Clinical Psychology Placements & Specialty Tracks

Clinical Placements and Specialty Tracks

All of our internship position involves year-long placements in two clinical services. We offer three psychology internship positions in our General Track, and three positions in one of our Specialized Tracks.

General Track

Continuing Care Outpatient Team

Interns in the General Track will spend approximately 50% of their clinical time on one of several MMHC Continuing Care Outpatient Teams. The Outpatient Service is the Department of Mental Health outpatient service for approximately 1,000 patients. These individuals are eligible for DMH services, usually signifying a diagnosis of a major mental illness, considerable functional impairment, and no means to obtain treatment in the private sector. This service includes a specialized DBT team, and a problematic sexual behavior outpatient team. There are also teams with Spanish speaking clients and Spanish speaking supervisors. Teams are multidisciplinary; interns will work alongside psychiatrists, social workers, nurse practitioners, and other trainees from various disciplines.

Rapid Access To Flexible Treatment (RAFT) Program

The Rapid Access to Flexible Treatment program offers intensive individual and group treatment in a day structure program, to DMH eligible patients. It has two teams: 1) The Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) team, treats primarily individuals with severe and persistent mental illness using principles of CBT and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; 2) The Dialectical Behavior Therapy team, is an intensive DBT program, which serves mainly individuals with borderline personality disorder and other severe personality disorders. Interns participate for six months on each team.

Specialized Tracks

Three specialty tracks are available in the internship program, one position in each track:

Psychosis Across the Lifespan Track offers full year participation, at 50% clinical time, at each of the following locations:

  • Center for Early Detection and Response to Risk (CEDAR) clinic, which services children and adolescents who have been identified as clinical high risk (for psychosis spectrum disorders) and is premised on the importance of providing early intervention.
  • Advancing Services for Psychosis Integration and Recovery (ASPIRE) clinic for those with early psychosis (ages 18-45). Interns will have the opportunity to provide individual therapy, develop and deliver group based interventions, and administer psychological assessments.

Neuropsychology Track offers full year participation, at approximately 50% clinical time, at each of the following locations:

  • Massachusetts Mental Health Center, conducting neuropsychological and psychological evaluations with DMH clients, to assist with differential diagnosis and treatment planning for individuals with severe mental illness and complex profiles.
  • Continuing Care Outpatient Team at MMHC, engaging in individual therapy, care coordination, and consultation on a multidisciplinary team, described above.

Mental Illness/Problematic Sexual Behaviors Track offers full year participation, at 50% clinical time, at each of the following locations:

  • Continuing Care Outpatient Team at MMHC, engaging in individual therapy, care coordination, risk assessments, and consultation on a multidisciplinary specialty team, dedicated to mental illness and problematic sexual behaviors.
  • Group Based Programming, co-facilitating a variety of groups including an interpersonal process group as well as more structured behavioral health group as part of our Wellness Clinic, embedded within our integrated primary care service. This may include social connection, smoking cessation, diabetes support, or family support groups. Interns may also have opportunities to develop their own group, based on interest.

Electives

We will be providing trainees with three options for electives, which comprise a smaller part of their clinical experience:

  1. Alternative Modality Clinical Interventions:
    1. Group Interventions. The intern has a unique opportunity to facilitate a longstanding process group that has been running for several decades. Other groups can be determined based on the interests of the trainees that select this option.
    2. Digital Psychiatry. The intern has an opportunity to work within a digital psychiatry clinic that provides time limited individual therapy, supplemented by an app that has a clinician portal, in between sessions.
  2. Research electives are possible through collaborating with one of the many research faculty at BIDMC. Trainees who choose this elective will be matched with a mentor and work on a scholarly project.
  3. Psychodiagnostic and projective testing assessments to clients served by DMH.