For more than three decades, ICC has been serving the mental
health needs of the greater Whittier community. In addition to meeting this
mission, for the past two decades, ICC has been developing the professional
counselors of tomorrow through a training program for Masters and Pre-doctoral
level students. Beginning in the early 1990’s, ICC (then the Interchurch
Counseling Center) invited Marriage and Family Counselor trainees, predominantly
being educated at Fuller Theological Seminary.
The unique combination of students who were well trained in providing
basic counseling, along with the ability to integrate spiritual concepts, was a
good match for ICC and its clients.
Since that time, ICC has gone on to extend this training
opportunity to also include students at the pre-doctoral level studying to
become psychologists. Drawing predominantly from doctoral programs at Azusa
Pacific University, Fuller Theological Seminary-School of Psychology, and
Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University, we have continued the trend
of providing excellent counseling to clients in need, while also providing
close supervision and abundant training to students as they develop in their
skill and profession.
Counting our current staff of nine trainees, we have now
trained more than 120 professionals at ICC. Although this may not sound like a
tremendous number to you, consider that each student therapist has moved on to
work with hundreds of clients since leaving ICC. They have staffed community
mental health centers, college counseling centers, VA hospitals, Army bases and
homeless shelters. They have become excellent supervisors, professors and
trainers, now writing letters of recommendation to ICC for their own students.
They have gifted us with Christmas cards from Minnesota, emails from North
Carolina, wedding announcements from Washington and new baby photos from Texas.
Some of our trainees have even returned to their home countries of Germany and
Switzerland to continue to practice. For those who stay in touch, they
consistently remark on the impact that the training at ICC has had on their
professional development. In addition to receiving diverse training and intense
supervision, they remember the feeling of family, the kindness of the staff and
supportiveness of supervisors.
Overall, ICC has consistently offered a tremendous service
in the community by providing affordable, professional counseling to those in
need. Likewise, by training the professionals of tomorrow, each and every day,
ICC has impacted lives across the country and around the world in the skills
and training provided by our clinical training program.
