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Training Program for Interns and Trainees at the Center for Creative Growth
Note: Training Positions
are currently available in our Training Programs
IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE CALL US FIRST TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE STILL AVAILABLE OPENINGS IN OUR TRAINING PROGRAM, BEFORE YOU FILL OUT AN APPLICATION. CALL JASON SAFFER AT 510/527-2100, extension 5 OR E-MAIL JASONS@CREATIVEGROWTH.COM
The Center for Creative Growth (CCG), a non-profit counseling organization, is currently accepting applications for its Internship Training Program in the field of Marriage and Family Therapy. Our Training Program is designed to lay the foundation for becoming a master therapist. Registered interns and trainees who seek this level of mastery and who feel a sense of alignment with our clinical orientation are invited to apply.
Our counseling center operates as a cooperative and supportive community of colleagues, all of whom strive to incorporate spiritual principles of mindfulness, conscious communication, service, authenticity and integrity into their work as clinicians and supervisors. While we do not require participants in our Training Program to have an active spiritual or meditation practice, we do seek candidates who either have experience with some spiritual practice or who have an interest in incorporating spiritual perspectives and values into their work.
We also seek interns and trainees who are committed to their own personal and professional growth, to interpersonal clarity, and to service to clients. As a staff, we place a high value on communication that is open, honest, non-toxic, and congruent. We consider this type of communication to be one of the key ingredients creating effective staff relationships, as well as a healthy learning and working environment. We support and teach healthy boundaries and strive to resolve problems in a respectful, win-win manner. We aim to create a professional environment where truth can be spoken, feelings can be expressed, and trust can exist. To see what people who have participated in our Training Program have to say about it, please click here.
Our Training Program is offered at our main office location in Berkeley. Our Center primarily provides individual, couples, and group therapy, with some opportunity for child and family therapy. Our clients come to us from the greater San Francisco Bay area, as well as from elsewhere in the country and the world, due to our expertise in helping people heal from the effects of growing up in a dysfunctional family.
PHILOSOPHY AND ORIENTATION
We provide an in-depth training experience that recognizes the therapist's Self to be the conduit for therapeutic healing. Our training focuses on freeing this Self and learning powerful skills to assist clients in their healing and recovery. We believe that a successful clinician must be grounded in a healing view of the psyche (theory) and also must have the flexibility to dance with each client, shifting paradigms with ease (artistry). We believe it is the combination of clear understanding and fluid artistry which creates master therapists. To accomplish this, a therapist must operate from the Self -- the inner core that is free, creative, and intuitive.
To assist you in this, our training incorporates both personal and professional avenues of growth. Experiential training and the building of effective skills are emphasized over theoretical discussion. Role-play and expressive arts are used to help you understand the client’s experience and your own.
Our orientation is wholistic, effective, and empowering to the client and therapist. Our work has evolved from six primary influences:
DURATION OF PROGRAM
We offer different levels of training and provide different time lengths of training according to the categories below:
For Trainees and Interns living in the San Francisco Bay Area:
Our Training Program is a one-year program with the option to participate in a second year of advanced training. There is no stipend offered, or tuition charged, for our one-year training program.
For trainees, interns, and licensed professionals who live outside Northern California:
Helping professionals who live elsewhere in the United States or in another country may be eligible to train with us. We work with you to create an intensive training experience that fits your time frame. The length of time and cost are worked out on an individual basis.
For Licensed Therapists in the San Francisco Bay Area:
Licensed clinicians who live in Northern California and wish to be trained at our Center can participate in a modified, specially designed program which builds on their years of experience and professional background.
We provide the following training activities: individual supervision, group supervision and training, a clinical caseload, a staff development process group, participation in the administrative tasks and community outreach activities of the Center, as well as training in addictions, the 12-step recovery approach, and communication skills. The time commitment for the training program requires a minimum of 20 hours per week for trainees, and a minimum of 25 hours per week for interns.
Readings, role play, viewing videotapes of master therapists and leaders in the field of family therapy/dysfunctional families, audiotape review of sessions, and co-therapy with licensed staff are also utilized as training methods to enhance your development as a clinician. In addition, we provide training in group therapy -- including supporting advanced interns in creating and facilitating new therapy groups at the Center.
The Staff Development Process Group provides you with the opportunity to process any issues that arise relating to your training at CCG, or between you and another staff member. This group meets one hour a week initially. This Process Group supports both your professional and personal development as a therapist.
The personal growth component of our program requires interns and trainees to be fully committed to rigorous and ongoing self-exploration, self-awareness, and self-responsibility, and to also be committed to a willingness to communicate openly and cleanly. This facilitates your development as a therapist and also helps to create an open and supportive learning environment. Participation in your own ongoing personal therapy is strongly recommended to aid you in this process.
A one-hour Addictions and Communication Training Class also meets weekly for the first eight weeks of your training. In addition to our Addictions Class, and as part of accruing hours towards licensure, participants in our Training Program attend a range of 12-step meetings during the first eight weeks of the internship/traineeship. When required as part of a training program, attendance at 12-step meetings is eligible for MFT licensure hours under the category of workshops, seminars, and training.
With the conclusion of the Addictions and Communication Class, you will participate in a one-hour, twice-a-month Community Outreach meeting. Additional Outreach activities provide you with skills needed to start and maintain a therapy practice.
OUR SUPERVISION APPROACH
The Center’s Training Program is an intensive one-year program provided by the Center’s Supervisory Team, composed of the Center’s senior licensed staff. We have found this team approach most effective to begin to create the conditions for masterful therapy. Being trained by a Supervisory Team means that each trainee and intern is provided with a coordinated, comprehensive, and integrated training experience -- an experience designed to bring forth your natural therapeutic talents, as well as allow you to remove the blocks and obstacles to your therapeutic effectiveness.
Our Supervisory Team operates best by sharing information and impressions about your work and your progress among all members of our team. Therefore, information that you share in individual supervision and group meetings is shared among all supervisors in order to maximize the effectiveness of the training program. The Supervisory Team makes special efforts to consult and coordinate among themselves in order to produce the highest quality result for you.
Individual supervision is a one-hour, once-a-week meeting with licensed, experienced staff. An intern/trainee has two primary supervisors, meeting with each on alternate weeks. We have found this to be a rich form of training, allowing you to have in-depth contact with, and the perspectives of, two seasoned supervisors. In addition, you will receive intensive audiotape review of your sessions and feedback. This is conducted at our Center via voicemail supervision from one of the Co-Directors. Initially, the voicemail supervision may be one to three hours a week, tapering over time to ten to twenty minutes a week. The time spent listening to these voicemail supervision messages can be counted towards training hours on your BBS Verification of Hours form.
Group supervision is a combination of didactic and experiential material and case consultation. Group supervision meets for two hours every week. There is also a Process Group where you have the opportunity to process any issues that arise relating to your training at CCG, or between you and another staff member. This group meets one hour a month. Any issue that is pressing may also be addressed in Group Supervision.
CLINICAL WORK AND MODALITIES
When you and your supervisors jointly agree that you are ready to work independently with clients, you will be assigned a gradually increasing caseload of clients. Typically, therapists-in-training begin working with individual clients. When interns and trainees experience a sense of comfort and competence in that format, they expand their work to include couples. Family therapy work is typically done in co-therapy settings. It is also possible to do Play Therapy at our Center.
Interns and trainees are taught to respond to each client's situation creatively, drawing upon specific methods to free and heal the client's natural growth process. Within this context, trainees and interns learn to utilize a wide range of clinical modalities and techniques, among them Inner Child and Bradshaw's Original Pain work, family systems, psychodrama, sculpting, hypnotherapy, focusing, somatic awareness, paradox, gestalt, contextual therapy, play therapy, and others. In addition to using verbal forms of therapy, you will learn to apply methods of symbolic expression that gently, yet dramatically, create change by tapping directly into the unconscious. These methods include guided visualization, dreamwork, art, sandtray therapy, and other forms of expressive arts.
OUR SUPERVISION APPROACH
The Center’s Training Program is an intensive learning program provided by the Center’s Supervisory Team, composed of the Center’s senior licensed staff. We have found this team approach most effective to begin to create the conditions for masterful therapy. Being trained by a Supervisory Team means that each trainee and intern is provided with a coordinated, comprehensive, and integrated training experience -- an experience designed to bring forth your natural therapeutic talents, as well as allow you to remove the blocks and obstacles to your therapeutic effectiveness.
Our Supervisory Team operates best by sharing information and impressions about your work and your progress among all members of our team. Therefore, information that you share in individual supervision and group meetings is shared among all supervisors in order to maximize the effectiveness of the training program. The Supervisory Team makes special efforts to consult and coordinate among themselves in order to produce the highest quality result for you.
Individual supervision is a one-hour, once-a-week meeting with licensed, experienced staff. An intern/trainee has two primary supervisors, meeting with each on alternate weeks. We have found this to be a rich form of training, allowing you to have in-depth contact with, and the perspectives of, two seasoned supervisors. In addition, you will receive intensive audiotape review of your sessions and feedback. This is conducted at our Center via voicemail supervision from one of the Co-Directors. Initially, the voicemail supervision may be one to three hours a week, tapering over time to ten to twenty minutes a week. The time spent listening to these voicemail supervision messages can be counted towards training hours on your BBS Verification of Hours form.
Group supervision is a combination of didactic and experiential material and case consultation. Group supervision meets for two hours every week. Our Clinical Supervisory Team rotates responsibility for leading this group meeting, providing you with the opportunity to experience the variety of styles and approaches each of our seasoned clinical team brings to their work.
SUMMARY OF INTERN/TRAINEE ACTIVITIES AND TIME COMMITMENTS
The following is a summary of the activities and time commitments involved in our training program at the Center for Creative Growth (CCG). Each trainee is expected to devote 20 hours weekly, and each intern is expected to devote 25 hours weekly, to the following activities:
I. Weekly Supervision and Training Activities (6-7 hours):
II. Direct Client Contact (5-10 hours):
At our Center, direct client contact occurs in two ways: your own private sessions and as a co-therapist.
Trainees are expected to have at least 5 private clinical sessions (individual, couples, or family therapy sessions) per week by the end of 6 months.
Registered Interns are expected to have at least 10 private clinical sessions by the end of 6 months.
Trainees who become Registered Interns while in CCG’s Training Program, are expected to follow the guidelines for Registered Interns regarding hours of direct contact.
III. Writing Case Notes: Approximately 20-60 minutes per client session (2½-5 hours).
IV. Community Outreach (1 hour/week twice a month upon conclusion of Addictions/Communication Class):
This component will provide you with the skills and methods needed to create a therapy practice. Community outreach activities include:
V. Administrative Duties and Center Support (3 hours/week average):
1) Participates in maintenance of physical environment. 2) Provides clerical or computer support for databasing of client records. 3) Prepares forms, materials for groups and for waiting room information display stand.
VI. Personal Therapy (1 hour per week):
You are strongly encouraged to be involved in your own personal therapy while you are in our training program. This may be individual or group therapy. It may be talk therapy, body therapy (Rosen, Rubenfield, Bioenergetics, Core Energetics), Hakomi, sandtray therapy, or a different modality of your choice.
VII. 12-Step Recovery Work (1 hour per week average):
Trainees and interns are required to attend 12-step meetings during the initial eight weeks of their training in order to gain knowledge and familiarity with the range and variety of 12-step programs available for clients. After this required introductory period, your supervisors will determine whether your working knowledge of 12-step programs is sufficient to assist clients who come to our Center. If so, you may elect to discontinue attendance at these meetings. However, we encourage participants in our training program to continue attending 12-step meetings, finding the particular 12-step program that is appropriate to their own life or interests, thus deepening their knowledge of 12-step work, as well as accelerating their own personal and professional growth.
OUR CLINICAL SUPERVISORY TEAM
Linda E. Katz, Ph.D., MFT is the Founder and Co-Director of the Center for Creative Growth. Licensed as a therapist in California since 1982, Linda oversees the Clinical Training Program, provides audiotape review of clinical sessions, and facilitates the Staff Development Process Group and the Addictions and Communications Class. She was the Clinical Director of the Family Institute of Berkeley Therapy and Counseling Center. She taught graduate psychology classes at the Merrill-Palmer Institute (now Michigan School of Professional Psychology). She was trained as a Play Therapist by Clark Moustakas, one of the founders of Humanistic Psychology and founder of Relationship Play Therapy.
Jason Saffer, MA, MFT is the Co-Director of the Center for Creative Growth and one of the Center's senior therapists. Licensed as a therapist in California since 1976, Jason provides individual and group supervision. He also leads three therapy groups at the Center, including a Men’s Group. Jason created and hosted a cable-TV series, "The Community Health Connection," a series of 10 half-hour episodes to promote community mental health and well-being. He has been featured as a therapeutic expert on National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation” and has served as an editor of the Journal for Psychological and Spiritual Integration.
Daniel Lesny, MA, MFT is the Clinical Training Supervisor at the Center and has primary responsibility for the Center's intern training program. He is a founding staff member of the Center. He currently works with individuals, couples, and families and also facilitates two therapy groups at the Center. He also leads one-day workshops at the Center focusing on creating healthy boundaries and on creating healthy relationships. Daniel also is an Adjunct Faculty member of John F. Kennedy University's Graduate School of Holistic Studies. He teaches courses in Marriage and Family Counseling, as well as the Couple and Family Case Seminar at the Pleasant Hill campus.
Note: There is no stipend offered, or
tuition charged,
for our one-year training program.
All interns are required to pay for their own
HOW TO APPLY TO THE CENTER FOR CREATIVE GROWTH
Note: We accept applications for our Training Program throughout the year. New Training Programs start in Spring and Fall.
1. If you haven’t already done so, please carefully review our website at www.creativegrowth.com. It offers the best and most updated source of information about our Center, our approach and orientation, our services, our staff, and our work.
2. We strongly recommend that you read John Bradshaw’s book, Healing the Shame That Binds You, in order to gain a fuller understanding of our clinical orientation and approach, so that you can assess whether this type of approach fits what you’re looking for in terms of your next stage of learning and training.
3. Your application materials should include the following:
4. Send in your application materials to the following address:
Center for Creative Growth Training Program Application 1221 Marin Avenue Berkeley, CA 94706
or e-mail your completed forms (as a Word attachment) to jasons@creativegrowth.com.
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