President's Column

Erica Wise, Ph.D.
 

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.”
Robert Collier

 

     This quote really speaks to me as a training clinic director! While we are all committed to the overarching mission of ADPTC, the day-to-day running of a psychology training clinic also involves the management of an incredible number of details. As I have informally networked with other training clinic directors, I have been really struck by the importance of keeping a focus on our aspirational training and practice goals while working in a world of myriad details. This seems to be especially true for me as I start the new academic year!

     There are a few things that I would like to update you on in this column:
     Planning for the 2008 Annual Meeting in Chapel Hill, NC is well underway. The contract is signed and I can confirm that we will be meeting at the Carolina Inn which is located in the heart of the UNC campus! In addition, the Carolina Inn just one block from Franklin Street which is a quintessential college town. Given the positive response to the group dinners in San Antonio, we will incorporate plenty of opportunities for informal socializing over meals. The themes of the conference will be social justice in training clinics, diversity and professional development for training clinic directors. Interest has also been expressed in technology updates. The Program Committee is hard at work on the planning of this conference under the leadership of Karen White. Please save March 12-15, 2009 in your planners!

     I have just returned from representing ADPTC at the Association of Counseling Center Training Agencies (ACCTA) conference. This is the annual conference of university and college counseling centers that offer internship training. ACCTA represents the largest single category of internships that are members of APPIC. Since many counseling centers also offer practicum training, this is a natural affiliation for us. The theme of the ACCTA conference was ?The Changing Landscape of Assessing Internship Competence: Doing What We Know How to Do Better?. Reference was made to the ADPTC Practicum Competency Outline as a seminal document for the work on competencies in internship.

     The process of updating the ADPTC website is moving along and we hope to be able to have a formal roll out before the end of the calendar year. I would like to send a very special thanks to Karen Saules for all of her work on this project. I have had a sneak peak and can report that the work is well underway and will be a major leap forward for our organization.

Erica

This photo was taken last summer on my trip to Australia to visit training clinics. Judy Hyde, training clinic director at the University of Sydney, was my excellent host. The photo was taken at the edge of the Daintree Rainforest in North Queensland.