Morningstar Counseling and Consultation, P.C.

Welcome

Welcome to Morningstar Counseling and Consultation, P.C.! Thank you for taking the time to review our site. At Morningstar, we are committed to supporting the development of multiculturally-competent and ethical professionals with specific expertise in working across the lifespan with and within tribal nations and communities.

Interns receive training on the history of tribal communities, specifically with the Winnebago and Omaha Nations in Nebraska. They will hear from elders, community members, and professionals working in the communities to learn about family structure, kinship roles, and traditional healing practices. Additionally, interns will receive extensive training in historical trauma, life on the reservations, and training focused on their own development of cultural humility and practice.

It is an honor to be invited into someone's life to support them in their journey of healing. This invite creates a relationship between the counselor and relative that is intimate and built upon trust. We honor this by recognizing those we serve as relatives due to the respect we have for that relationship and that individual. Interns have the opportunity to work with relatives across the lifespan and across sites at our K-12 tribal schools, the tribal colleges, the Morningstar outpatient clinic, and in integrated behavioral health through our partnership with the Nebraska Urban Indian Medical Center.

Morningstar Counseling has developed a decolonized model of supervision focusing on 4 quadrants of supervision training. Our first quadrant focuses on the systemic and societal norms (e.g., historical trauma, conflicting worldviews, and privilege) that impact training and supervision. The second quadrant focuses on the protection of providers (i.e., supervisees) who often experience secondary trauma, burnout, microaggressions, and imbalances in power throughout their training experiences. The third quadrant highlights the exclusion of culture in supervision models and training and ways supervisors can adapt current models and practices to address power differentials in supervision. The fourth quadrant speaks to the clinical adaptations that can be made (e.g., aesthetics of clinic, cultural integration, and policies and procedures) to ensure that supervision and training are equitable and responsive to all supervisees' needs.

Consistent with our model, interns are intentionally integrated into our staff community. We welcome interns as equally contributing members of our team and value the expertise they bring to Morningstar over the course of their training year. We invite them to learn from a diversity of perspectives, become exposed to professional life, and participate in a multitude of training experiences. Our staff are dedicated to our tribal communities and the work we do to support health, healing, and hope. Here, you will become a member of a community that embraces cultural humility, integration of culture into practice, and fun!

I hope this information provided below provides you with useful information regarding our programs' components, goals, and the application process. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at dr.hinojos@morningstar-counseling.com

With best wishes,

Belinda Hinojos, PhD
Training Director

Program Overview

This program is a unique, specialized learning experience, working with tribal nations and communities across Nebraska. Interns will work collaboratively alongside psychologists from Morningstar Counseling and Consultation, P.C., (MCC) who have extensive experience in treating trauma, issues in diversity, and serving rural and reservation areas. This focus ultimately serves to reduce health disparities among Native/American Indian peoples while providing psychology interns with diverse and comprehensive training opportunities. These training opportunities include outpatient treatment, school consultation and treatment, collaborative opportunities in integrated behavioral healthcare, and consultation, treatment, and outreach with tribal colleges. Our partners include: the Santee Sioux Nation, Omaha Nation Public Schools, Winnebago Public Schools, Nebraska Urban Indian Health Medical Center, LIttle Priest Tribal College, and the Nebraska Indian Community College. Internship Training Model

In addition to Morningstar’s decolonized model of supervision, we also follow a culturally-adapted developmental model. In this culturally-adapted developmental model of supervision, interns will have the opportunity to observe/shadow MCC clinical staff during the intake process, and on-going sessions, prior to taking on their own caseload. We hope this will reduce any anxiety about working with the community and help interns feel more knowledgeable about Native/American Indian behavioral health needs prior to seeing clients. Our goal is that as interns move through the internship year, they will begin to work more independently and begin to create their own collaborations and professional relationships within the reservation and nearby communities.

Location

Morningstar Counseling provides services on the Omaha Nation Reservation in Macy, NE, the Winnebago Reservation in Winnebago, NE, at our outpatient clinic in Walthill, NE, and at Urban Indian Medical Center in Lincoln, NE. Interns are placed at sites based on their interests and the rotation they choose for the year. Interns are encouraged to live in Lincoln or Omaha in order to rideshare with Morningstar staff to the reservations. This will also allow for them to foster relationships with other interns in the NICPP cohort and to more easily attend monthly consortium meetings and events.

Typical Day

Morningstar Counseling requires that each intern participate in 3 full days of clinic and one full day in their specialty area, averaging about 15-20 hours of direct client contact time per week with 25-30 hours total for direct contact, report writing, and case management. Another 10-20 hours a week are devoted to didactic, and professional development activities. Interns also receive 4 hours of supervision per week. Typical total intern time commitment at Morningstar averages 40-45 hours a week.

Supervision

Interns receive a minimum of two hours of weekly individual supervision by a licensed psychologist. The supervisor is on site with the intern and at minimum 50% of individual supervision is in-person, face to face. In addition, interns receive supervision for group therapy, supervision for the provision of supervision, assessment, supervision during the intern case conference, and supervision during the weekly intern meeting with the Training Director. Typically, interns receive a minimum of 4 hours of supervision per week (two hours individual and two hours in group supervision or case conference). In addition to their own supervision, interns have an opportunity to provide supervision to our master’s level trainees. Interns lead the group supervision for these trainees, in addition to providing consultation and training.

Required Intern Meetings:

Individual Supervision - minimum of 2 hours (weekly) by a LP
Intern Case Consultation - 1 hour (weekly)
Intern Meeting with Training Director - 1 hour (weekly)
TF-CBT Consultation Meetings - 1 hour (weekly)
Intern Didactic Presentations - 1 hour (monthly)
MCC Staff Meeting - 1 hour (monthly)
Intern Support Group - 1 hour (monthly)

Optional Intern Meetings:
MCC Staff Case Consultation (bimonthly)

*Additional Meetings/Supervision may need to be scheduled depending on the activities the intern is involved in (i.e., group supervision, supervision of supervision, outreach meetings).

Professional Development Training

Interns training with Morningstar can expect to receive didactic training in Native/American Indian Behavioral Health, Historical and Intergenerational Trauma, Cultural Healing Practices, and a thorough introduction to life on the reservation and within the Omaha Nation and Winnebago Public School systems. They will also receive training in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) that has been adapted to working specifically with the Native/American Indian community. The TF-CBT training includes weekly consultation with experts in the area of trauma, specially within tribal communities. Interns also have the opportunity to become nationally certified through this training. These training techniques will guide interns in the treatment of multiple forms of trauma, grief, adjustment disorders, and other serious emotional disturbances. There will be opportunities to administer assessments to children and adults for PTSD, ADHD, ASD, depression, anxiety, and other disorders that impact daily functioning. Interns will receive training and introduction to Morningstar and our community partners as part of their orientation as they are becoming familiar with our site.

Benefits

Stipend is $40,000 with paid health insurance. 11 paid holidays with up to 10 days of PTO. Interns have use of MCC laptop, copying and phone services, and media services for development of presentations.

To Apply:

A completed application for the doctoral internship in health service psychology through NICPP at Morningstar Counseling and Consultation, P.C. (APPIC program code #141619) must be received no later than November 1, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. CST for the 2025-2026 training year.

For details on the steps for completing the NICPP application, please go to the NICPP website.

Program Match Number 141619

Training year: August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026