Onward Transitions (OT) for emerging adults in Portland, ME has maintained a commitment to supervising clinical internships throughout their six-year history. Fall of 2021 Onward Transitions is proud to announce two (2) additional interns. The clinical team is currently four (4) full-time, licensed, master’s level therapists supporting the 14 members (clients)..OT clinical interns serve important roles as helpful adjuncts to the work members (clients) do with their primary therapist. Previous interns have provided additional individual sessions for executive functioning, exposure work, genograms, expressive arts, base wellness, and simply lending an additional, supportive ear for processing growth and challenges in the “adulting” process. Primary therapists schedule two weekly individual sessions of their own and recommend additional sessions for members to work with clinical interns to augment that work.

“Tosh (Chabot) and Cheyne (West) will be interns five and six for us, coming on board just as Kenzie (Keefe) wraps up with us at the end of the summer,” stated Co-Founder and Lead Clinician Darrell Fraize, M.Ed., LCPC, LADC. Keefe is finishing her dual MSW/MS at the University of New Hampshire and has brought her experience with coaching emerging adults and adventure work into many of OT’s 10 weekly groups. Chabot (a specialist in multiple art forms and in serving the LGBTQ+ community)  and West (a movement specialist and yoga teacher) will be completing their MA programs in the Therapeutic Expressive Arts at Lesley University next spring.

Fraize explained that the interns who have joined the OT community have previously worked in wilderness therapy, residential treatment centers, outpatient clinics and supporting crisis lines. “We just view being a site for internships through the lens of professional responsibility,” stated Fraize. “Andy (Derstine, LCSW and Clinical Director) and I both feel a duty to help young professionals have the type of experience where they aren’t just thrown to the wolves and instead, get good, consistent supervision as they hone their craft,” he continued.  “In some ways, it is similar to our view of supporting our emerging adult members — empowering them to use their skills while providing a kind and familiar safety net of accountability and oversight to process in.”

About Onward Transitions

Onward Transitions (OT) in Portland, ME is a small, independent, owner-operated program for bright, motivated, emerging adults in the final stages of learning to live on their own. OT supports actual sustainable independent living and autonomy from two city locations. Participants (members) ages 18-29 never live with us; they live in their own apartments, scattered throughout the city. Members’ challenges include anxiety, depression, and executive functioning.