Developing Future Practitioners
Maria Droste Counseling Center and the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work partner to train
mental health therapists and change agents

Maria Droste Counseling Center (MDCC) and the University of Denver Graduate School of
Social Work (GSSW) have a shared aim to train the next generation of mental health therapists
and macro-level change agents, and for more than 25 years, the organizations have partnered to
offer field internships for GSSW Master of Social Work (MSW) students.

Each year, five to 10 GSSW students intern at MDCC alongside students from seven other
universities. In 2021, Maria Droste trained 57 interns (four in the macro track and 53 in the
clinical track), and since 1994, the Center has launched more than 800 therapists into their
mental health careers after training at MDCC.

“Interns are a crucial part of our mission to provide accessible mental health care, regardless of
ability to pay, and their service allows us to reach more clients in need across our community,”
says Heather Rera, director of co-located programs at MDCC. “We have been lucky enough to
have GSSW interns as incredible assets in both our clinical and macro tracks, where they have
provided therapy to clients in the community and have supported MDCC in elevating our
internal work as a nonprofit and training center.”

GSSW MSW student Jessica Manzanillo interned in MDCC’s Children First program, handling
tasks such as developing resources to share in a monthly newsletter and collecting program data.
“My internship with MDCC really taught me how macro-level social work looks and feels.
Without this internship, I probably wouldn’t have found out that I wanted to do this work,” says
Manzanillo, who hopes to focus her career on advancing diversity, equity and inclusion. “I saw
first-hand how important data collection was. I saw the disparities in the communities we were
serving and how it was directly impacting our youth. I saw potential solutions to these problems
through this data, which made me realize that macro-level social work is crucial in the fight for
equity.” Manzanillo also helped to coordinate Maria Droste’s Diversifying the Mental and Behavioral
Health Workforce Project, which is working with community partners to grow and sustain a
diverse pool of behavioral health providers. As part of this initiative, Maria Droste is offering
stipends for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ interns for the 2022–23 academic year, Rera says.

2022 GSSW graduate Hye Min Nam supported the Children First program in her first-year
internship, and in her second year she served as an intern therapist, working with students in a
K–8 Denver public school and with outpatient clients at MDCC’s counseling center. In the
clinical role, she was able to put her MSW coursework into practice, incorporating client-
centered therapy, play-therapy, grief/loss counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy and other
interventions in her work with youth.
“MDCC equipped us well and also trusted us to practice our organizational and therapeutic
skills,” says Nam, who will be putting those skills to work as a social worker in Aurora Public Schools —a career direction she says the internship inspired. “I learned through my internship
that although therapy is important, there are also so many other external factors that need to be in
place for a student to benefit from therapy. Therefore, I hope to incorporate both macro and
micro aspects of social work in my role as a school social worker.”

Rich experiences like these are the goal of field internships, says GSSW Associate Professor
Aneesha Bharwani, assistant dean for field education. “Maria Droste provides such a valuable
service to our community, providing behavioral health services to all people, many whom may
not be able to access services otherwise,” says Bharwani. “Maria Droste provides licensed
supervisors to train our students on how to provide therapeutic services for vulnerable
populations in their clinic, in public schools and in community settings. This training opportunity
for our students is a vital component to their education and allows GSSW to be a part of this
critical mission meeting the mental health needs of the community.”

Learn more about Master of Social Work programs at the University of Denver Graduate School
of Social Work.