Shoreline’s Internship Program: Accessible Care From Tomorrow’s Counsellors
Accessible care, meaningful client outcomes, and continuous professional growth are core values of our practice at Shoreline Counselling.
Our internship program addresses all three, bringing affordable therapy to our community, inspiration and development to our clinicians, and a high standard of care to the next generation of therapists.
If you are seeking affordable, high quality therapy in Vancouver or Fort Langley, we invite you to consider working with our trainee counsellors.
Here’s everything you need to know about our internship program and how it benefits clients, therapists, and our community.
Accessible Community Care
Now more than ever, there’s a need for high-quality, long-term therapy in Greater Vancouver that is affordable. While mental health has always been important, the stressors of the last couple years have become unmanageable for many around the world, including in our own communities.
First and foremost, we offer this program to meet the needs of clients who would benefit from a low-cost alternative. Clients who choose this program work directly, one-on-one with our therapist interns.
Despite not yet being fully accredited, our interns are knowledgeable and well into their professional training, joining us at both the Masters and Post-Graduate Fellowship stages of their careers. Throughout the program, they are well-supported with educational opportunities and professional guidance.
We bring on interns from a number of different schools across Western Canada, including the University of British Columbia, Trinity Western University, CityU, Adler University, and Lethbridge University. And we decide who to work with based on how aligned they feel with Shoreline’s mission, vision, and unique theoretical approach.
The intention is to provide our clients with care that is more financially accessible, but no less trustworthy, professional, or supportive to growth.
Authentic, Engaged Clinicians
In addition to helping more of our community access support and care, Shoreline’s internship program helps us train therapists who are competent, skilled, and authentic.
Growing self-awareness and a commitment to personal development are absolutely essential for anyone choosing to enter the counselling profession. A therapist that does not know themselves well can do a lot of unintentional damage to their clients and colleagues. The metaphor that comes to mind is a guide, with a map, that has no idea where they are located but does not want to reveal this information to those they are attempting to guide.
We believe our profession has a calling to reduce the loneliness and pain in our communities, but we can only do that once we are living in alignment with ourselves, oriented to our place in the world. We are fiercely committed to training future therapists to know themselves well, care for themselves well, and in turn, be fiercely committed to their own path of personal growth. This is how they will be the most effective in their care for others.
How Does it Work?
Shoreline’s one-year internship is centred around hours of experience working directly with clients. However, careful supervision and ample opportunities for education make sure this experience is as useful and empowering as possible, both for clients and student counsellors.
Weekly supervision and monthly group check-ins keep all senior therapists, and the entire cohort of interns, aware of and engaged with each others’ professional progress. Client confidentiality is respected at all times during group and one-on-one supervision.
Throughout the internship program, there are opportunities for group work, psycho-educational programs, and other special projects. Often, the entire Shoreline team will participate in this curriculum, benefiting our whole clinic by creating opportunities for career-long growth and development.
Our interns access a broad range of experiences, by counselling our diverse client population. However, we also strive to support interns’ unique, individual emerging specialties, by offering greater degrees of experience in their areas of strength.
One Intern’s Experience
A Q&A with Shoreline intern Maggie Thompson, MCP, RCC, CCC
How has your experience been interning at Shoreline?
It has been transformational both professionally and personally. It has afforded immense safety while learning the profession and understanding new parts of self, a warm and inviting environment that supports camaraderie among peers, ongoing opportunity for personal growth/clinical development as well as an overall sense of community where I feel inherently supported.
How has your experience so far positively impacted your career?
The experience has allowed me to have a diverse and comprehensive client caseload that has exposed me to the complex range of the human condition. It has also offered helpful and integrative support through peer and clinical supervision that supports sustainability and effectiveness as a new counsellor.
Have you learned anything surprising from your internship? What’s your biggest takeaway so far?
My biggest takeaway has been the understanding of my own process while I’m in the same room as a client. Though I have always considered myself introspective, this internship invited a new and profound layer of understanding of myself that has translated into more effective and meaningful therapeutic work with my clients.
What’s one piece of advice you’d want to share with other counselling students?
Lean into your own process as much as you can, do your own work as you work with others. It will be transformative for you and allow you to sit with clients in an equally transformative way.
Personal Growth for Everyone
We believe in the power of alternative therapeutic models, like our internship program, to remove financial barriers and bring long-term growth and empowerment to those who need it.
If you’re interested in working with our trainee clinicians, we’d love to hear from you. To get started, just call or email the front desk — we’re here to listen.