Doctoral Internships in Psychology in Florida

Centerstone Outpatient- Child #196712 (3 interns) – On this track, interns provide psychological services to an adolescent and child population in a community based public health setting. Intern clinical services include individual and group therapy for clients with an array of presenting issues in the outpatient clinic, which is collocated with comprehensive mental health medical and case management service providers. Interns also engage in assessment of children who have complex mental health needs and/or a combination of complex mental health needs and potential neurodevelopment concerns. If indicated, outpatient psychotherapy services are integrated with other disciplines. Interns often act as consultants to the allied mental health professions, who comprise our multidisciplinary care team. Interns may also have opportunities to engage in program development and community outreach.

At the beginning of the internship year, interns are provided with numerous opportunities to shadow experienced clinicians during therapeutic intake sessions and therapy sessions. Interns also engage in live therapeutic supervision at least twice per year. Interns also receive frequent live assessment supervision with a licensed psychologist and are provided with opportunities to shadow the psychologist during assessment administration, intakes, and feedback sessions. Once the psychologist has assessed interns’ assessment developmental level, they are given more independence to provide assessments without live supervision. The structure of this track includes a major rotation providing therapeutic clinical services (approximately 3-3.5 days per week), wherein interns will spend approximately 15-22 hours weekly providing direct clinical services. Interns also participate in a minor assessment rotation, wherein they provide assessment services between five to eight hours per week. Interns will generally have one to two assessment clients per month. Interns also receive four hours of supervision per week, participate in two hours of weekly didactic training, attend grand rounds monthly with Centerstone’s medical residents, and participate in a research-based journal club once per month.

Centerstone Outpatient-Adult #196719 (1 Intern) – Interns will provide therapeutic services primarily to an outpatient adult population. Many of the clients served on this track present with complex diagnostic issues, histories of intergenerational trauma, and family systems impacted by substance misuse. Interns use a range of EBPs to provide care for clients. Interns also act as part of the multidisciplinary team, offering consultative feedback to providers. Interns may also have opportunities to engage in program development and community outreach. Interns also engage in assessment of children and/or adults who have complex mental health needs and/or a combination of complex mental health needs and potential neurodevelopment concerns.

At the beginning of the internship year, interns are provided with numerous opportunities to shadow experienced clinicians during therapeutic intake sessions and therapy sessions. Interns also engage in live therapeutic supervision at least twice per year. Interns also receive frequent live assessment supervision with a licensed psychologist and are provided with opportunities to shadow the psychologist during assessment administration, intakes, and feedback sessions. Once the psychologist has assessed interns’ assessment developmental level, they are given more independence to provide assessments without live supervision. The structure of this track includes a major rotation providing therapeutic clinical services (approximately 3-3.5 days per week), wherein interns will spend approximately 15-22 hours weekly providing direct clinical services. Interns also participate in a minor assessment rotation, wherein they provide assessment services between five to eight hours per week. Interns will generally have one to two assessment clients per month. Interns also receive four hours of supervision per week, participate in two hours of weekly didactic training, attend grand rounds monthly with Centerstone’s medical residents, and participate in a research-based journal club once per month.

Centerstone Trauma Services- Lifespan (Adult/Child) #196717 (4 interns) – Interns have the opportunity to provide trauma-focused therapy for adults, children and adolescents who are experiencing psychological, somatic, and/or behavioral problems related to sexual assault, child sexual abuse, human trafficking, and other traumatic life experiences. Interns may request to have more of their caseload focus on child/adolescent or adult clients but will see some clients across the lifespan during their internship year. Interns also engage in assessment of children and/or adults who have complex mental health needs and/or a combination of complex mental health needs and potential neurodevelopment concerns. Interns are part of the Trauma Services group, which includes Rape Crisis Advocates, program management and supervision by a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and LMHC, and opportunities for community outreach including participation in the annual Sexual Assault Awareness event and providing trauma-informed training to law enforcement and other professionals. Interns may work with individual therapy clients for up to one year, based on client needs. Flexibility in the pace of developing and managing the composition of one’s caseload is supported and encouraged. Interns receive training in Play therapy, Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral therapy and the Tri-Phasic Model of treatment for complex trauma. Patient symptoms are assessed and monitored during treatment with evidence-based assessment measures including the TSCC, TSCYC, TSI-2 and PCL-5.

At the beginning of the internship year, interns are provided with numerous opportunities to shadow experienced clinicians during therapeutic intake sessions and therapy sessions. Interns also engage in live therapeutic supervision at least twice per year. Interns also receive frequent live assessment supervision with a licensed psychologist and are provided with opportunities to shadow the psychologist during assessment administration, intakes, and feedback sessions. Once the psychologist has assessed interns’ assessment developmental level, they are given more independence to provide assessments without live supervision. The structure of this track includes a major rotation providing therapeutic clinical services (approximately 3-3.5 days per week), wherein interns will spend approximately 15-22 hours weekly providing direct clinical services. Interns also participate in a minor assessment rotation, wherein they provide assessment services between five to eight hours per week. Interns will generally have one to two assessment clients per month. Interns also receive four hours of supervision per week, participate in two hours of weekly didactic training, attend grand rounds monthly with Centerstone’s medical residents, and participate in a research-based journal club once per month.

Centerstone Integrative Substance Misuse #196714 (6 interns) – Interns provide psychological services to adults with co-occurring substance misuse and mental health disorders in hospital, residential outpatient, and primary care settings. Interns participate in a major rotation through the programs on the Centerstone Hospital campus (outpatient MAT, residential, detox, and acute inpatient). Interns may also select a minor rotation in integrated primary care mental health settings, to include AllCare and/or Centerplace Health. The emphasis of this track is on public health and providing multiculturally competent care to historically underserved populations. Many of the clients interns interact with have faced structural barriers to care in the past. Within this track, assessment is integrated into treatment on an as-needed basis. In addition, the track is structured so that interns generally spend 4-5 days per week in their major rotation and at least 1 day per week in the minor rotation for at least 6 months. Interns may choose to engage in two minor 6-month rotations. The caseload for direct clinical hours averages between 16-20 hours per week. Interns also receive four hours of supervision per week with a licensed psychologist, participate in two hours of weekly didactic training, attend grand rounds monthly with Centerstone’s medical residents, and participate in a research-based journal club once per month.

Interns use a range of modalities when providing care on this track, including CBT, Motivational Interviewing, Motivational Enhancement, and DBT Skills for Addiction. Interns provide individual and group psychotherapy using these EBPs, but are also free to develop evidence-supported group programming which aligns with the trainee’s clinical interests. Interns are further supported in treatment planning from both harm reduction and abstinence models of recovery. Interns are additionally provided with a two-day intensive training in SMART Recovery at the outset of internship.

Centerstone is located in a Health Professional Service Area, and this internship track is supported by a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Graduate Psychology Education grant. As a result, interns who complete their pre-doctoral psychology internship with this track have increased eligibility for National Health Service Corps loan repayment programs, should they continue their careers at qualified sites. Please see Loan Repayment | NHSC (hrsa.gov) for more detail.

Medical Psychology Generalist- AllCare #196711 – (2 interns) – AllCare provides primary healthcare to patients of all ages (from newborn to aging adults), with a psychological component integrated throughout the practice. Interns will provide individual and family therapy to an outpatient population of children, adolescents, adults, and geriatrics with acute mental health issues. Interns will also provide comprehensive psychological assessments for those populations, to aid in diagnostic clarity and treatment planning. In addition, interns will provide neuropsychological assessments to patients presenting with diverse psychological, neuropsychological, and medical conditions. Interns will be providing these services in office, skilled nursing, and hospital settings.

Within this track, assessment and therapy are not considered separate structured rotations. On average, interns engage in 16-24 hours of direct clinical contact per week. They are provided with opportunities for live supervision with a licensed psychologist. Interns also receive four hours of supervision per week with a licensed psychologist (2 hours of individual supervision with the licensed psychologist AllCare practice owner, 1 hour per week of group supervision with the Director of Clinical Training, and 1 hour per week of group supervision with another licensed psychologist.) Interns further participate in two hours of weekly didactic training, attend grand rounds monthly with Centerstone’s medical residents, and participate in a research-based journal club once per month.

Integrated Behavioral Health #196718 – (1 Intern) – Interns will provide comprehensive outpatient psychological services to children, adolescents, and adults within the context of a community-based FQHC health care system in Sarasota County, FL. CenterPlace Health (CPH) offers health care services at six locations throughout Sarasota County. A wide range of primary health care services are offered (e.g., Pediatrics, Family Medicine, OB/Gyn, Dentistry, etc.) and CPH collaborates with a host of community partners to ensure integrated care, addressing the whole person. Referrals to CPH Behavioral Health are made by health care providers within the CenterPlace system for a wide variety of psychological and medical concerns.

The intern will participate 1-2 days per week in the CenterPlace Diagnostic Clinic. Psychological evaluations address a broad range of referral questions from both a nomothetic and idiographic framework. A wide range of behavioral, psychometric, and projective methods are typically employed. The age of referred patients ranges from preschooler to senior adult. A particular emphasis is often school-age children and insuring that educational and psychosocial needs are being met within the school setting. In addition to conducting initial intakes, providing comprehensive psychological evaluations, and completing comprehensive report, the intern will participate in and ultimately lead in the dissemination of findings and recommendations to patients and family members. The intern will also be expected to provide mentorship and direct supervision to graduate students completing their assessment practicums from local universities, such as NLU. On average, interns engage in 16-23 hours of direct clinical contact per week. They are provided with opportunities for live supervision with a licensed psychologist. At the beginning of the intern year, interns are also offered opportunities to shadow a post-doctoral psychology fellow. Interns receive four hours of supervision per week with a licensed psychologist (2 hours of individual supervision with the licensed psychologist who is the primary CPH site supervisor, 1 hour per week of group supervision with the Director of Clinical Training, and 1 hour per week of group supervision with another licensed psychologist.) Interns further participate in two hours of weekly didactic training, attend grand rounds monthly with Centerstone’s medical residents, and participate in a research-based journal club once per month.

Referrals for psychological services come from physicians or allied health professionals within the CenterPlace Health system. The intern will work closely with health care providers as they communicate using the Athena-based medical chart and HIPPA-compliant texting system. While all Diagnostic Clinic appointments are in-person, psychological interventions, such as individual and family therapy, are delivered using a hybrid model of service delivery. That is, the intern’s caseload will consist of a combination of telehealth and in-person therapies. The ratio of in-person to telehealth services will be established with each intern individually and there is flexibility in this regard as long as acceptable exposure to both modalities has been achieved. Interns can expect to be exposed to a wide range of outpatient therapeutic interventions (individual, family-based, parent education models).

Trauma-Focused Child Assessment & Treatment #196721 – (1 intern) – Interns provide multidisciplinary assessment, consultation, and treatment for children ages 0-18 and their families with child welfare involvement. All children have a history of trauma, maltreatment, and/or involvement with the child welfare system. Interns are trained in a comprehensive model of care for children in out-of-home foster care that includes focus on birth parent engagement, trauma-informed systems work, evidence-based clinical services, child-focused enrichment opportunities, and foster parent training and support. In particular, the intern conducts weekly comprehensive psychological evaluations to assess children’s cognitive, developmental, emotional, and behavioral functioning alongside a multidisciplinary team of providers. Interns also carry a caseload of 6-8 therapy clients. The intern gains exposure to multiple evidence-based interventions for childhood trauma, including Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) interventions, and delivers evidence-based, trauma-informed mental health therapy to children with identified trauma histories. Additionally, the intern consults and collaborates with various systems and providers working with children in foster care to support trauma-informed approaches to care.

Within this track, interns engage in 16-20 hours of direct clinical contact per week. They are provided with opportunities for live supervision with a licensed psychologist. At the beginning of the intern year, interns are also offered opportunities to shadow a licensed clinical psychologist and/or post-doctoral psychology fellow. Interns receive four hours of supervision per week with a licensed psychologist (2 hours of individual supervision with the licensed psychologist who is the primary CPH site supervisor, 1 hour per week of group supervision with the Director of Clinical Training, and 1 hour per week of group supervision with another licensed psychologist.) Interns further participate in two hours of weekly didactic training, attend grand rounds monthly with Centerstone’s medical residents, and participate in a research-based journal club once per month.