Our Training Initiative
"My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better."
— Steve Jobs
About Our Training Initiative
We are committed to training and mentoring to continue to strive for excellence in all that we do and to shape excellence in the next generation. To that end, we are a group of clinician-scholars that offer and attend countless trainings each month to improve and reflect upon our clinical skills. We are also committed mentors who strive to shape the next generation of clinical-scholars, clinical research scientists, and data experts in healthcare informatics.
Our Training Team
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Dr. Melinda Green
Chief Executive Officer, Clinical Supervisor, Research Center Director
Dr. Green specialized in Clinical Supervision during her doctoral program and predoctoral internships at Iowa State University, mentoring many fellow first, second, and third year graduate students in clinical excellence during the final three years of her doctoral program. Dr. Green also mentored her own team of graduate and undergraduate research assistants during her final three years of her doctoral program at Iowa State University, winning the Science Directorate Award from the American Psychological Association for her doctoral research project conducted by this team. Dr. Green continued to mentor undergraduate, graduate, and professional mentees in research and clinical science throughout her career as a faculty member and research scientist at the collegiate level for 17 years prior to starting her own clinical practice. As a Clinical Supervisor and Research Center Director, Dr. Green continues to mentor undergraduate, graduate, and professional interns, research scientists, and clinical supervisees.
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Erica Bobst
Training Director
Erica credits her early ballet training for formulating a base of understanding, growth and safety to learn by error, which she brings to her role at Green Counseling Services.
Clinically, her role as a Staff Nurse in the Department of Psychiatry through University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, offered her opportunities to preceptor both nursing and graduate counseling students in their clinical rotations, and her adjunct position through Department of Rehabilitation and Counselor Education within the College of Education at The University of Iowa, has allowed her to supervise students in their clinical experiences within our local communities. Erica also offers supervision to Psychiatric resident physicians via the University of Iowa Department of Psychiatry, given the departments commitment to the development of their learning providers integrating evidence-based therapy models within the final years of their residency.
Within Green Counseling, Erica dedicates efforts to post-graduate clinicians seeking their full licensure, using a Cognitive Behavioral Model which parallels her own clinical practice style. Given the state of Iowa's desperate need for providers trained in understanding and treating individuals with eating disorders, she is particularly dedicated to efforts in growing this clinician base.
Green Counseling offers rich training experiences for their providers with weekly seminars, case consultations, research initiatives, and monthly all practice trainings.
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Dijana Dugalic
Clinical Supervisor
Dijana Dugalic, LISW has a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Iowa and has been practicing since 2014. She completed the NASW Clinical Supervision Certification program and has been providing clinical supervision and training to other social work and counseling professionals since 2021. She was also involved with program administration and peer supervision with fully licensed colleagues during previous employment, in clinic, hospital and integrated-health settings. Her approach to supervision aims to support and foster growth, while ensuring client and therapist safety.
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Christina Sowers
Clinical Supervisor
Christina Sowers, LMHC, IADC has a Master of Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Iowa. She has been practicing in the mental health field since 2008. She has been providing clinical supervision and training to the counseling profession since 2016. She has supervised both social work and counseling professionals over her time in the field. Her approach to supervision is to support the counselor in training to reach their goals while maintaining the highest standards of ethics.
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Tara Wilford
Davenport Clinical Director, Clinical Supervisor
Tara Wilford, LISW has a Master of Social Work degree from Michigan State University. Though Tara is new to the supervisory role with her certification beginning in December of 2023, she has been active in client case consultation meetings and case coordination with other clinicians throughout her education and career. Tara's approach to supervision is to pair a strengths based approach to the cognitive behavioral model, with the ultimate goal of fostering a safe environment for open discussion, learning, and clinician growth.
Training Opportunities
Clinical Excellence Training Series: The practice training team, leadership team, and clinical providers offer Clinical Excellence Training to all members of our provider staff in order to continue to develop and hone our clinical skills so we provide the best services possible to our clients. Training opportunities are offered 3 times per month and include a focus on basic and advanced listening skills in the micoskills hierarchy as well as specialized skills from various empirically supported therapeutic approaches including ACT, CBT, DBT, IFS, CPT, MI, EMDR, and many others. Training topics are also tailored to address specific presenting concerns and empirically supported protocols and etiological research for these concerns. CEU credits are typically offered for these training opportunities provided for most of our staff completing the Clinical Excellence Training Series.
Eating Disorder Clinical Training Series: One of our specialty niches as a practice is the prevention and treatment of eating disorders. All of our staff are provided the opportunity to receive extensive clinical training on the most effective ways to prevent and treat these disorders via our Eating Disorder Clinical Training Series. In this series, we focus on teaching and learning the latest science on the etiological factors which contribute to the onset and maintenance of eating disorders so we can effectively address these factors during treatment. We also examine the most effective treatment approaches for a variety of eating disorders including ARFID, bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, other specified feeding and eating disorder, and unspecified feeding and eating disorder. We provide training on CBT-E, IPT, DBT, RO-DBT, MI, Etiological Therapy, Dissonance-Based Therapy, Sociocultural Therapy, and Feminist Therapy as leading treatment approaches for the prevention and treatment of eating disorders.
State of Iowa Behavioral Health Network Training Series: We provide CEU training opportunities for behavioral health providers across the State of Iowa at no cost in order to contribute to the development of a strong behavioral health community across our state. We offer many CEU opportunities annually on a variety of topics ranging from the Etiology of Eating Disorders to the Neurobiology of Depression. Please contact Dr. Melinda Green (insert contact link) if you would like to register for upcoming CEU opportunities.
Supervision for Providers with Temporary and Provisional Licenses: We offer clinical supervision for providers with temporary and provisional licenses. We are approved and credentialed by our respective boards to provide supervision for LMSWs, tLMHCs, provisionally licensed psychologists, and provisionally licensed LMFTs in the State of Iowa. We offer .5-1 hour of individual supervision weekly (contingent upon license type) and 1-3 hours of group supervision weekly to our providers with temporary and provisional licenses at no cost. We use a cognitive-developmental approach to mentoring, consistent with the best practices as indicated in the supervisory research literature.
Supervision for Preceptorships, Practica, and Clinical Internships: We offer clinical supervision for Preceptorships, Practica, and Clinical Internships for graduate and professional students in Social Work, Mental Health Counseling, Marriage and Family Therapy, Counseling Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Health Psychology, and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner programs. Please contact Dr. Melinda Green for current opportunities at each practice location.
Undergraduate Internship Opportunities
We mentor undergraduate students via internship opportunities in several areas related to Business Management, Healthcare Administration, Marketing and Business Development, Healthcare Informatics and Data Science, and Clinical Research Science. These opportunities may be appropriate for students from several disciplines. We host interns from several departments at many local and regional academic institutions inside and outside of the State of Iowa.
Business Management and Healthcare Administration Internship
We offer an internship in Business Management and Healthcare Administration which introduces students to the daily business operations within behavioral healthcare. Interns in this area will receive training on excellence in Healthcare Business Operations with an emphasis on Behavioral Health. Interns will assist with daily operations, the development and evaluation of operations policies and procedures, negotiations of contracts with third party payers, evaluation of organizational climate and culture, evaluation of provider performance, market analysis of demand for clinical services, market analysis of competitive compensation models for providers and staff, infrastructure management and development, and the development and implementation of Human Resources oversight mechanisms using data analytic strategies (in consultation with our data analytic team).
Marketing and Business Development Internship
We offer a Marketing and Business Development Internship which focuses on expanding our referral network and increasing our brand awareness via marketing efforts. Interns within this area will assist with website revisions, social media marketing, print marketing initiatives, digital marketing initiatives, referral networks development, brand awareness efforts, provider recruitment efforts, market analysis, practice signage development, and the planning and execution of community initiatives and events with a marketing focus
Healthcare Informatics and Data Science Internship
We offer a Healthcare Informatics and Data Science Internship which integrates data analytics to improve our clinical outcomes and daily operations. Interns within this area will assist with the development and implementation of data analytic strategies to provide quarterly evaluations of provider and practice performance and biannual evaluations of administrative and executive staff. Interns will evaluate biannual client satisfaction survey data and develop provider and all practice reports to improve clinical excellence and to provide quality indicators to third party constituents including third party payers. Interns will assist in the development of reports to third party payers which overview quantitative indicators of clinical excellence. Interns will assist with the evaluation of provider performance via analysis of clinical indicators including number of clients served until the standard of care, early termination of care, client show rate percentage, and other data driven indicators of clinical outcomes. Interns will conduct descriptive and inferential statistical analysis and will use data visualization strategies to analyze and convey this information.
Research Assistant Internship
We offer a Research Assistant Internship which supports the ongoing clinical trials and behavioral health research projects being conducted within our Research Center. Interns within this area will conduct comprehensive empirical literature searches to summarize the latest research related to each project. Interns will assist with protocol development and the identification of reliable and valid assessment inventories to evaluate predictor and outcome variables. Interns will assist with participant recruitment efforts and clinical screening to determine participant eligibility for ongoing research studies and clinical trials. Interns will help to maintain documents necessary for human participant protections and will oversee IRB approved processes including assistance with Good Clinical Practices documentation. Interns will assist with grant preparation for applications submitted to National Institutes of Health. Interns will assist with scoring and data entry related to predictor and outcome measures. Interns will assist with data analysis including both descriptive and inferential analysis. Interns will assist with writing of publications to be submitted for peer reviewed outlets and with abstract preparation for local, regional, national, and international conferences.