The Core Internship Training Experience
Psychotherapy Supervision
Interns receive one-to-one supervision of their individual, group,
family, child/adolescent, and couples therapy. Supervisors are drawn
from all the mental health disciplines, and have staff positions
in Cambridge Health Alliance, are on the faculty of the Harvard
Medical School appointed through the Cambridge Health Alliance Department
of Psychiatry, or both. Each intern usually receives three hours
per week of individual supervision for their outpatient cases and
one hour per week of supervision for psychological testing. Additional
supervision is provided child and adolescent work, adult acute service
work, and group, family and couples treatment, and these supplemental
supervisions usually include two hours by the secondary site placement.
The interns also meet in weekly supervision groups in groups of
four.
Testing and Testing Supervision
In addition to psychotherapy, the program emphasizes the development
of psychodiagnostic and clinical inference skills. Interns typically
administer at least six batteries per year, for which they ordinarily
receive three hours of testing supervision per battery. The high
ratio of supervision to testing time provides an opportunity to
analyze the data in depth, and to understand the person's psychopathology
and adaptive capacities.
Precepting
The Director of Psychology Internship Training along with the Director
of Psychology serve as program preceptors who advise and advocate
for the intern within the total program. Interns also have a psychology
preceptor at each site who oversees the work of the intern, and
makes suggestions to help tailor the program around case assignments
and seminars. Interns meet weekly with site preceptors who help
coordinate the evaluation of interns at mid year, and at the end
of the internship year. Interns also meet regularly with the Director
of Psychology.
The following seminars are required for interns:
Summer
- Summer Core Seminar
- CBT Integration Seminar
- Multicultural Seminar
- Psychodynamic Research Clinic Formulation Seminar
Fall and Spring
- Psychological Testing (emphasis on projectives, cognitive assessment,
and integration)
- Child Psychotherapy Seminar (required of combined adult/child
track interns)
- Professional Development
- Outpatient Case Conference
- Psychodynamic Theory
- Public Sector Mental Health
Interns also attend weekly clinical case conferences at their clinical
sites. The Cambridge Health Alliance Department of Psychiatry also
has an extensive offering of elective seminars and conferences which
are available to the interns, with topics such as the treatment
of severely disturbed persons from various theoretical orientations,
behavioral medicine, trauma, couples and family therapy, treatment
of narcissism, cross-cultural issues, and psychopharmacology. Attendance
is required at the weekly academic Grand Rounds which draws speakers
on current clinical, theoretical, and research issues. Continuing
Education courses are offered throughout the year sponsored by the
Department of Psychiatry alone, or jointly with the Harvard Medical
School. These optional courses include nationally recognized speakers
on topics such as Psychotherapy, Substance Abuse, Suicide, Women's
and Men's Issues, Spirituality, Couples and Family Treatment, and
Psychopharmacology. Interns attend these conferences at a scholarship
rate as trainees of Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health
Alliance. Interns also participate in the Expert Witness Training,
a simulated courtroom experience with training offered jointly by
the Department of Psychiatry and the Harvard Law School.
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