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Training Overview

Clinical Psychology at Cambridge Health Alliance

Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), a Harvard Medical School Teaching Affiliate, has three hospital campuses (Cambridge, Somerville, and Whidden) and a network of primary care and specialty practices. We serve Boston's metro-North region, including the communities of Cambridge, Somerville, and Everett, MA.

Since its inception in the mid-1960's, the Department of Psychiatry has been committed to the tasks of preventing and treating of mental illness. With an orientation to psychodynamically informed treatment and community mental health, CHA is a nationally recognized center emphasizing the individual and his or her social systems.

This commitment to care includes, but is not limited to, clinical responsibility for traditionally underserved populations, such as the persistently and severely disturbed, the unprotected (infants and children at risk), the impoverished, and the underprivileged. In all our training programs, we aim to increase understanding of the forces that promote health and adaptation within the individual and the community. A multi-ethnic and multilingual staff is experienced in providing services (including preventive services) to minority and low-income groups as well as to university and middle-income communities.

The CHA Division of Psychology includes approximately thirty-five core faculty and staff. The Division also draws upon a significantly larger pool of psychologists affiliated with Harvard Medical School for supervision and supplementary services. The Division includes licensed full-time and part-time staff (including clinical psychologists, psychoanalysts, health psychologists, personality and developmental psychologists). The Department places a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary training in psychiatry, psychology, social work, and nursing. Psychologists also hold central leadership positions in the Adult Ambulatory Psychiatry Service, Center for Child and Adolescent Development, Child and Adolescent Ambulatory Service, Victims of Violence Program, Behavioral Medicine Program, Program for Psychotherapy, Portuguese Mental Health Clinic, Latino Mental Health Clinic, Asian Mental Health Clinic, and Adult, Child and Adolescent Inpatient Units, as well as on a variety of research teams.

About Our Clinical Psychology Training Programs

Cambridge Health Alliance offers an APA-approved internship in clinical psychology. This is based at its Cambridge campus and its community locations. The Division of Psychology also sponsors an extensive post-doctoral training program in clinical psychology in which fellows are based on core clinical services throughout our system. Additionally, doctoral students in clinical and counseling psychology are eligible to apply for advanced practicum experiences.

The Clinical Psychology Training Programs prepare doctoral candidates and postdoctoral fellows in clinical psychology to understand and treat persons suffering with a broad spectrum of emotional distress. In addition, we aim to prepare psychology students in all of our programs to be future leaders in service and training. Using a scholar-practitioner model, our curriculum emphasizes a biopsychosocial approach to the understanding of people and values the use of psychological intervention and psychotherapy. Our talented and multidisciplinary faculty engage trainees in didactics and in individual and group supervision designed to teach about sponsoring change. With close faculty-trainee interaction, we provide a solid grounding in case formulation utilizing psychodynamic and developmental theories that take into account ethnic and cultural influences. We also teach all psychology students to integrate a variety of treatment modalities while working with persons with an array of psychological problems, including persons diagnosed with major mental illness and severe personality disorders.