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This month's ARPA awardee profile features Kindred Psychology in Lincoln. Below, Camie Nitzel, PhD, (pictured) Founder of Kindred Psychology, tells us more about her team's project, which received support in the Funding for Supervision of Provisionally Licensed Providers category.
Tell us about your project and what made you want to pursue it?
Since opening in 2019, Kindred Psychology informally donated training resources and supervisory support for seven clinicians from PLMHP to LIMHP. When we learned of potential BHECN funding, we recognized the opportunity to further contribute to Nebraska’s behavioral health workforce development by formalizing and expanding the scope of our training program.
For our BHECN project, we developed a trauma-conscious Student to Practitioner Pathway, which provides supervision, training, and licensure support from student practicum experience through LIMHP/LP. Our program is designed to train mental health providers who are uniquely equipped to provide affirming and evidence-based care for diverse LGBTQ+ populations. We provide a learning environment that offers beginning clinicians foundational experiences, distinct learning opportunities, and administrative and supervisory support as they develop and integrate professional identities.
Our program also includes training and support for the development of clinical supervision skills in our independently licensed clinical staff. Although our more experienced staff members were interested and willing to supervise students and provisionally licensed clinicians, several identified a lack of formal training in the process of providing supervision. Therefore, our project incorporates continuing education and a supervision training experience for existing clinical staff.
What do you find most exciting about the project?
It has been a rewarding experience to formalize and strengthen our institutional collaborations with the University of Nebraska Omaha, New York University, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Bellevue University.
We have been able to increase the number of providers and supervisors at Kindred Psychology, which has helped to address our waiting list numbers. The students entering our training program have infused Kindred Psychology with new and creative energies. An unanticipated benefit to this project has been the expanded areas of expertise brought by students and provisionally licensed providers. Several have had careers prior to entering their graduate programs, and thus brought with them a wealth of information and experience to share with their colleagues.
For supervisors, being part of emerging provider growth has been a richly rewarding experience. We are a collaborative and relational workplace; thus, we have all enjoyed celebrating each milestone in the training and licensure process with students and beginning clinicians. Further, watching the career development of supervisors, who first began as supervisees themselves in the early days of Kindred Psychology, has been a beautiful full-circle experience.
What do you see as the biggest barrier to success for the project?
The biggest barrier to smooth implementation of this project has been the lengthy delay between student graduation to issuance of license numbers by DHHS – approximately six weeks. After graduation, student clinicians are no longer eligible to practice under the university umbrella, nor can they legally practice as employees of Kindred Psychology until license numbers are issued. These delays required supervisors with already-full caseloads to assume temporary responsibility for these existing clients. In some cases, this delay period caused an interruption in client care, as clients did not wish to begin seeing another clinician while waiting for the license to be issued. Further, it has been financially draining for students/PLMHPs who have finished their degrees, passed the licensure exam, and committed to clinical positions but are unable to begin working.
What learnings have you gleaned from the project so far?
Becoming a mental health clinician is a complex undertaking, and I have been reminded of the extensive developmental processes encountered by supervisees during this crucial phase of training. Supervisees have shown exceptional openness, commitment and self-advocacy for their own personal and professional growth. In addition, the engagement of supervisory and administrative staff members has been an essential component in their development.
I have observed our supervisors being steady supports for supervisees throughout this journey. They have devoted their time and attention to strengths-based mentorship, helping supervisees with key developmental processes such as case conceptualization, ethical decision-making and practicing affirming models of care.
As supervisees embarked on developing their first clinical relationships, they also had to learn the intricate electronic systems of our day-to-day operations. To facilitate this steep learning curve, our office coordinator undertook the ambitious task of compiling an exhaustive operations manual, complete with technology tutorials. While this endeavor required months of effort, it has proven to be a valuable resource in fostering student and PLMHP self-sufficiency.
The development of each clinician has truly been possible because of the personal investment and engagement shown by supervisors and administrative staff, as well as by the supervisees themselves. I am grateful to BHECN for the opportunity to have been part of this enriching experience!
Learn more about Kindred Psychology here.
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