For First Year M.S.W. Students:
First Year Practicum Seminars: Required Course
The First Year Practicum Seminar is designed to help students successfully enter into and engage in the learning of the first year internship. The seminar will address issues related to the Essential Attributes and Abilities and is designed to support students in achieving the defined learning objectives for the first year and to deepen their understanding and integration of content from the summer course work. Students are expected to use the seminar as a forum to discuss their own clinical work and to actively engage in the integration of theory and practice as relevant to their own internship setting. The course meets for 10 sessions September-April for 2 hours/month.
For Second Year and Advanced Standing M.S.W. Students:
Second Year Practicum Seminars: Required Course
The Second Year Practicum Seminar is designed to support second year students’ academic learning process during their internships. The goal is to foster students’ abilities to successfully engage with and integrate multiple conceptual frameworks into direct clinical practice. The seminar will revisit summer course content to provide further continuity and integration during the second year internship. Students will present their own clinical work and critically examine the treatment process including: systemic and structural dynamics in which the therapeutic relationship unfolds, internal transferential and countertransferential dynamics, and meaning making processes that inform treatment formulations, interventions, and evaluation. The course meets for 10 sessions September-April for 2 hours/month.
Assignments
During the Practicum term, students complete a number of assignments that enrich their clinical experience. A complete list and detailed information about these assignments can be found in M.S.W. Student Practicum Education Guide. They include the following components:
- Weekly process recordings (written descriptions of the interaction between client and worker; minimum of one per week)
- Development of a learning plan with the internship supervisor at the beginning of each internship
- Monthly narrative reports, including case assignments, reading and supervision
- A clinical issues paper rooted in a case (3-5 pages)
- The "Understanding Your Agency" report (first year M.S.W. students only; 4-6 pages)
- A major case study (12 pages and three process recordings)
All submitted clinical materials are expected to reflect appropriate use of confidentiality. Materials needed for completing the assignments are available in the Sonia database.