Psychology Internship

The Psychology Division of the Department of Psychiatry at Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center offers a twelve-month, full time (35 hours), APA approved, pre-doctoral internship in clinical psychology. This program is available to matriculated doctoral students in clinical, counseling and school psychology programs who have met their school's eligibility requirements for internship.

Interns are exposed to a broad range of clinical experiences in inpatient, day treatment, emergency service and outpatient settings. Clinical work includes psychological evaluations and psychotherapy with children, adults, and families. Interns receive exposure to patients encompassing a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. The impact of multicultural issues on service delivery is discussed throughout the year in didactic seminars and supervision. The goal of the internship program is to teach students how to function as professional psychologists both within a medical center and within the community. In addition, interns can gain clinical and didactic experience that teaches new skills while improving existing capabilities. Toward this end, interns interact closely with staff members in a multi-disciplinary setting providing a broad range of psychiatric services. Didactic offerings are varied in an effort to keep pace with rapid changes in the field. In addition to an active grand rounds program, interns attend year long seminars in time-effective/family therapy and cognitive behavior therapy. Additionally there is a weekly internship seminar in which faculty members provide instruction in their respective areas of clinical expertise.During the training year, the interns' time is divided between direct service activities (e.g., therapy and testing), supervision, and didactics (e.g., seminars and workshops). Additionally, interns are exposed to the ongoing research opportunities of the department and some participation with these projects may be arranged. The department of psychiatry is the recipient of a four year S.A.M.S.H.A. grant to provide training in evidence-based treatments for trauma in children. As such, interns will benefit from training in this valuable modality by a nationally recognized expert in the field. During the course of the year interns have the opportunity to rotate through three of four elective rotations. Available training sites include addiction treatment services, adult inpatient service, child inpatient services and comprehensive psychiatric emergency services. Interns are assigned to the outpatient and child day treatment services on a part-time basis throughout the training year. In addition to these major rotations, interns have the opportunity to pursue a one month elective in pediatric and/or adult consultation liaison services, or to provide mental health assessment and treatment services in our nationally recognized AIDS designated treatment center.

One of the unique opportunities provided at Brookdale is the ability to follow particular patients through a continuum of care. Through their work on the emergency, inpatient and outpatient units, interns can become involved with individuals in one setting and follow their care as they move through the various services.

Department of Psychiatry Psychology Internship Training Program Brochure

INTERNSHIP GOALS

Our internship has three major goals:

• First, to broaden the intern's theoretical knowledge of psychology, psychopatholgy, assessment and research. We want them to be aware of current and innovative treatment approaches, as well as be sensitive to current issues impacting upon our field (e.g., managed care).
  
  Second, to train our interns to become competent clinicians. This includes competencies in basic interviewing, treatment planning, psychotherapy and psychological testing.
  
• Third, to teach our interns how to function as a psychologist within a hospital, clinic or other mental health setting. We want them to learn how psychologists interact with other professionals as a member of an interdisciplinary team and how psychologists interface with other community agencies.

To accomplish these goals, our training program includes the following:

• Interns attend professional presentations within the Department of Psychiatry and throughout the hospital. They also attend seminars taught by multidisciplinary staff and are exposed to and included in faculty research projects whenever possible.
  
  Direct clinical exposure is provided on the inpatient unit, the emergency unit and the outpatient clinics. Through this combination, interns get the unique perspective of seeing a wide variety of cases from the full spectrum of care ranging from crisis intervention to more traditional outpatient therapy.
  
  Interns are given the opportunity to conduct psychological assessments in a variety of settings including day treatment, inpatient, outpatient and general medical settings.
  
  Interns are exposed to a diverse population of patients with regard to age and type of pathology. They are trained to look beyond a simple categorization of patients with regard to symptomology and to see their patients within the broader context including ethical, cultural, psychosocial and biological issues.
  
  Interns enhance their clinical skills through training in multiple therapeutic approaches through seminars and supervision. These include cognitive-behavioral, solution focused, and family therapy.
  
  
• We believe in modeling behavior as a teaching tool. Thus, interns are privy to other psychologists' work and learn through observation of the senior staff. Interns experience their supervisors' interviewing, therapy and testing skills through co-therapy, live observation and taped presentations.