Ryan Thomas Neace

In Part 1 of “What’s Wrong with the Counseling Intern Picture?”, I made clear that the way counselors-in-training approach the internship phase of their programs needs changing. I’d now like to turn our attention to what needs changing in Professional Counseling culture toward young people in general, and especially toward counseling interns.

Frequently, I get contacts from students panicked, sometimes legitimately, over one internship thing or another. I try to help in any way I can, but often, my answers may have a similar ring to them. It lead me to start wondering, both from the perspective of counseling interns and the perspective of the counseling industry’s culture toward them, what is wrong with this picture?

Over the past few years it dawned on me that there are close to 1000 counseling education programs in the US – over 600 of them CACREP-accredited. That’s tremendous! What’s more, literally every student in every program must go through an internship. The American Counseling Association estimates that it has approximately 20,000 student members! Yet, for all of these realities, until now there has been no resource on the web for students to find counseling internships. That just didn’t seem right.

You CAN find an internship. Really!!! To some, this is the height of obviousness. They are well-connected by their academic program, family or personality, hard work, good politics, or just sheer luck. They’ve got any number of options come internship time. To others, this is the height of optimism. They are less-than-connected, by virtue of their online studentship, youth or senectitude, years spent in some other career, or just plain old bad luck. But even so – you can find an internship!

In my work with counselors-in-training, I see common mistakes in attempts to land internships. At my practice, I regularly receive undergraduate and graduate internship applications from 5 institutions within a 3-4 hour radius, and handful of applications from across the US. Also, I’m fortunate enough to be privy to the shared experiences of students in my care. Certainly, not all students (or programs) are created equally, but the kinds of mistakes I see in attempts to secure internships don’t discriminate – State vs. Private, Small vs. Large, Well-known vs. Obscure, etc. No matter from which kind of program counselors-in-training come, they’re mis-stepping to the beat of the same drum. Here are 3 of 10 reasons why you keep getting turned down for counseling internships: