Clinical Psychology Placements & Specialty Tracks

Clinical Placements and Internship Tracks

Interns' clinical placements include MMHC outpatient teams, and a specialty track clinical placement, which may be one of the following: 1) the Rapid Access to Flexible Treatment (RAFT) program, also referred to as the General Track, 2) the Psychosis across the Lifespan program, 3) the Mental Illness and Problematic Sexual Behavior Track, and 4) the Neuropsychology Service. We offer two internship positions in our general track, and one position in each of the other three tracks.

Outpatient Service

The Outpatient Service is the Department of Mental Health outpatient service for approximately 1,000 patients, and is comprised of several Continuing Care Teams. These individuals are eligible for DMH services, usually signifying a diagnosis of a major mental illness, considerable functional impairment, and no means to obtain treatment in the private sector. This service includes specialized DBT and problematic sexual behavior outpatient teams. There are also teams with Spanish speaking clients and Spanish speaking supervisors.

Interns work on multi-disciplinary teams and have full clinical responsibility for their patients, and can expect this to account for approximately half of their clinical time.

Internship Tracks

Four tracks are available in the internship program: the General Track (at the RAFT program), the Psychosis across the Lifespan Track, the Mental Illness and Problematic Sexual Behaviors Track, and the Neuropsychology Track. Interns spend about half of their time in their specific track, and half of their time on one of the Continuing Care Outpatient teams. (The exception is the Psychosis Across the Lifespan Track, described below). Applicants may apply to one or more tracks by indicating their preference on our application form.

The RAFT Program (General Track) offers comprehensive, time-limited intensive individual and group treatment for DMH eligible patients with serious mental illness (SMI). Utilizing a multisystemic approach, the program addresses the complex needs of individuals through coordinated care and case management, ensuring support across all facets of their lives. Interns work within a multidisciplinary team that includes psychiatrists, social workers, occupational therapists, and nurses to conduct intake interviews and deliver recovery-oriented psychotherapy grounded in Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). Beyond these evidence-based practices, the program integrates diverse therapeutic modalities and offers a wide range of group treatments focused on vocational training, life skills development, physical fitness, communication skills, and expressive arts.

Psychosis Across the Lifespan Track offers full year participation across two sites specializing in Clinical High Risk (CHR) and Early Psychosis, respectively. Interns will provide individual therapy and assessments to CHR youth in the Center for Early Detection and Response to Risk (CEDAR) program which treats young people (ages 12-30) presenting with CHR. Interns will also participate in groups at the Advancing Services for Psychosis Integration and Recovery (ASPIRE) clinic for those with early psychosis (ages 18-45). Interns will have the opportunity to provide individual therapy, develop and deliver group-based interventions, and administer psychological assessments.

Mental Illness/Problematic Sexual Behaviors Track offers full year participation in the Mental Ilness/Problematic Sexual Behaviors outpatient team, which entails engaging in individual therapy, care coordination, risk assessments, and consultation on a multidisciplinary specialty team dedicated to mental illness and problematic sexual behaviors.

Neuropsychology Track involves full year participation in the Neuropsychology Service at MMHC and at the BIDMC Outpatient Psychiatry Service.  Intern performs evaluations of both psychiatric patients and the general population, including questions of dementia, ADHD, LD, and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Electives

We will be providing trainees with three options for electives, which comprise a smaller part of their clinical experience:

  1. Advanced Group Modality Elective: Interns have the option to co-facilitate a long-term process group composed of individuals with severe mental illness that has been running continuously for over 30 years. Specialized supervision in psychodynamic process-based group facilitation will be provided as a part of this experience. Interns can also elect to devise and facilitate new groups at MMHC, based on their own interests and the identified needs of MMHC clients.
  2. Research Elective: Research electives are possible through collaborating with one of the many research faculty at BIDMC. Trainees who choose this elective will be matched with a mentor and work on a scholarly project.
  3. Assessment Elective:  Psychodiagnostic and projective testing assessments to clients served by DMH.
  4. Digital Psychiatry: The intern has an opportunity to work within a digital psychiatry clinic that provides time limited individual therapy, supplemented by an app that has a clinician portal, in between sessions.