviors and Communication and Interpersonal Skills.

Presented by Dr. Jenna Symons