Institute of Living Psychology Department:
Internships in Clinical Psychology

1. Applicants need to download and complete the APPIC universal application.
2. Applicants need to upload our own required supplemental Application for Internship in Clinical Psychology form to include with their APPIC online application. 
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(1) Child Outpatient Psychotherapy
Each trainee will have 2-4 hours of direct service responsibilities during their four month outpatient rotation consisting of child psychotherapy cases and conjoint family therapy when indicated. This rotation occurs at the same time as the assessment rotation (see below). Interns can elect to use this time to treat patients presenting at the Anxiety Disorders Clinic, where standardized treatment protocols will be learned, or may treat patients presenting at the outpatient clinic at CCMC, using a variety of empirically-supported methodologies. Training in techniques of Play Therapy is also available. 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. Each intern receives two hours per week of psychotherapy supervision from the child psychology staff. From this pool of patients, one to two year-long therapy cases will be carried during the other rotations. These case assignments often involve active collaboration with other providers and community agencies.

 

(2 & 3)  Child and Adolescent Inpatient Psychotherapy
The Child and Adolescent Service consists of 26 beds and is staffed by psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, and psychiatric technicians. The unit provides a range of services, including short-term managed care treatment approaches to longer-term services for severely disturbed patients in need of hospitalization, many of whom have gone through unsuccessful outpatient and short-term inpatient treatments. A broad spectrum of acute and chronic psychotic, developmentally disabled, personality disordered, addicted, conduct disordered, and affectively disordered patients are represented. Each intern functions as primary therapist for up to two patients in the service. Interns gain experience not only as primary therapists and case managers, but also in functioning as a psychologist in a multi-disciplinary team. Three hours of supervision are provided to each intern per week. Interns will also conduct social-skills and process-oriented group therapies while on the service, and family therapy when indicated in the treatment of their adolescents. This rotation provides an immersion into the role of an inpatient psychologist.

Training objectives include a thorough learning of DSM-IV diagnoses, development of advanced focal and intensive psychotherapeutic interventions, developing group therapy skills with acute patients, and exposure to collaborative, brief family interventions. Each intern will complete a four month rotation on this service. Caseload will be an average of two patients plus two hours of group therapy.

 

(4)  Psychodiagnostic Evaluations
Each intern will perform evaluations throughout the 12 months, consisting of cognitive and personality assessment for children and adolescents. Each intern will spend four months being the primary tester in the assessment service, providing assessments for child and adolescent inpatients and outpatients. In addition, interns may pursue as a minor elective, exposure to neuropsychological assessment. Testing responsibilities will consist of 1 to 2 batteries per week while on this rotation and one per month while on the inpatient service and CCMC rotation. Interns gain experience in test administration, scoring, interpretation, report writing and in communicating test findings to other therapists. In addition, during this intensive assessment rotation each intern will have up to 10 hours per week to pursue elective interests during this rotation.

Consistent with our training mission, interns will be required to integrate relevant psychodynamic models of interpretation with objective and cognitive data, and further develop their ability to communicate test findings in written and oral form. The testing service plays a vital role in the mission of the IOL and we expect interns to develop comfort and expertise in this consultant role. Child interns test predominantly child and adolescent inpatients, but may on occasion be asked to test adult patients. Interns will be expected to complete approximately 24 assessments during the training year.

 

(5)  Pediatric Consultation Service
Each intern will spend four months providing consultation and brief therapy intervention to pediatric patients hospitalized at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. CCMC is one of three hospitals in the state of Connecticut that provides comprehensive medical services to children, and along with Hartford Hospital and The Institute of Living, has a long tradition of training psychologists. CCMC was formerly known as Newington Children’s Hospital.

This rotation is designed to introduce interns to the role of clinical psychology in a primary-care setting and will prepare interns to work within a medical model health system. The interns’ primary responsibilities involve the provision of psychiatric consultation services to the medical departments throughout the hospital. Consultation to oncology, cardiology, rehabilitation, pulmonary, pain and other departments are usual. The intern will also provide both short-term, as well as, long-term individual and family therapy to patients in need of adjunctive care. Interns will be trained in a variety of empirically-based treatments that utilize cognitive-behavioral methodologies.

 

(6)  Seminar Program
Trainees attend a variety of seminars, offered by both the Psychology Department and the psychiatry residency training program. We anticipate that the following seminars will be available this year:

• Clinical Inference & Professional Ethics (Required)
• Modern Readings in Personality and Psychotherapy (Required)
• Family and Group Therapies
• Weekly Grand Rounds
• Child Psychotherapy Seminar and Case Conference (Required)
• Sexuality Rounds
• CT Children's Medical Center Grand Rounds

(1)  Adult Inpatient Treatment
Each intern will be assigned to the general adult service that admits higher functioning patients 18 and older for treatment of acute symptoms. This training site will prepare interns to succeed within a managed-care environment and strengthen their brief therapy skills. Each will serve as primary therapist for up to three patients and provide conjunctive family/marital therapy when indicated. Many of these patients will be referred for admission from one of our partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs. The unit is milieu-based and provides short-term therapies for severely disturbed patients in need of hospitalization, many of whom have gone through unsuccessful outpatient and short-term inpatient treatments.

 

A broad spectrum of acute and high-functioning psychotic, personality-disordered, addicted, conduct-disordered, and affectively-disordered patients are represented. Interns gain experience not only as primary therapists and case managers, but also in functioning as a psychologist in a multi-disciplinary team while learning methods of milieu therapy. Each intern will gradually assume greater responsibility for conducting the unit's daily intensive psychotherapy group. Along with the unit psychologist and postdoctoral resident, the intern will also provide consultation to the other treatment teams. A minimum of three hours of supervision will be provided to each intern.

 

Competencies in rapid assessment of mental status, case formulation, diagnosis, and focal individual and group psychotherapy will be developed. In-depth exposure to psychopharmacological and other biological interventions (e.g., ECT) and close collaboration with psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and physicians will prepare interns to assume careers in a hospital-based setting and settings servicing the broadest range of patient populations.

 

(2)  Intensive Outpatient Programs
Each adult intern spends four months providing group psychotherapies and case management to adult patients admitted to our Professionals’ Program.  This is an intensive outpatient program for patients recently discharged from the inpatient service or who are referred from community providers who are in need of intensive services to prevent hospitalization and restore occupational and psychosocial functioning.  Patients are generally higher functioning and are in the process of returning to work or school.  The intern will function as a staff treatment manager, providing case management services to at least two ongoing patients, and provide up to eight hours of group psychotherapy.  This is a three-day per week program that includes traditional process group therapies and a variety of skill based therapies, including Dialectical Behavior Therapy and a variety of cognitive behavioral methods.  The goal of the rotation is help interns gain experience in providing psycho-educational, insight-oriented, and skill-based approaches to group treatment and to learn the principles of managing high acuity patients in a less restrictive treatment environment.

 

During this rotation, interns will have the opportunity to pursue elective interest, will continue to perform two psychological assessments, and will continue to carry a small caseload of outpatients.

 

(3)  Individual Outpatient Psychotherapy

Interns will have the opportunity to provide psychotherapy to a variety of patient populations. The available training sites include the following:

• Adult Outpatient Clinic - Interns will have the opportunity to provide long-term psychotherapy to patients admitted to the clinic from either the community or referred from our acute inpatient service. In addition to individual psychotherapy, an intern may elect to gain experience with providing couple’s therapy. Training in the use of psychodynamically and personality-informed models of treatment is available.
• Hartford Hospital’s Behavioral Health Service - Integrated within the Cardiology Department at Hartford Hospital, this service provides both short and long-term Psychodynamically-informed treatment of patients presenting with co-morbid medical and psychological problems.
• Anxiety Disorders Center - Interns can elect to carry individual and/or group psychotherapy patients presenting with a variety of anxiety disorders. Training in the use of manualized treatment protocols utilizing an exposure-based and response prevention model is emphasized.
• Schizophrenia Rehabilitation Program and Potentials Clinic -These programs focus on the diagnosis, early intervention, and treatment of patients presenting with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The Schizophrenia rehabilitation Program is a multi-dimensional treatment program for the more persistently ill patient that includes attentional retraining using computer technology, group therapy, motivational training, and individual psychotherapy. The Potential’s Clinic provides early detection and intervention for younger patients recently diagnosed, including individual, group, and family psychotherapies as well as pharmacotherapy.

Interns will be expected to carry at least two outpatients throughout their twelve months of internship. Each intern will have approximately 10 hours each week of elective time during their Assessment rotation, during which they can create a minor elective in any of the above areas. 

(4)  Psychological Assessment
Each intern will spend four months primarily performing psychological assessments of adolescent and adult inpatients and outpatients. This rotation will focus on the use of cognitive, intellectual, objective and projective tests, and neuropsychological screens to assess adolescent and adult mental functioning.  Advanced thematic and Rorschach interpretation and report writing skills will be provided. Two-to-three hours of supervision per battery will be provided and the intern will be responsible for up to two assessments per week. Referrals will come from our centralized testing service that responds to diagnostic and risk assessment requests from all areas of the hospital.

Interns will be expected to develop competencies in the administration, 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. During this rotation interns will have the opportunity to pursue additional outpatient and group therapy training. Interests in neuropsychological testing and forensic assessments can be pursued. Interns can expect to have completed approximately 24-28 assessments by the end of the training year.

 

(5)  Seminar Program
Trainees attend a variety of seminars, offered by both the Psychology Department and the psychiatry residency training program. We anticipate the following seminars will be available this year:

• Family and Group Therapy (Required) 
• Clinical Inference & Professional Ethics (Required)
• Modern Readings in Personality and Psychotherapy (Required)
• Weekly Grand Rounds (Required)
• Sexuality Rounds (monthly)
• Psychopharmacology
• Psychosis Seminar
• Focal Therapy and Case Conference Seminar (Required)

In addition to the required seminars, all six interns will attend the department's weekly staff meeting where both administrative and educational issues are addressed. Besides involving the interns in the full workings of the department and providing an inside view of the hospital-based practice of clinical psychology, a wide range of educational topics is discussed. In accordance with APA guidelines, each intern will be expected to present to the faculty, case material involving either a psychotherapy case or psychodiagnostic evaluation, research findings, or topic of their choice, during the year.