Doctoral Psychology Internship Program at the Watson Institute

The Internship Training Program: Program Overview and Goals

The Doctoral Psychology Internship Program is designed to provide pre-doctoral psychology interns with a training experience focusing on the continued development of the professional skills necessary for successful functioning as an entry-level professional psychologist. Interns participate in a range of diagnostic and clinical activities and can elect a concentration in the areas of autism, neuropsychology, child and adolescent behavioral/ emotional disorders, or consultation and training.

The training program follows a practitioner-scholar model of training.  Through study and supervised practice, interns learn the wide range of clinical services provided in a community center and school settings.  Practice-based experiences are designed to refine and further develop the intern's clinical competency, strengthen the intern's identity as a professional psychologist, and develop the intern's knowledge and judgment regarding ethical practice.  In addition, scholarly activities such as collegial discourse, topic seminars, and applied research occur throughout the program.

The philosophy of the program advances the mission:  "To provide quality educational experiences to students."  Interns are important members of the professinal staff.  They assume major roles in the delivery of services.  The training staff believes that support of intern personal growth is integral to all parts of the training experience.

Specific goals for the training program include the development of:

• intervention skills for work with children and adolescents with special needs and their families, in ways that are child-centered, family focused, community based, multi-system, culturally competent and least inclusive;
• intervention skills for work with children and adolescents and their families that are grounded in the empirical psychological literature and consistent with best practices;
• a broad range of assessment and diagnostic skills with children and adolescents and their families, using a wide variety of methods including diagnostic interviewing, functional assessment, objective and projective techniques and neurological testing;
• consultation and training skills for use with other psychologists, other professional disciplines and in the community;
• competence in professional conduct and the ability to identify and appropriately respond to ethical and legal issues arising in clinical practice;
• competence in assessment and intervention skills with under-served populations; and
• the ability to assess the significance and implications of developmental differences.

The internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.