Expectations & Activities

On this page you’ll find the expectations for the internship, description of training activities, example weekly Training Schedule, intern evaluation, and Consortium Handbook.

Internship Expectations

Interns complete a one year (12 month), full-time internship from July 28 (or the first appropriate business day thereafter) through June 27.

Interns have the opportunity to engage in full-time work as a health service psychologist-in-training with a substantial training component, including 2 hours of weekly, individual supervision with a licensed psychologist.

To complete the internship successfully, the intern must:

  • Complete required hours (2000 minimum with at least 500 direct service hours)

  • Adhere to the APA Code of Ethics, Pennsylvania state law and Code of Ethics, and site professional standards

  • Receive at least a 4 on all profession wide competencies and associated learning elements in the final evaluation at the end of internship

  • Complete two formal case presentations

  • Complete at least two formal assessments, including feedback session with client and written report

  • Complete a research-based presentation

  • Complete all clinical documentation (progress notes, intakes, assessment reports, termination reports, etc.)

  • Complete all required evaluation forms of the internship program

  • Abide by the organizational expectations and rules of the internship site

  • Return keys, ID badges, computers, and other items loaned to interns for the duration of the internship year

  • Complete all Human Resources tasks/forms

  • Provide Internship Training Director with contact information so that we may:

    • Stay connected with you about your professional development, career plans, and licensure

    • Gather feedback about your experiences during internship so that we can continue to evolve our program

    • Meet accreditation requirements for internship

Intern Evaluation (pdf)
Weekly Schedule (pdf)
Consortium Handbook (pdf)

Internship Activities

To achieve the aims, profession wide competencies, and associated learning elements, our internship offers a variety of direct service, training, didactic, research, and administrative activities.

  • * Individual counseling

    * Intake/concise appointment initial screenings

    * Assessment (personality and ADHD)

    * Medical Resident Support Group (Excela - monthly)

    * Provision of supervision to doctoral practicum student(s) or family medicine residents (Excela)

    *Outreach/psychoeducational programming

    *Consultation with integrated care teams, faculty, staff, and students

  • • Two hours weekly individual supervision with a licensed psychologist

    • Group supervision of individual cases

    • Diversity supervision

    • Assessment supervision

    • Weekly supervision of supervision; varies by site and semester

    • Supervision of Support Group Facilitation (Excela)

  • • Orientation training

    • Didactic Seminar topics:

    • Therapeutic Frame (Problem Solving Therapy, Evidence Based Practice, intakes/Concise appointments, treatment planning, and termination);

    • Group Counseling

    • Outreach

    • Vocational Psychology

    • Ethics

    • Crisis Intervention

    • Supervision

    • Psychopharmacology

    • Therapeutic Intervention (Mindfulness, Self-Disclosure, Genograms, and Creativity in Counseling)

    • Self Care

    • Integrated Care

    • Professional Development

    • Culturally informed practice is infused throughout these seminars.

  • • Paperwork/clinical documentation

    • Supervision preparation

    • Staff meeting

  • • Interns may work on a quality improvement project in conjunction with the medical residents at Excela Health or may use their research time to work on their dissertation.

  • Interns engage in orientation at the start of the training year. Orientation occurs jointly for both interns as well as specifically at each site. Orientation is an important part of our internship as interns begin the year-long mentoring process. The goals of orientation are to:

    • Provide interns with time to get to know each other, the training staff at both agencies, and engage in training seminars on topics such as Diversity, Cultural Awareness, and Cultural Humility; Ethical and Legal Standards; Suicide Assessment and Intervention; Problem Solving Therapy; ADHD Assessment; Policies and Procedures; Mental Health Resources in the Community

    • Engage in self-assessment of your professional development needs, goals, and hopes for internship

  • Some of the activities listed above are collaborative and occur across sites. We want to highlight these for you:

    • On Fridays, interns meet together for a day of training and supervision. (Please see example Friday Seminar Schedule below).

    • Both interns provide psychological and/or ADHD assessments.

    • Both interns may participate in a monthly interdisciplinary case conference with the clinical team at Chatham. The cases discussed will be presented from a different theoretical orientation each month.

    • Opportunity to engage in Grand Rounds (in person or virtually) or didactics at Excela, usually monthly, on Wednesday mornings. Past topics have included community resources, chronic pain, Covid-19, pharmacology, women’s health, working with older adults, and much more! The calendar of these didactics are shared monthly and interns may choose which if any to attend.

    • Other opportunities will come up throughout the year, such as engagement in a professional development seminar or opportunities to teach medical residents specific helping skills. These vary year-to-year and interns will be able to decide which, if any, they want to participate in.