Pennsylvania State University - Counseling and Psychological Services
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Pennsylvania State University
University Park, Pennsylvania
Starts on Monday, August 10, 2026
Applications due Friday, January 2, 2026
This training experience will NOT follow the APPIC Selection Standards with Common Hold Date (CHD) and may not allow applicants to hold offers until the CHD. Applicants may need to respond to an offer for this position prior to completing interviews or knowing their standing with other positions.
Elements of quality clinically focused postdoctoral training
This training experience is a planned and programmed sequence of training that aims to ensure preparation for advanced practice rather than one that is focused on providing supervised hours for licensure.
Yes
This training experience ensures that training takes precedence over service delivery regarding the nature, content, volume, and quality of the postdoc’s activities.
Yes
This training experience ensures that postdocs receive at least two hours of individual supervision per week for the duration oof the experience.
Yes
This training experience is administered by a doctoral-level licensed psychologist who directs and organizes the training experience and its resources, is responsible for the selection of postdocs, and monitors and evaluates the goals and activities of the experience.
Yes
This training experience has two or more doctoral-level licensed psychologists who have sufficient time to provide quality supervision and training.
Yes
This training experience includes regularly scheduled structured educational activities that help postdocs its defined goals. These activities may include didactics, seminars, case conferences, and/or research activities.
Yes
This training experience has written Due Process and Grievance procedures.
Yes
This training experience has the stable and necessary financial (e.g., stipend) and physical resources (e.g., computers, physical space) needed for effective training.
Yes
Pennsylvania State University Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) offers a full-time twelve-month postdoctoral fellowship designed to provide high-quality training in the multiple functions carried out within a major university counseling center. For the 2025-2026 academic year, CAPS will offer one post-doctoral position devoted to general clinical services.
By tradition and emphasis, we are an agency in which excellence in training is held in high regard. We are committed to the promotion of professional excellence and personal maturity in an atmosphere of humanistic concern and respect. This commitment underlies the overarching aim of our post-doc program: the training not only of clinicians who are developing areas of expertise, but of "generalists"- highly competent and versatile professionals, who keep abreast of changes in the field and who use this information to inform their clinical practice. The objective of the post-doc program which relates to this goal is to train psychologists, whose expertise extends to a variety of clinical domains, including individual and group psychotherapy, initial screening, urgent evaluation and follow-up, multicultural counseling, possibly supervision of trainees when trainees are available, and collaboration with other disciplines. Post-docs will provide business-hours crisis coverage (Counselor on Duty Coverage) and solution-focused drop-in consultation services (CAPS Chat Drop-In Services). As a part of the overarching aim, post-docs develop an emphasis area of their own choosing that fits within the scope of our agency [(e.g. couples counseling/therapy, research, advanced assessment, consultation/liaison/outreach), specific clinical areas (e.g., body image/eating disorders, sexual assault/relationship violence, sexual and gender diverse care, neurodiversity, etc.), administration (e.g. training, clinical services, research), etc.].
An additional goal of our program is the development of professionalism. As a part of the development of professionalism, post-docs are continuing to learn a process of self- evaluation of their work and its effectiveness. This is achieved through supervision, participation in the Psychotherapy Seminar, and collaborative work with other professionals. In pursuit of the objective of ethical responsibility, post-docs are expected not only to know and understand the laws and ethical principles and other guidelines, which guide our profession, but also to demonstrate an ability to apply them. In pursuit of the objective of social responsibility, post-docs are encouraged to embrace and develop an appreciation for the myriads of differences among people and to grow in their multicultural competence and cultural humility in all professional roles. In pursuit of the objective of personal responsibility, post-docs are encouraged to develop qualities that will make them effective colleagues and clinicians.
Post-doctoral fellows actively participate in all relevant agency services, which provide opportunities not only for carrying out major professional functions but also allow for abundant collaborations with our staff. We view post-doctoral fellows as valued colleagues-in-training.
Additional Information
- Agency Type
- University Counseling Center
- APPIC Membership
- Yes
- APA Accredited
- No
- Emphasis or focus area
- Health Psychology
- Other Emphasis
- College Mental Health
- Research Time
- Less than 25%
- Training Director
- Shannan Smith-Janik
- Contact Email
- sbs23@psu.edu
- Contact Phone
- 814 863-0395
- Virtual Interviews
- Virtual Only
- Duration in Months
- 12
- Hours Per Week
- 40
- # of Licensed Supervisors
- 12
- Number of Positions
- 1
- Applications recieved last year
- 6
- Accepts Int'l Students
- Stipend
- $52,200
- Will follow APPIC Selection Standards
- No
- Estimated offer date
- Thursday, January 22 2026
- Created Date
- Wednesday, November 2 2016
- Unfilled Positions
- 0
- Fringe Benefits
- University employee benefits including health insurance, retirement, holidays, vacation, and sick leave.
- Research opportunities
- Post-docs can select research as an area of concentration and can become involved in the work of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH - ccmh.psu.edu).
- Additional Comments
- A Ph.D. or Psy.D. in Clinical or Counseling Psychology and a one-year, full-time doctoral internship in health service psychology are required. APA-accredited training/internship is required. Counseling center experience is preferred but not required. Additionally, it is required that applicants complete all Ph.D. or Psy.D. requirements by the time the post-doctoral training year begins. These positions are intended to focus on accruing supervised clinical hours for licensure as a psychologist while also enhancing clinical and professional skills and developing increased knowledge and skills in particular areas of interest.
The staff at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) honors diversity and aspires to create a welcoming and affirming space that values and respects individual and cultural differences. CAPS recognizes that all people have multiple intersecting identities (e.g., race, nationality, religion, ability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, political ideology, etc.). We are committed to helping individuals navigate identity development, address experiences of discrimination or bias, and access support and resources. We strive to cultivate relationships with campus and community partners to facilitate connection and nurture a supportive environment.
Preference is given to candidates who have experience providing services to diverse populations, such as, but not limited to, underrepresented students, international students, and sexual and/or gender diverse students.
- Application Instructions
- The opening for this position is listed as a Psychologist Intermediate position at the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to the online application process, candidates should also upload 3 letters of reference and transcripts of graduate work. Two letters of reference should be from individuals familiar with the applicant's recent clinical work during the doctoral internship year and the other letter should be from the applicant's advisor in their doctoral program.
There will be one Generalist Position opening.
Applications are due Friday, January 2, 2026. Initial screen interviews (Round 1) will be conducted the week of January 5, 2026.
Following the initial screen interviews, approximately 4-7 applicants will be invited for a formal interview (Round 2). The interview will be two and 1/2 hours and will be conducted via Zoom during the week of January 12, 2026, and on Monday, January 19, 2026, and Tuesday, January 20, 2026.
We anticipate making offers on Thursday, January 22, 2026. Please note that our site does not follow the APPIC Selection Standards with Common Hold Date because if we do not fill this post-doctoral generalist position, we may use this funding to add an additional Doctoral Internship position to be matched in Phase I of the Doctoral Internship Match. The Phase I rank order deadline is early February 2026.
How to Apply: The official job posting will be available online by mid-November 2026. The link to apply for this position will be posted here once available. Applicants can also search https://hr.psu.edu/careers to see other career options available at Penn State.
This record was last updated on Tuesday, July 15, 2025
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