1. What would you say to a trainee or intern interested in training at CCG?
This is a high quality training experience. CCG offers something very special that no other site has offered to match throughout my journey toward licensure. If you’re a trainee just starting out, this is one of the strongest foundational trainings you can experience if you aspire to be a deeply effective therapist. If you’re an intern already on the road, CCG offers a perspective that is timeless and will serve you in deepening and enhancing your skills thus far. It is deeply transformational, and although it can be challenging, the rewards are priceless.
2. How would you describe your overall experience at CCG?
My overall experience at CCG has been a deeply growthful period of my life in which I’ve experienced significant learnings both personally and professionally within a highly supportive environment of colleagues and supervisors.
3. What would you say you gained as a clinician from your training at CCG?
Not only have I gained extensive experience working directly and building relationships with clients, but I have gained many specific and vital skills that are necessary in learning and becoming a high quality therapist. I’ve also gained very supportive and reliable relationships with my supervisors and colleagues that I trust in and can take with me as I continue to develop.
4. What do you feel you gained personally from your training at CCG?
Not only have I gained important relationships at CCG, but I have had the opportunity to learn and practice important interpersonal skills, such as safe and open communication, authentic emotional intimacy, and self-care just to name a few.
5. Which aspects of the Training Program did you find most helpful for meeting your training goals?
Between group supervision, individual supervision, clinical training, audio training, and the nearly 24 hour availability of phone supervision the extensive amount of support offered at CCG helped me so much! I was never in a moment of question for too long which was so helpful in emergency situations. I also really appreciated the supervisors’ commitment to helping me gain the hours that I needed and then some.
6. How would you describe your relationships at CCG – both with your supervisors/audio trainers (individually or collectively) and with your cohort members?
As I described before, the relationships with my cohort members and supervisors have been extremely supportive to me. I think what has been most healing for me about them is the safety I’ve experienced and the validation I’ve received on a clinical and soul level.
7. Please comment on the component of communication as you experienced it at the Center – particularly communication between you and the Clinical Supervisory Team. You are welcome to write about the Team as a collective, or refer to individual members.
I found communication to be very safe, open, and inviting. Communication was a key aspect of the training and I found my supervisors as well as most cohort members to be very available to it. As I mentioned before, Linda’s availability for phone consultation and support astounds me. One difficulty I experienced, however, was that a lot of the phone supervision with Linda was uncomfortable at first because it went to such a deeply personal level very quickly without being face to face. I found I became more comfortable with it the most I interacted with her in trainings.
8. What difficulties did you experience during your training? Did you communicate about these difficulties to any of your supervisors? Was the difficulty resolved?
I have already commented on my difficulty with the highly intimate nature of Linda’s phone supervision being done over the phone rather than in individual supervision, although I didn’t voice this in the beginning. I believe I have voiced discomforts I’ve had about some styles of supervision and/or experiences in process groups and I always found my communication to be received well by supervisors.
9. Which aspects of the Training Program did you find the most difficult?
I found the 9 hours of phone intake to be a bit of a demand in exchange for no stipend and only a few actual clinical hours of “telemedicine counseling.”
10. If you could change something(s) at the Center, what would it be?
I would change the format of phone intake databasing, I don’t have any suggestions, but I do think there is a more efficient way to handle calls. The current mode of using google docs and calling in information to Linda feels redundant.
11. Any other comments you’d like to make?
I’m so appreciative of all the adjustments that the supervisory team made for us, such as expanding and building new rooms, and allowing me to buy plants for the offices (even though some died) as well as restorative yoga props, I thought that was so cool!