History
Michigan State University Counseling and Psychiatric Services (MSU CAPS; previously MSU Counseling Center) has a long-standing and time-honored tradition of training the next generation of mental health clinicians. We began as a training site for practicum students in the early 1950s and today we have evolved into a multidisciplinary training program that offers a variety of levels of training within an integrated collegiate mental health setting.
Philosophy
MSU CAPS is multiculturally-focused, inclusive, collaborative, holistic, and guided by evidence-based practices. We assert the inherent flexibility of evidence-based practices to include the best available research; clinical expertise; client/patient characteristics, culture, and preferences. Our view of evidence-based practice in mental health treatment is not a rigid one, we believe in the expanded view of evidence and emphasize the value of evidenced-based psychotherapy relationships. We encourage trainees to provide multiculturally sound, culturally adapted, and individually responsive psychotherapeutic interventions.
We use a public health and wellness framework that defines student development within a broad cultural, systemic, psychological, and biological framework which structures our services. MSU CAPS at its core is a training center where we are committed to helping to develop the next generation of mental health clinicians.
The heart of the MSU CAPS training program are the values and principles of multiculturalism and social justice; looking at the influence of systems, honoring individual experiences, and cultivating the attitude of multiple ways of knowing.
Goal
Regardless of the program you are interested in, our goal is to prepare effective professional mental health providers who are generalists and equip them with a consolidated professional identity. While our setting is within a collegiate mental health setting, we believe that our training and services prepare those who train with us for a variety of positions and settings in their career.