Child Psychology Internship Placements

Interns serve in a primary placement for the entire year at one of our hospitals — either Children’s – Minneapolis or Children’s – St. Paul. They will gain broad-based clinical child/adolescent experience in assessment, intervention and consultation-liaison to the medical services. Interns also will gain additional clinical experience in pediatric psychology and neuropsychology services in order to be competitive for postdoctoral fellowships in these areas.

Within each hospital setting, interns will focus on experience with general outpatient psychological services (assessment and intervention), medical consultation, research-based practice, multicultural competence and professional development/supervision. Clinical activity decisions are jointly made by the intern and training director to address both the interests and individual training needs of the intern, as well as competency expectations for a clinical child and adolescent psychologist.

Interns have the opportunity to interact with medical providers from many disciplines and to participate in institutional events that provide additional training opportunities. The growth of the intern’s individual and professional identity is a significant focus of training.

A number of activities are included to support the training program’s goals. In addition to direct clinical services (expectation of 10-15 hours each week), other training and educational opportunities include the following:

• Didactic seminars weekly regarding topics on assessment, intervention, consultation-liaison, and multicultural diversity
• Professional development and supervision seminar (monthly)
• Ethics seminar with hospital ethicist (quarterly) + Schwarze Rounds
• Supervision (four hours per week minimum)
• Case conferences (interns have opportunities to present routinely)
• Medical and Psychology Grand Rounds
• Journal Club (monthly; interns have opportunities to lead)
• Four formal presentations: Psychology topic/case, data-based research findings, multicultural case presentation, and a community presentation to parents, teachers, or medical providers
• Two full-day workshops with all interns from Minnesota accredited internships (MAAPIC) on multicultural diversity and supervision/ethics

The specific combination of clinical activities for each intern is designed to assure completing the year with the ability to perform the essential functions of a clinical child psychologist, including cognitive and personality assessments at each developmental level and a variety of developmentally and contextually appropriate interventions including diagnostic assessments and therapy for emotional, behavioral, and health issues of concern.

Daily Schedules

Each intern’s schedule varies day to day as they manage their own scheduling preferences, with assignments based on availability, insurance, and each trainee’s individual needs for supervised experience to achieve all competencies. For example, each intern will identify their best times for psychological evaluations (including general, developmental, neuropsychological), and outpatient therapy (generally toward the end of the day).  They will also save time for inpatient consults which are variable with regard to timing.  They will have opportunities for multidisciplinary clinics which meet at the same time every week, skills based group therapy and community consultation when available. Tuesday mornings are reserved for training seminars.

Children’s – Minneapolis

Psychologists and trainees provide both inpatient medical and outpatient mental health/behavioral health services to children and families. In addition, outpatient specialty opportunities available for intern training include Hematology-Oncology Clinic, Cystic Fibrosis Team, and the Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic. Diagnostic, consultative, intervention and liaison services for pediatric medical patients and their families are also provided through interdisciplinary teams. Specific services include diagnostic assessment, intervention and psychological evaluations with all ages (developmental through young adult).

Children’s – St. Paul

The psychology program in St. Paul provides a variety of mental health and behavioral health services for children, adolescents and their families — both outpatient and inpatient. This is a multi-disciplinary department including clinical psychologists, psychiatry and pediatric nurse practitioners. Diagnostic, consultative, intervention and liaison services for pediatric medical patients and their families are also provided through interdisciplinary teams. Consultation-liaison services are also provided to the inpatient medical units and a number of medical specialty services, including diabetes/endocrinology, sleep clinic and primary care.

(Last revised 08-17)