Psychology Internship Program

Objectives

The primary training objective of the internship is to provide an intensive clinical experience in a multicultural urban institution. The diverse patient population served by the hospitals provides a unique opportunity for the intern to become attuned to the ethnic, cultural, psychological, biological and economic factors that shape people’s lives in often devastating ways. The emphasis of the learning experience is on helping the student integrate a growing theoretical and psychodynamic understanding with practical knowledge of specific assessment and treatment approaches. Interns are exposed to patients with a broad range of psychological issues and mental disorders at different levels of functioning.

The diversity of the clinical settings provides the opportunity to observe and work with patients at all phases of their involvement with the mental health system. Patients may be followed from their entry into the emergency service, through crisis intervention or hospitalization, to longer-term aftercare.

Diagnostic skills are sharpened through the supervised program in psychological testing as well as through practice in interviewing. Students learn to conduct formal mental status interviews and apply both structured and less structured clinical interviewing techniques appropriate to patient and service.

Over the course of the year, interns become practiced in the following therapeutic modalities:

• Individual Therapy – provide brief psychodynamic, supportive and short term crisis intervention with inpatients and longer term outpatients. While the primary orientation of the staff is psychodynamic, there is exposure to a wide range of evidence based theories and techniques, including family systems theory, relational theory, CBT, DBT, Gestalt and behavioral techniques.
• Group Therapy – co-lead inpatient and outpatient groups of adults, adolescents and/or children. Groups can include process groups as well as specialty/task oriented groups (e.g. DBT Skills Training Group, STAIR for trauma group, etc.).
• Family Therapy – provide family and couples work with inpatients and outpatients as available.
• Crisis Intervention – rotations on the Adult Psychiatric Emergency Room Service and the Pediatric/Adult Consultation/Liaison Service provide opportunities to learn diagnostic and crisis intervention skills with adults, children, adolescents and their families.