Overview of the Child Psychology Internship

Three full-time Child internship slots are offered by the Psychology Department. The training year has, as its core, six training experiences: (1) long-term child outpatient psychotherapy; (2) adolescent inpatient treatment; (3) child (ages 5-14) inpatient treatment; (4) psychodiagnostic evaluation and assessment; (5) pediatric psychology via a four-month rotation at Connecticut Children’s, and (6) seminars.

The training year will consist of three primary four-month rotations: one on the child and adolescent inpatient service, one at Connecticut Children’s pediatric service, and one focusing on psychological assessment.

The training objectives for the child/adolescent internship program are centered on the premise that a sound grounding in both behavioral and psychodynamically informed developmental models of psychopathology and treatment will best prepare interns for successful careers working with the widest spectrum of patients. The continuum of care offered by the interns is designed to expose the intern to treatment settings in which competencies in individual, group, and family therapies can develop. In addition, consultation to a variety of medical-pediatric departments and psychological testing will allow the intern to expand beyond the traditional psychiatric system and begin learning skills that will allow them to pursue careers interfacing with the medical establishment. Perhaps most importantly, the internship program, through its use of an apprenticeship/mentoring structure, provides each intern the contact with senior psychologists necessary for the development of a professional identity as a psychologist.

Core Training Rotations

Child and Adolescent Inpatient

The Child and Adolescent Inpatient Service consists of a 15-bed adolescent unit and a 17-bed child unit, and is staffed by psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, recreational therapists, and psychiatric technicians. The units provide a range of services, including short-term managed care treatment approaches to longer-term services for patients with severe and persistent mental illness in need of hospitalization, many of whom have gone through unsuccessful outpatient and short-term inpatient treatments. The patient population is comprised of a broad spectrum of acute and chronic conditions, including but not limited to psychosis, developmental disabilities, personality disorders, substance use disorders, eating disorders, conduct disorders and problematic behaviors, and affective disorders.

This rotation provides an immersion into the role of an inpatient psychologist. Interns gain experience not only in inpatient treatment and case management, but also in functioning as a psychologist in a multidisciplinary team. Each intern will complete a four-month rotation on this service and receive a minimum of 2 hours of supervision each week. During their rotation, Interns will function within a consultative role for two patients at a time, providing targeted treatment to identified patients through the Inpatient Psychology Consultation Service. Responsibilities include individual therapy, family therapy, and treatment coordination with other members of the multidisciplinary team. Interns gain experience not only as psychology consultants and group therapists, but also in functioning as psychologists in an interdisciplinary team while learning methods of milieu therapy. Interns will receive specific training in process-oriented group psychotherapy and suicide prevention-focused group psychotherapy with adolescents, and social skills group therapy with children. The Intern will facilitate/co-facilitate about 5 groups per week.

Training objectives include a thorough learning of DSM-5 diagnoses, rapid assessment of mental status, and case formulation. Interns will develop competency in a repertoire of interventions, including development of advanced focal and intensive psychotherapeutic interventions, group therapy, psychopharmacology, family therapy, milieu therapy, and behavioral/cognitive-behavioral/DBT techniques.

Connecticut Children’s Pediatric Psychology

Each intern will spend four months providing psychological care at Connecticut Children's, a multi-specialty academic medical center.  Interns can expect to complete focused psychological consultations to patients admitted to the inpatient medical floor, provide feedback to other medical providers, engage patients and caregivers in short-term, focused psychotherapeutic interventions while they remain admitted to the hospital setting, and collaborate with other providers on the medical floor.  Interns can also participate in multidisciplinary evaluations in one of several available ambulatory clinics.  Finally,, interns can carry a small caseload of outpatients over the course of their rotation with emphasis commonly placed on cognitive-behavioral approach to care.  Patients can be referred through any of the several sub-specialty pediatric clinics throughout Connecticut Children’s. Supervision will be provided for evaluations and treatment encounters along with guidance surrounding multiple roles that can comprise a pediatric psychologist's career and development.  

Information about some of the services provided by Connecticut Children's psychology department can be found here: https://www.connecticutchildrens.org/search-specialties/pediatric-psychology

Finally, the child intern will attend pediatric journal club and relevant medical didactics during their time on rotation.

Psychological Assessment Rotation

Training in comprehensive psychological testing occurs throughout the twelve months of the training year. However, each child intern also completes an intensive four-month testing rotation where they respond to referrals for psychological testing that we receive through our centralized testing service, primarily from inpatient programs but also from our ambulatory and outpatient programs. In addition, the intern will test students attending our on-site therapeutic school (Grace Webb School) for purposes of diagnostic and educational planning.

This rotation will focus on the use of cognitive, intellectual, objective, projective, and personality-based measures. Advanced thematic and Rorschach interpretation and report writing skills will be emphasized. The intern will complete 20 psychological assessments over the course of the 4-month rotation, with opportunity to complete more if interested. Close supervision is provided by psychologists with expertise in psychological and neuropsychological testing. During this rotation in particular, interns will have the opportunity to pursue elective experiences (e.g., group therapy training, neuropsychological assessment).

The testing service plays a vital role in the mission of the IOL to identify risks for self-harm and interpersonal violence, as well as early indicators for psychosis and other forms of severe mental illness, and we expect interns to develop comfort and expertise in this consultant role. Interns will be expected to develop competencies in the administration, scoring, interpretation, and communication of test findings both verbally and in written form within a short time frame, and will gain valuable experience functioning as a consultant to the treatment team or referring clinician. Feedback skills, in particular, are a major focus of training.

Other Core Experiences

Child Outpatient Psychotherapy

Each trainee will carry at least 1-2 long term psychotherapy patients during their training year, typically referred from IOL programs. These case assignments often involve active collaboration with other providers and community agencies. Interns will receive individual supervision from the child psychology staff for their long-term psychotherapy cases. Interns may also use elective time during the training year to see patients in a variety of other clinical settings, including the Anxiety Disorders Center, Grace Webb School (our on-site therapeutic school), and Connecticut Children’s. The interns participate in a wide variety of clinical programs and receive training in intake evaluation and diagnosis, treatment formulation, psychotherapy, and liaison with school systems. These case assignments often involve active collaboration with other providers and community agencies. Interns will receive individual supervision from the child psychology staff for their long-term psychotherapy cases.

Elective Rotations

In addition to the core rotations, interns may participate in elective training experiences during the year, with the majority of time occurring during the four-month psychological assessment rotation. However, interns may involve themselves in elective training experiences throughout the training year. Opportunities include:

• Adult Outpatient Psychotherapy
• School-based group psychotherapy
• Anxiety Disorders Center: Providing group or individual outpatient psychotherapy using cognitive behavioral therapy with an emphasis on exposure and response prevention
• Neuropsychological Assessment: Depending on prior level of preparation, involvement with the Clinical Neuropsychology Service providing neuropsychological assessment
• Group Psychotherapies in one of our Partial Hospital/Intensive Outpatient Programs

Seminar Program

The Core Seminar Series is an important aspect of the intern training experience. This is a protected three-hour time block where interns come together and engage in didactic learning which is led by some of the department’s most valued content experts. The primary focus of the core seminars is centered in the development of advanced knowledge in the core competencies for Health Service Psychologists. Intervention-related seminars are heavily focus on modern reading in personality and psychodynamic psychotherapy as well as cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, group therapy, DBT, and other empirically supported approaches to treatment.  While the Core Seminar Series is the primary didactic modality for the program, additional seminars that support the development of core competencies may also be included – typically this includes a specific Child Track weekly seminar series.

Core Competencies Addressed in Intern Seminars:

1. Research
2. Ethical and Legal Standards
3. Individual & Cultural Diversity
4. Professional Values, Attitudes & Behaviors
5. Communication and Interpersonal Skills
6. Assessment
7. Intervention
8. Supervision
9. Consultation and Interprofessional/Interdisciplinary Skills

In addition to the required seminars, all interns will attend the department's monthly staff meeting where both administrative and educational issues are addressed. In accordance with APA guidelines, each intern will be expected to present case material involving either a psychotherapy case or psychodiagnostic evaluation to the faculty at least once during the training year.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Psychology Training Program, Institute of Living (IOL), and Hartford Healthcare (HHC) are committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion among our staff, trainees and the people we serve. Equity is one of our five core values as a system.

We are committed to the fair treatment, access, opportunity and advancement for all. We value the uniqueness of each person and embrace diverse backgrounds, opinions and experiences. We foster intellectual, racial, social and cultural diversity and treat everyone with dignity and respect.

This commitment is reflected on all levels of our healthcare system and trainees have many avenues to pursue continued growth in their own cultural competence in addition to incorporation of diversity and cultural aspects within clinical supervision. Some examples include the core diversity-related seminars for IOL psychology interns and postdoctoral fellows, our IOL Diversity and Equity Committee (open to all trainees), and the IOL “Let’s Talk” forums (the Behavioral Health Network’s monthly open forum to discuss aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusion).

We welcome applications from trainees from diverse backgrounds. We encourage you to inform us of any relevant life experiences in your cover letter or essays.