Bringing Healing Relationships to Those Who Hurt
Counselor Training Program
More Than Vocational Counseling
Dear Training Program Candidate:
It is my pleasure to introduce you to the Wellspring Counseling Ministries Training Program. You are invited to apply to be part of something that is greater than a position in vocational counseling: you are invited to be part of a vibrant calling to integrate a strong biblical faith with excellence in clinical practice. We are not simply clinicians who happen to put a faith label on our counseling. We are children of God, deeply loved by our Heavenly Father, who seek to accomplish His will on earth as it is in heaven.
Like the children, teens, women, and men whom God brings to us, we are learning what it means to come to Jesus as a weary sojourner and receive rest for our souls. We are learning what it means to follow Him into an intimate love relationship that heals and restores us, our relationships with others, and His creation.
From the wellspring of His love, living water, and life giving bread, we receive provisions for our own needs so that we can give to others. Should you be invited to be a part of our team, we will learn together what it means to abide in Christ, love others, and bear witness to our world in ways that are healing and restorative within the framework of a professional counseling relationship.
We will do this with great intentionality, passion, and commitment. We believe God has called us to equip the next generation of professional counselors through our Training Program. What a privilege!
In addition to a strong biblical faith, we want to provide for you a rich, diverse, and productive clinical internship experience. We would like you to be well prepared to choose a career in a variety of settings including churches, non-profit organizations, private practice and county agencies. Having worked in community mental health myself for many years, I have a strong desire to develop a training program that is competitive with what our county and community mental health agencies offer social work associates, trainees, interns, and licensed clinicians.
In addition, we believe that it is time for the body of Christ to gather resources to help reduce professional counseling fees for those most at risk and financially vulnerable in our community. At this time there are few faith based organizations that offer professional counseling that is competitive with federal, state, and county subsidized resources.
The most viable candidates for our program are those highly motivated, deeply committed followers of Jesus who do not need to rely on their internship as their primary source of income. We are a small grass roots organization and rely completely on donations and reduced counseling fees from clients to fund our internship program. Our staff is part-time and our professional counselors maintain full-time private practices are work primarily as volunteers. We cannot offer full-time positions, health benefits, or guarantee wages outside of the number of clients actually served by the applicant.
We have found that it takes approximately one year for highly motivated interns to work up to a 15 client work week. Unless you are applying for a position that serves a particular target population with whom we currently have a contract to provide services, you will need to be prepared for a slow but steady buildup of your clientele.
The advantage of being a small non-profit organization is that we can offer tremendous creativity and flexibility to help you meet your professional goals. In addition, we offer a unique integration of spiritual and clinical skill development through our monthly spiritual direction and professional consultation meetings. You will have the opportunity to grow in your relationship with Christ through the spiritual disciplines of listening to God through His Word and intentional intercessory prayer as well as meet with a diverse group of licensed women and men staff cases with our internship participants.
It is vitally important to advance spiritual growth in tandem with professional development throughout a career in helping others. Burn-out is a frequent companion on the road of helping others. I believe a life-time commitment to one’s own personal therapy when needed and/or regular supervision is one of the ways we as interns and licensed professionals can help inoculate ourselves against this threat and become better clinicians.
If what I have described matches your needs, hopes and expectations of a training program, please take the next step and email us at wellspringcounselingministries@gmail.com. Your application will be screened and a phone interview may be set up if you are a potential candidate for our program. We are accepting applications from candidates in accredited Master’s Level Counseling Programs or those who have already graduated and are seeking hours toward licensure. We provide supervision for candidates seeking a LCSW, LMFT, or LPCC at this time.
I look forward to what God may have in store for our future collaboration throughout your time with Wellspring Counseling Ministries.
With Great Anticipation,
Cindi J. Martin, LCSW
Founder and Director of Wellspring Counseling Ministries