Values and Philosophy

FAU CAPS strives to create a training program and environment that is consistent, predictable, transparent, and flexible. We aspire to excellence, particularly with regard to supervision and to training clinically competent and ethical trainees. We want our program to be challenging and to be able to offer experiences that are unique to FAU. We strive to deliver training that provides adequate breadth, in order to develop strong skills as a generalist. We also strive to deliver training that provides adequate depth, in order to provide interns with specialized skillsets in a chosen domain. It is our belief that in an environment such as this, interns are able to reach their fullest potential and set a strong foundation for their future as psychologists.

We value diversity in each of our staff members, trainees, and clients. We are committed to maintaining our competence in working with students from different backgrounds, challenging ourselves to examine our own experiences and the experiences of others, and examining similarities and differences with our clients. Likewise, we expect that our interns will engage in this process with the staff as a whole and through their own training opportunities.

Similarly, we view ourselves as lifelong learners. We see awareness of self and interactions with others as essential for continual growth as a professional. Our staff is encouraged to engage in self-reflection and interpersonal process for this growth to occur and we provide a myriad of opportunities for interns to engage in processing and understanding their experiences during the internship year.

Theoretical orientation is seen as an essential foundation for our therapeutic work. We believe that in order to intervene in a systematic and coherent way, we must understand the problem and how it developed. We work with Interns to develop sophisticated case conceptualization skills, grounded in theory supported by literature, and use conceptualization to guide interventions.