Clinical Psychology Internship Core Curriculum

About Our Core Curriculum

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 1hour 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.

Other Didactic Activities

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.

Supervision

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.