The Mentor Program is your support line throughout the training process. The Mentor Program provides you with professional support for the years between semesters. The Program’s job is to provide support as you develop your skills & practice and complete your inter-semester assignments.
Just as we have told you that developing client assessment skills requires both sharpening your eyes and looking with softer eyes, the Mentor Program can be considered to have 2 statuses in your training process: The Mentor Program is both a resource centered around you the student to serve your needs, and an obligation on the part of you the student as part of your interim year assignments/responsibilities.
- This means that we want you to always remember that the Mentor Program is here to help you when you need it. Please feel entitled to use us as a resource. Do not hesitate to contact the Mentor Program when you need assistance, even if it’s just for a “pep talk” or the page number in a book.
- This also means that you are expected to make your scheduled contacts with the Mentor Program. You are expected to do so even if it feels like you personally don’t need to speak with the Mentor Program, you don’t have any support needs and/or you are not focused on your training process at some particular scheduled point. In this case, think of the contact as an opportunity for us to update our knowledge of your current process.
This dual consideration of the Mentor Program is the way we have found from years of experience to better assure that you will really get the support you need, and maximize your success and development in this program, despite the many other day-to-day events by which we all get consumed.
Support from Faculty Directly
The Mentor Program is designed to assure support and tracking of your interim training process. However, you should feel free to contact any faculty members directly for support when you need it! You may find that you have a great relationship with a faculty member; or that s/he has particular expertise related to your support need; or that it would be more comfortable to discuss a particular support need with a faculty member other apart from the Mentor Program; or perhaps a trainer is immediately available when you need her/him for a time-sensitive issue.
You must contact the Mentor Program for your scheduled contact times. However, you may contact the Mentor Program or any other faculty member at any other time for any other reasons. The most reliable way to obtain assistance is by contacting the Mentor Program first and allowing them to manage your support need, even if you wish to speak with a specific faculty member.
Student’s Responsibilities
For your scheduled contact times, it is your responsibility to make a good faith effort to contact the Mentor Program. This means that if you call once and leave a message, you should call a second time a few days later if you don’t get a response. If you contact the Mentor Program by email and do not get a response (especially given the sometimes unreliable nature of email), you should call the Program; if you leave voicemail by phone and don’t receive a response (given the sometimes unreliable and sometimes cumbersome nature of voicemail), you may wish to email the Program. Chasing after you is not the Mentor Program’s job. Please try to be reasonably available when asking for support or scheduled contact.
Support Problems
If you encounter problems with the Mentor Program, or with individual faculty, trainers, or practitioners, please contact either the Executive Program Director or Academic Director.
Contact Information
See the most up-to-date contact information pages elsewhere in this book or in your student handbook for the current ways to reach the Mentor Program.
