Esther B. Clark School - Childrens Health Council
Description updated: March 11, 2013
Program Approved for: MSW 2nd Year [X]
Agency Name: Children’s Health Council
Agency Name EBC School
Agency Phone Number: 650-322-3065
Website: http://www.chconline.org/educational-services/esther-b-clark-school
Address: 650 Clark Way, Palo Alto, CA 94304
Field Instructor:
Karen Moos
Phone Number): 650-688-3604
Contact‘s E-mail: kmoos@chconline.org
Contact’s Phone Number: 650-688-3604
County Agency is in: Santa Clara
Program Description:
The Esther B. Clark School is a non-public, therapeutic day school that works with children (and their families) who have been unsuccessful in the mainstream and special education settings at public schools and therefore need a more restrictive school setting. The school's mission is to teach these children the coping skills and strategies they need in order to be successful in a less restrictive school setting. Since EBC school offers such a unique setting for children with significant behavioral, learning and developmental challenges, students from wide variety of locations, backgrounds and cultures are referred to the program.
The EBCS Internship Program offers graduate students an opportunity to apply their clinical knowledge in a school based setting. Training objectives include: a) increased competencies in therapeutic treatment; and b) collaboration with multidisciplinary team members. Interns will provide individual and family therapy as well as co-lead group therapy sessions with a variety of age groups as well as have the opportunity to work with clinicians with a diverse knowledge base and background.
Students will be given the opportunity to work on a multi-disciplinary team along with teachers, behavioral specialists, occupational and speech therapists, and our school art therapist. Students will work with a variety of therapeutic modalities including individual, group and family therapies with a variety of clients from different cultural, socio-economic and religious backgrounds. Students will have the opportunity to do therapeutic work both directly with experienced therapists as well on their own. Students will also have the opportunity to learn how a non-public school works within a larger system to in order to best serve its clients and help them return to less restrictive settings.
Interns will be offered individual and group supervision at the EBC School. Individual supervisors will be assigned to work with interns who are primarily working at the Esther B. Clark School. All interns placed at the Esther B. Clark School also attend weekly group supervision. Clinical supervisors have a variety of different experiences and expertise.
Interns will participate in a comprehensive orientation to the Esther B. Clark School including, but not limited to New Staff Orientation, shadowing EBC staff, classroom observations and attending trainings (AVATAR, Pro-Act, PBT, etc). Before interacting with clients, interns are expected to complete all necessary paperwork and new hire trainings.
Clientele Served: We served students age 7-16 and their families. We serve students and families from a number of different counties and over 20 school districts around the bay area. Students come to us through school district referral due to the child’s home school district being unable to serve their educational needs. Our students qualify for referral to EBC through an ED or OHI eligibility on their IEP. In addition to their IEP eligibility, all our students have some type of axis I diagnosis (depression, bipolar, anxiety, ADHD, PDD …) and some have learning disabilities as well. Almost all of our students act out behaviorally in some way or another and our program has a strong behavioral component that compliments the academic and therapeutic components.
Issues Program Addresses: Our goal is to teach our students coping skills and that can help them to transition back to and be successful in a less restrictive educational setting. We work with students on a variety of issues including mood regulation, anger/frustration management, developing social skills and anxiety management being the most common issues we address. We also work closely with the student’s family through weekly to bi-weekly family sessions in order to help with parenting skills, family dynamics, family communication and establishing structure including limits and boundaries within the household.
Intern Assignments: Interns would have their own clients under the guidance of their supervisor. Interns would be responsible for conducting individual therapy and family therapy with their clients. The intern would be expected to conduct the individual therapy alone and the family therapy would either be done solely by the intern or, depending on the complexity of the case, an intern may do family therapy jointly with their supervisor. Interns also co-lead group therapy with a variety of age groups. This would be done in conjunction with their supervisor or another staff therapist. Interns also have the opportunity to co-lead art therapy groups with our staff art therapist. Interns attend IEP meetings for their client’s as well as classroom team meetings when their client is on the agenda. Interns are also expected to collaborate with classroom staff in order to advocate for their client’s needs. Interns are expected to complete all necessary paperwork related to their clients and groups including progress notes, intakes assessments, treatment plans and IEP goals. Interns are also asked to collaborate with their supervisor in providing one parent workshop during the year.
Intern Training & Educational Opportunities: Weekly group and individual supervision. Exposure to art therapy. Opportunity to attend agency workshops and trainings as they are offered.
Intern Benefits: (Include stipend, conferences, car, food, etc.) Stipend of $500 per semester/$1000 for the school year.
Other Special Placement Procedures or Requirements (Including Dates of Internship, Special Application Forms and Deadlines): Dates of internship need to coordinate with the school year. For 2013-2014 those dates are August 14, 2013-June 5, 2014. Interns will need to be finger printed and complete a TB test.