Training and Rotations

Interns engage in a wide variety of service activities that can be applied to many career directions. The intern becomes an important part of our agency and joins Watson's Psychological Services department staff of 6 psychologists and 70 employees as part of our comprehensive services teams. Moreover, the education and training components of the internship are emphasized and highly valued by the psychology staff and trainees. Interns participate in weekly individual supervision (a minimum of 2 hours), group supervision (2 hours), professional development seminars that focus on training in evidenced-based treatments as well as assessment and diagnostic issues (2 hours) and hour-long case conferences or journal reading review meetings. As part of their training, interns receive specific exposure in their orientation to the internship and in on-going individual and group supervision to broad ethical concerns in clinical practice as well as to specific risk management issues such as assessment of persons dangerous to self or others, duty to warn, and commitment. While all interns have exposure to the 3 rotations described below, there are opportunities to select special emphasis areas within the internship, including Autism and General Child and Adolescent Behavioral/Emotional Disorders.

 The major training rotation is the Outpatient Services Unit (OSU), where interns receive supervised experience in assessment, diagnosis and intervention with special needs children and adolescents and their families. In the OSU, interns conduct diagnostic interviews with the clients (as able) and their families, perform functional behavioral analysis, and conduct psychological testing, with an emphasis on psychological issues (including depression, anxiety, psychosis and ADHD.) Testing emphasizes neuropsychological/psychological batteries and objective tests, but includes projective techniques as appropriate. Treatment opportunities include a broad range of evidence-based services with children and adolescents including social skills training groups (friendship development, social stories, comic strip conversations, picture exchange communication system), applied behavioral analysis, cognitive behavioral therapy and emotional modulation, cognitive restructuring, didactic intervention, relaxation for children with special needs, systematic desensitization, play-based intervention and psycho-educational interventions. Interns also participate in individual, couples or family interventions with the client's families (parents, siblings and other caregivers or support systems.)

Interns may also have opportunities to provide individual, group, and family therapy from primarily cognitive-behavioral and multisystemic perspectives.  This is a minor rotation of the internship and is provided as a training experience as available.  Interns on this rotation are supervised by a licensed psychologist.  Additional supervision may be provided by licensed mental health providers from other disciplines (e.g. psychiatry, social work) who are present at the location.

As part of the Training and Consultation Services, interns join professionals from a multidisciplinary staff (education, social work, psychology) in developing and presenting a variety of programs tailored for education/school based programs, mental health programs, or as part of home based services.  Training is conducted for both professional and lay audiences through in-service training and workshops.   Services are tailored to meet the specific needs of the audience and may include autism intervention, behavior management, inclusion, curriculum adaptation, IEPs, curriculum development, transition planning, school to work transition planning, assessment methods, and social skills facilitation, as well as other requested services.

While not a required part of the internship, opportunities are available to work with internship faculty on research projects at the Watson Institute.