Clinical Psychology Doctoral Internship Program Overview & Curriculum
Clinical Psychology Curriculum & Training
The Clinical Psychology Internship program provides training to provide skills essential to the practice of psychology. Our training experience is highly integrative. Our curriculum aims to train clinicians in contemporary leading-edge, evidence-based practice, while also remaining informed by its context in the broader history of psychodynamic and psychoanalytic thought.
Accordingly, our training supervisors and course readings come from a broad range of approaches and theoretical orientations. This training requires a substantial time commitment to the core curriculum for psychology interns in the Psychology Department and a sustained, year-long involvement with multiple clinical placements.
Clinical Placements
Interns are assigned to at least two clinical sites for year-long placements, which allows for a more in-depth longitudinal experience. We offer a total of five positions, two within our General Track, and three within one of our Specialty Tracks:
- Psychosis Across the Lifespan
- Neuropsychology
- Mental Illness and Problematic Sexual Behavior
At each clinical placement the intern works on a multidisciplinary team. Responsibilities may include providing individual therapy, both short-term and long-term; family interviewing and family therapy; group therapy; intake evaluation; crisis intervention; case administration; and consultation with community agencies.
The program includes experience with populations which have typically been underserved, particularly those with chronic and severe mental illness. MMHC serves an exceptionally diverse community, and psychology faculty view treatment through a social justice lens.
More About the Program
Psychology has substantial representation at MMHC. There are the members of the internship faculty, the clinical psychology interns, fellows, and practicum students, neuropsychology fellows, the psychologists on the clinical and administrative staff, and other psychologists engaged in research. Psychologists enjoy mutually respectful and responsible relationships with other mental health professionals at MMHC.
Applicants are selected for placement without regard for race, color, religion, sex, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, age, marital status, medical condition, disability, or any other legally protected status.
The internship program in clinical psychology at MMHC is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association. Questions related to the program's accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation:
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202-336-5979
apaaccred@apa.org
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The program is a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) and abides by its regulations.
Psychotherapy and Psychopathology Seminar: The seminar meets for 1.5 hours weekly with readings and discussion on a series of topics, as well as case presentations. Readings and discussion topics cover a broad range of theoretical orientations on the treatment of serious mental illness and are historically integrative, covering theory from classical psychoanalysis to theory on systemic oppression and third-wave CBT approaches. The seminar is taught by Benjamin Bellet, PhD.
Research and Assessment Seminar: This seminar meets for 1 hour weekly. The first 4 months are devoted to topics in research including presentations on research being conducted at MMHC/BIDMC, seminars on grant writing, and other research topics of interest. The remaining months cover the most up-do-date psychological testing instruments and validity data, as well as advanced clinical experience with test data. The seminar covers psychodiagnostic testing and neuropsychological testing, and focuses on the conjunction of the two in our patient population. The seminars are taught by Bill Stone, PhD, and Shirley Yen, PhD.
Clinical Psychology Conference: This weekly meeting provides an opportunity for the internship faculty and interns to meet and discuss programmatic and/or clinical issues, and includes scheduled topics on risk management, law and ethics, cultural responsivity, and professional development.
Interns take part in weekly MMHC Grand Rounds, covering topics including novel therapeutic approaches, new developments in the assessment and treatment of a range of severe mental illness, clinical case presentations, cultural responsivity, and MMHC investigators’ research.
Weekly Longwood Area Grand Rounds cover a variety of clinical, research, and theoretical issues in neuroscience, CBT and DBT, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and psychology.
Interns may attend the weekly meetings of the CEDAR Clinic (Center for Early Detection, Assessment, and Response to Risk), which focus on treatment and case discussions.
Track-specific didactics include seminars on Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy for General Track trainees and the advanced neuropsychology seminar and case conference for Neuropsychology trainees. Trainees in Psychosis Across the Lifespan will receive training in Cognitive Enhancement Training and Multifamily Group Therapy.
Within the general structure provided by the interns’ placements, there is some flexibility to arrange activities in accordance with individual training needs. However, most interns find this year quite demanding of time and effort, and must make choices among the many options for additional clinical, didactic, and research commitments.
This internship has a long-standing commitment to intensive supervision by psychologists and other mental health professionals. Each intern is assigned a Training Supervisor for guidance and general overview of their program. At least four other therapy supervisors are assigned. The intern will typically have six to seven hours per week of therapy/administration supervision, in addition to team meetings.
The theoretical orientation of teaching and supervision is a mixture of psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, and third-wave CBT approaches. In all supervision, there is a strong emphasis on understanding the contemporary interpersonal and sociopolitical contexts in which patients' difficulties arise and must be treated.
Advancing Care, Research & Education
Department of Psychiatry
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Behavioral Health
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Psychiatry Research
The Department of Psychiatry conducts clinical research to develop an understanding of the etiology of major psychiatric disorders and approaches to treatment.
