How to Take Interns in Private Practice with Alexandria “Alyx” Fields | POP 1364

fair compensation mental health, intern task management, interns, mental health internship program, scaling a group practice, therapy internships

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Can interns be long-term investments for your practice? What would your current internship program look like if it were built around everything you once wished you had? Are you treating your interns as passive observers or actively accelerating their growth?

In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok discusses how to take interns in private practice with Alexandria “Alyx” Fields.

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Meet Alexandria “Alyx” Fields

Alexandria “Alyx” Fields is a licensed mental health professional, group practice owner, and supervisor dedicated to training the next generation of clinicians. She is the founder of Inclusive Counseling, where she specializes in building structured, supportive internship programs that prioritize hands-on learning, ethical development, and real-world readiness. Alyx is also the author of Adulting Well: Utilizing the Theories and Strategies of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and is known for her practical, relationship-centered approach to private practice growth and mentorship.

Visit Inclusive Counseling and connect on Psychology Today.

In This Podcast

What to consider when working with interns
Ideas for intern projects outside of clinical hours
Transition from internship to the practice
Alexandria’s advice to private practitioners

What to consider when working with interns

For Alyx, the key to thinking through what it would look like to work with interns was thinking about her own internship days.

If you remember what your experience was like when you were still learning as they are;

What helped you?
What hindered you?
What did you wish for when you were in their shoes?

Let those insights inform how you want to lead them today as a group practice owner, and potential supervisor or mentor.

I started with, “What did I like and not like about my internship?” And I can honestly say that I spent a lot of hours staring at a wall, where … the people I was supposed to be shadowing were MIA, doing their own thing, and I didn’t have a list of tasks to do. So, that’s where I started. (Alexandria Fields)

Make sure that you have a structure for your interns to follow. For example, as Alyx explains, she created a document with lists for her interns that gave them tasks to do if they had downtime or if their instructor was unavailable for a period.

We set that bar right away, and the interns have been appreciative. By and large, the feedback that we get is, “I learned a lot”, which is overwhelming during your internship, but at the end, they’re typically very grateful. (Alexandria Fields)

Ideas for intern projects outside of clinical hours

Here’s a brief list of some of the projects that Alyx had her interns work on outside of their standard clinical hours:

They read the laws and rules of the board, make notes, and are prepared to discuss the things that interest them
Marketing themselves and reaching out to discharge social workers and organizations, etc., to practice building their network in the community

Transition from internship to the practice

The interns who decide to take up a post at Alyx’s practice and apply to work there as licensed mental health practitioners can make that transition seamlessly.

They already know all of the structure. We treat our interns very much the same way we treat our employees … Well, our interns are employees, they get paid. We do feel that compensating people for their time is the right thing to do, so they immediately get a raise, which they love. (Alexandria Fields)

If an intern applies to work as a licensed mental health provider at Alyx’s practice, their expectations are the same, if not slightly raised, to suit their new level of work.

They get a raise, and know the processes already, and so they slot back in easily.

To pay her interns, some of the insurance panels that Alyx’s practice is on pay for interns under a supervisor, so long as they have their provisional trainee intern license, they can get paid for their time.

The practice also offers a lower private-pay rate for clients who choose to work with interns and their supervisors to get the help they need.

Alexandria’s advice to private practitioners

Don’t build your practice on the capitalist ideology of money; instead, build your practice on great relationships with people, and the money will fall into place.

Sponsors Mentioned in this Episode:

Books mentioned in this episode:

Alexandria Fields – Adulting Well: Utilizing the Theories and Strategies of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Visit Inclusive Counseling and connect on Psychology Today.

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Meet Joe Sanok

A photo of Joe Sanok is displayed. Joe, private practice consultant, offers helpful advice for group practice owners to grow their private practice. His therapist podcast, Practice of the Practice, offers this advice.

Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners who are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.

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