Absolutely! Interns are graduate students who are completing Masters degrees in Counseling or other related mental health fields from accredited universities. They are typically in their second year of study and obtain weekly individual and group supervision to ensure they are using best practices in their work with clients and providing services within legal and ethical standards as they complete their training.

At Embodied Journeys, they are under the supervision of Jackie Abeling, MA, LMFT—owner of EJP and Approved Supervisor in Washington and Minnesota—as well as a faculty supervisor at their university.

Should any problems, concerns, or questions arise about your intern’s conduct, please do not hesitate to reach out to their on-site supervisor.

Interns enter their internships with a base understanding of clinical skills and theoretical models, and their internship is the place to learn how to put these things into practice with clients. As with learning any new skill, their practice won’t be perfect—but neither is an independently-licensed professional—and that’s where supervision plays a vital role in their training.

Interns are in daily contact with their on-site supervisor here at Embodied Journeys and are encouraged to ask questions ALWAYS. They are also carefully interviewed and vetted by their on-site supervisor to ensure they align with and carry out the mission of Embodied Journeys Psychotherapy.

Typically, no. Just like sessions with any other therapist, your time with an intern is confidential and you are typically working 1:1 with them.

That said, there are times where the intern might ask to record your session or have a supervisor observe. This is part of their training process and completely normal, and is intended to help the supervisors understand the intern’s process in real-time sessions and provide feedback about their clinical skill development.

Your consent is required prior to any recording or observation and the intern will ask you to sign a consent form and/or Release of Information (ROI) before the session. All recordings are secured and stored according to HIPAA regulations in a secure platform, typically owned by the intern’s educational institution, and are destroyed after viewing and providing feedback to the intern.

The duration of a practicum/internship varies on the program requirements and the intern’s ability to accumulate practice hours. But typically and internship spans 2-3 semesters, or 9-12 months.

Depending on the program, the intern may be required to take the time between semesters off, so it’s possible there may be some gap weeks in which you don’t meet.

Maybe! Depending on post-graduation employment, you may be able to keep seeing the intern when they’re done with school. They’ll make sure every client, whether continuing with them or not, has a plan in place for future care when they leave EJP.

It happens! While we hope the initial 20-minute consultation is helpful in assessing fit on both ends, it’s not always foolproof.

You deserve to feel comfortable with your therapist. Hell, good therapy requires it! Sometimes it’s a matter of bringing something up that was bothering you so you and your provider can work it out. Other times, a referral to another provider is needed because the relationship is just not a good fit after all.

Either way, bring up your concerns with the intern directly or with their supervisor and we’ll work with you to figure out how to move forward.

In short, no.

Full transparency, it is standard practice in the mental health field to not pay interns for their services, which means they are often without pay for 9 months or more while seeing clients—at least part-time—and attending classes. The thought here being that interns are receiving their clinical training as “compensation”.

This practice goes against the values of Embodied Journeys and we attempt to balance offering quality and affordable services to our clients, valuing the work and dedication of our interns, while also ensuring EJP’s overhead costs are covered. To that end, intern services are not offered for free.

Depending on the type of service, ongoing sessions cost between $35 and $50. Intake sessions are a bit more to account for the additional time taken during and after the first session. The session rates are as follows:

Individual Therapy:
$65 intake $35 ongoing

Relationship Therapy:
$80 intake $50 ongoing

Group Therapy:
$35 per hour

Intern services are not covered by health insurance, although you are welcome to use any FSA/HSA funds should you have these benefits.