Postdoctoral Fellowship

Fellowship Overview

The USF Counseling Center is committed to training mental health providers who are prepared to work independently as competent practitioners and leaders in integrated healthcare and university counseling settings. To this end, the postgraduate fellows continue to master of the core competencies of their chosen discpline with an emphasis on those most relevant to university mental health settings.

The postgraduate fellows provide individual, group, crisis counseling, and outreach services in the USF Tampa Counseling Center and may have the opportunity to supervise  graduate student clinicians.  Additionally, fellows will create their own plan to develop some specialization in an area of treatment focus (eating disorders, grief and loss, trauma, BIPOC students, LGBTQ+ students, etc.) and/or service administration (e.g., training, clinical administration, professional development, outreach, etc.). 

As an interdisciplinary program graduates from terminal degrees in psychology (doctoral), counseling (masters or doctoral), and social work (masters or doctoral) are currently accepted. The center typically aims to have one postgraduate fellow of each discipline, althought the center may accept more or less depending on funding and number of qualified supervisors of various disciplines at the USF Counseling Center. The fellowhip is designed to meet the requirements for licensure for each discipline. 

For postmasters fellows in social work or counseling, the postmasters fellow will be appointed in the position for one year, with the option to renew for a second year. The fellow will need to apply for and receive the Registered Mental Health Counselor Intern or Registered Clinical Social Work Intern status. If completing the full two years at the counseling center, the postmasters fellow will accrue two years of supervised experience with a minimum of 2 hours of supervision provided weekly (more than 100 hours of supervision) and gain 1500 hours of face-to-face psychotherapy with clients.

For postdoctoral fellows in psychology, the appointment is for 1 year. The postdoctoral fellow will accrue 2000 hours of supervised experience, which meets the postdoctoral professional experience requirements of licensure in Florida. Of these 2000 hours, 900 hours will be spent in activities related to direct client contact. 

Work hours are typically Monday through Friday during 8-5pm but may include some evening hours, typically once a week.

Past graduates of the program have obtained employment in various settings including university counseling centers, federal prisons, private practice groups, community agencies, general hospitals and Veterans' hospitals.