Understanding the Benefits of Working with an Intern Therapist
If you’re reading this, you’ve already taken the first and hardest step to improve your mental health and wellbeing. Welcome! If finding a great therapist to walk beside you and help navigate life’s challenges feels daunting, you are not alone. Many are not taking new clients, some don’t accept your insurance, others have hourly rates that make up half your monthly food budget.
We all hope to find that compassionate, experienced, professional therapist who can help us unlock the perfect path forward to better health and well-being, but many face barriers to care that can make this process difficult. A recent study shows that less than half of adults with a mental health condition received any mental health services at all. The care gap is even wider for children and adolescents. So, how can you access mental health care in a time when it’s more needed than ever, but increasingly harder to access?
Let’s talk about the unique advantages of seeing an intern therapist for mental health counseling and dispel some myths and misconceptions about newer clinicians. I hope you will come away from this feeling confident in your expanded options for care and will consider making an appointment with an intern to begin the process of growth, healing, and reconnection. You deserve nothing less!
What is an Intern Therapist?
An intern therapist is a graduate student in a master’s or doctoral counseling program who is in the advanced stages of training. As part of our degree requirements, interns provide counseling services directly to clients under the close supervision of licensed mental health professionals.
Interns have already completed at least one year of coursework in psychology, counseling theory, ethics, and therapeutic techniques before beginning this stage of our education. We are trained to use evidence-based interventions and are continuously evaluated by supervisors to ensure that the care we provide is safe, ethical, and effective. We may be newer to the field, but we are engaged in daily, rigorous training for the direct advantage of our clients.
The Benefits of Working with an Intern
When considering therapy, as with all professional services, is it safe to assume that a more experienced, licensed practitioner is always the best choice? Does time in practice equal wisdom? Possibly. Interns, however, offer benefits to clients that are unique to our position: accessibility, affordability, high-quality supervision, energy and enthusiasm, resilience against burnout, a flexible approach to client care, the most up-to-date training, and a constant appraisal of evolving theories in the field.
Accessibility: Therapy That’s Within Reach Right Now
Because we are in training and require a certain number of clinical hours to graduate, we often have more flexible schedules, greater availability than seasoned practitioners, and are eager to take on new clients. Many of us offer evening or weekend appointments to accommodate client needs and ensure equitable access to care. For individuals who have struggled to find a therapist who can see them within weeks—not months—working with an intern can mean getting started with a therapist sooner.
Accessibility also extends beyond scheduling. Interns are often highly motivated to meet clients where they are, whether through telehealth, sliding-scale payment structures, or with flexible hours. This makes therapy a more realistic option for people who may otherwise forgo it due to multiple systemic barriers.
Affordability: High-Quality Care at a Lower Cost
Therapy is an emotional and financial investment, but for many people, the high cost is prohibitive. Intern therapists, however, typically provide services at a reduced rate compared to licensed professionals. CRS offers an income-based sliding scale for as low as $20 per session and Medicaid clients have no co-pay at all. Yet, affordability does not come at the expense of quality. We are closely supervised by licensed clinicians, receiving daily constructive feedback on our work, and attending classes taught by giants in the profession.
Reduced rates also make it possible for clients to attend therapy more consistently and for a longer duration, both of which are strongly associated with positive outcomes. For individuals who are uninsured, underinsured, or financially constrained, working with an intern can make therapy accessible without creating additional financial stress.
Licensed Supervision: A Built-In Consulting Team
One of the primary advantages of seeing an intern therapist is that we don’t work in isolation. Interns are required to receive ongoing supervision from licensed practitioners who review our work, provide consultation, ensure that clients receive high-quality care, and give experienced and nuanced advice. This means when you see an intern, you are benefiting from a team approach to your care. Interns will meet with their supervisors weekly to confidentially discuss cases, receive critical and constructive feedback, and refine the interventions being used with clients. Supervisors ensure that their supervisees adhere to ethical standards and state regulations, and that clients are safe, supported, and receiving appropriate care at every stage of treatment.
Joy for the Work: Energy, Engagement, & Enthusiasm
Intern therapists bring a kind of energy to therapy that can be difficult to sustain after decades in practice: unfiltered enthusiasm. We are at a formative point in our careers, eager to learn, motivated to make a difference, and deeply dedicated to our clients. Interns are likely to bring creativity, flexibility, and curiosity into the therapeutic process, without calcified ideas of what works and what doesn’t, and often practice from a non-hierarchical stance.
Similarly, therapists who have worked in the profession for decades can sometimes feel drained, detached, or emotionally overextended. Burnout is real, and we have all felt it at one time. Interns, however, are still early in our careers, and our perspective is still one of curiosity and possibility rather than fatigue and repetition.
Trained in the Most Current, Empirically Supported Modalities
Another key advantage of working with an intern is our concurrent training. Because we are all enrolled in graduate programs, we are immersed daily in the most up to date, peer-reviewed research. We are learning the latest empirically supported modalities such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness, somatic therapies, and trauma-informed approaches. We are constantly evaluated on our ability to apply modern, effective techniques.
Psychology and counseling are living disciplines. Theories evolve, new research emerges, and the field continues to refine its understanding of human behavior, identity, and healing. Intern therapists are familiar not only with foundational approaches such as psychodynamic, humanistic, or cognitive-behavioral therapy, but also with newer structures such as feminist theory, multicultural counseling, and intersectional perspectives. These newer frameworks recognize the role of culture, identity, and systemic factors in mental health, making therapy more inclusive and relevant for our clients.
Dispelling Myths and Misconceptions
Intern therapists are too inexperienced to be good counselors.
We may be new to the field, but as explained above, we are not newbies. We are rigorously trained, educated, and supervised, and the time and energy we put into our work with clients is prodigious.
Interns are so young, how can they possibly have lived enough life to understand my feelings?
We do not come into therapy sessions having lived the same life as our clients. We are trained to create a safe space, maintain a non-judgemental stance, and use our empathy to help our clients progress on their path towards functionality and health. This has less to do with age and everything to do with skill and native talent. Plus, for many of us, counseling is a second (or third!) career, and you might be surprised to find your intern therapist is older than you are!
There is no way an intern could handle my issues.
Interns may be new to the field, but we are instructed right from the get-go that if there is something we are unsure about, we are to consult with a supervisor, mentor, and/or professor. Our priority is always our clients’ well-being, which is no different than someone who has been in the field for decades.
The Beating Heart of Therapy: The Therapeutic Relationship
Research tells us that positive client outcomes aren’t directly correlated to the clinician’s preferred modality, theoretical orientation, or even experience, but to the quality of the therapeutic relationship between the counselor and the client. Therapeutic rapport is the trusting, collaborative, and authentic bond between therapist and client. It encompasses empathy, respect, and a sense of safety. When clients feel understood and accepted by their therapist, they are more likely to engage openly in the process and move toward change.
Ready to Get Started?
Deciding who to trust with your mental health is a deeply personal choice. Seeing an intern therapist is not a compromise in care or second tier therapy. We are well trained, enthusiastic, dedicated, affordable, and accessible. The most important factor is whether you feel comfortable, supported, and understood. If you do, regardless of how long the counselor has been in practice, you’re in the right place with the right clinician. You might be surprised to discover that the right clinician for you is an intern.
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Beth Amsel was a touring singer-songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist for nearly 20 years. In 2022, she returned to CU Boulder to finish her BA in History, focusing on menopause and aging in the U.S. She is currently a second year Master’s candidate in counseling psychology, with a focus on clinical mental health, at the University of Denver, and a clinical counseling intern at Center for Resilience Strategies. When not seeing clients or studying, she loves to hike in the foothills, cook extravagant meals for her community, and snuggle with her elderly yellow lab, Ellie (aka: BabyDog).