Your Internship organization

SPIC (Salma Prabhu's Institute of Counseling) is a psychological counseling center in Navi Mumbai. Alongside the founder, Salma, SPIC has 10 employed psychologists.

Since its inception in 1996, over 400,000 individuals have been counseled at ACE. ACE focuses on career counseling, special education, psychological counseling for individuals, and psychological services for companies (training and human resources). SPIC is also an authorized training partner for Pearson Clinical Assessments.

The ideology of SPIC developed from Salma Prabhu's observations in the 1990s, noting that societal changes in India led many people to struggle with managing social life, careers, and social status. SPIC's goal is to enhance people's life satisfaction.

Salma Prabhu, who holds an MA in Clinical Psychology and several postgraduate diplomas in various psychological specializations, is a well-known psychologist in India. She regularly writes columns for leading newspapers such as Mumbai Mirror, Times of India, and DNA, and has published numerous psychology books and audio publications. She developed the MA program in Counseling for the TATA Institute of Social Sciences and teaches there, as well as the postgraduate program "Guidance and Counseling" for SIES Mumbai. She worked as a TV psychologist on Saam TV for several years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was asked by the municipal government of Navi Mumbai to develop a program for pandemic coping mechanisms for state hospital employees and to operate a counseling hotline for people in quarantine.

Approximately 30% of SPIC's work involves career counseling, 40% focuses on children with learning difficulties (e.g., dyslexia, ADHD), and 30% is psychological counseling (including clinical and organizational psychology). All work with corporate clients (HR training, lectures, etc.) is conducted by Salma and her husband Rajesh Prabhu. In the outreach program, employees from around 40 schools and social institutions receive training and counseling on psychological topics.

Remote Psychology Internship with SPIC

The typical weekly hours for the remote internship are 20 or 30 hours. This includes at least 6 hours per week of live interaction, consisting of observing client sessions and supervision with Salma Prabhu or her employed psychologists. For the remaining hours, you will receive tasks to complete independently and discuss with your supervisor.

Internships are possible in the following areas, which can also be combined:

Developmental Psychology

Related to practical exposure to educational psychology, child psychopathology, teenage development, counseling psychology, cognitive psychology, or cultural psychology. Cognitive psychology will also include assessments and remedial sessions, and family counseling. Educational psychology shall also include career counseling sessions.

The internship includes:

• Live observation sessions with clients covering various highlighted areas of developmental psychology and related training and mentoring programs
• Sessions with doctors, frontline healthcare professionals, senior professionals from the field of education, counselors, and organizational personnel
• Pre-session research on the speaker and their organization
• WRT COVID-19 coping strategies
• Report writing in the format provided
• Project work on a topic provided by the supervisor
• Supervisor introduction, feedback, communication, and report evaluation

The minimum duration is 1 week (20 hours). The internship is targeting students and graduates of psychology, education, social work, and other related fields.

Clinical Psychology

Related to practical exposure to child and adult mental health, learning difficulties, emotional disturbances, substance abuse, geriatrics, and health psychology.

The internship includes:

• Various assessments related to neurosis and psychosis and their application in child and adult mental health
• Live sessions with clients/professionals including supervisors covering various highlighted areas of clinical psychology, training, and mentoring programs
• Sessions with doctors, frontline healthcare professionals, senior professionals from the field of education, counselors, and organizational personnel
• Pre-session research on the speaker and their organization
• WRT COVID-19 coping strategies
• Report writing in the format provided
• Project work on a topic provided by the supervisor
• Supervisor introduction, feedback, communication, and report evaluation

The minimum duration is 1 week (20 hours); the internship targets psychology and medical students.

Organizational Psychology

Get practical exposure to recruitment, retention, motivation, training needs analysis, appraisals, skill development, use of psychometrics, etc.

The internship includes:

• Sessions with HR heads on recruitment strategies, employee retention, appraisals, etc.
• Understanding the basics of vision, mission, goal setting, KPI, KRA
• Understanding the basics of using psychometric instruments like MBTI, 16PF, etc., in corporate settings, along with an entry-level introduction to MBTI, 16PF, and their applications in recruitment and training
• Report writing on each session in the format provided
• Project work given based on learnings provided
• Supervisor introduction, feedback, communication, report, and project evaluation

Supervision of all organizational psychology interns will be done directly by Salma Prabhu and her husband Rajesh Prabhu. The minimum duration is 1 week (20 hours); the internship targets psychology students (of any age) and anyone interested in the topic (minimum age 21 years).

Organizational Psychology with HR Focus

Areas included:

• Use of psychometrics in recruitment
• Use of psychometrics in employee training needs analysis
• Use of psychology during candidate interviews
• Employee engagement services to ensure employee motivation and retention
• Employee exit interviews
• Employee satisfaction surveys
• Use of MBTI in conflict resolution, team building, and communications
• Understanding the basics of organizational vision, mission, goals, key performance areas, and performance appraisal
• Individual employee counseling and grievance handling

Practical learnings include exposure to live projects undertaken along with the introduction to assessment reports, understanding, interpretations, and self-appraisals. Client-permitted live sessions, if possible, based on client availability and actual ongoing projects available at the time of the internship.

Assignments will include the preparation of job designation and function-specific weightage templates based on psychometrics, training need identification of case study-based learnings, personal assessment, and others.

The minimum duration for HR is 160 hours. The internship targets psychology students (of any age) and anyone interested in the topic (minimum age 21 years).

Career Counseling

Exposure to the Indian education system and the journey of a child from school to adulthood towards their careers. Practical exposure to assessments used, career counseling processes, and counseling.

Topics include:

• Live sessions with clients/professionals including supervisors covering various highlighted areas of career counseling and training and mentoring programs
• Conducting, report generation, and report explanation to clients
• Report writing in the format provided
• Project work related to career opportunities, assessment evaluations, and development in India based on discussions with the supervisor

The minimum duration is 1 week (20 hours). The internship targets students and graduates of psychology, education, social work, and other related fields.

Practical Exposure to Macro & Micro Counseling Skills

The counseling skills learned in this internship can be applied to any field of psychology.

Includes practical exposure to:

• Rapport building
• Listening skills
• Content paraphrasing
• Reflection of feelings
• Empathy
• Goal setting
• Probing
• Personal disclosure

You can take part in mock sessions with the psychologists and observe live sessions. Intern tasks include writing reports, e.g., in the areas of addiction counseling, stress and anxiety counseling, anger management, and relationship counseling.

The minimum duration for this internship is 8 weeks (160 hours). The internship is available to psychology students (of any age) and anyone interested in the topic aged 21 and over.

Practical Self-Understanding and Training for Youth

This internship is not targeting psychology students but anyone aged 15 to 22 years who wants to self-improve with the help of this internship.

The internship includes exercises and talks to better understand and develop yourself in areas such as:

• Self-introspection
• Anger management
• Time management
• Goal setting
• Decision making
• Confidence building
• Effective communication with family
• Power of the subconscious mind
• Effective study habits
• Emotional management

Practical learnings include live sessions with personal self-improvement goals (one live session per week followed by assignments for the week). The minimum duration is 10 weeks (200 hours).