Training Department

Supervisors
 
Please visit our Supervisors page to learn about our Training Team!
 

Philosophy and Structure

The training of psychologists is an essential part of the mission of the Portia Bell Hume Behavioral Health and Training Center. As such, The Hume Center is dedicated to the development of excellence in its practicum students, interns and post-doctoral fellows as it supports its trainees in the delivery of psychological services to diverse under- and unserved populations.

Our Philosophy

The Hume Center's guiding philosophy is that the key to helping others who are in psychological distress is to understand that the way they are seeing their circumstances gives rise to the way that they are interacting with the world. Symptoms are coping strategies that make sense when they are seen from the perspective of the client. The fundamental belief that underlies our approach is that all people want to be effective and want to express what they see as the truth about their lives, so we approach our work with them with compassion, openness, and respect.

Our approach to training at The Hume Center is based on the conviction that our trainees can best help others with compassion, openness, and respect when The Hume Center staff treats its trainees with those same attitudes. Our guiding philosophy is that trainees will do their best work and will learn best in an environment where relationships with supervisors, staff, and peers are valued and respected. Specifically, our approach to group supervision demonstrates our conviction that non-judgmental peer consultation greatly increases the value of the group experience for both presenters and participants.

Organizational Support Structure

As referenced above, The Hume Center strives to create a supportive work environment consistent with our therapeutic practice. Such a supportive work environment is essential to deliver the highest quality of training behavioral health professionals to serve our community. To make our expectations clear to every one who joins the Hume Center at any level of the organization the person is given a copy of the Organizational Culture and the Welcome Letter at the time s/he joins the organization. They are also oriented to the kind of support available in the organization to achieve our goal of creating a supportive work environment. The center has an organizational support system in place at all levels of the organization that nurtures an empowerment model of working together.