Department of Psychiatry
Pre-Doctoral Internship Program in Clinical,
Rehabilitation and Health Psychology

ColerGoldwater's APA accredited Pre-Doctoral Internship Program is one year  doctoral-level internship training in the following essential skill areas of Clinical Psychology: assessment and diagnosis, clinical interventions, consultation/liaison, cultural and ethnic diversity, scholarly inquiry, supervision/evaluation, and professional/ethical conduct. Our ethnically diverse patient/resident population represents a wide range of medical and psychosocial challenges in a long-term care inpatient hospital and nursing facility setting. Our graduates succeed in an increasingly competitive and demanding market.  

Training Model

Curriculum

The internship is a one-year program with three major rotations each lasting four months. The rotations are in rehabilitation medicine, HIV/AIDS and geriatrics. Through these services, the intern is exposed to a broad range of psychological issues from late adolescence through adulthood to old age. Training takes place in the context of direct service to a varied patient population within a specialty hospital and nursing facility setting organized around interdisciplinary unit teams. The curriculum is aimed at the intern achieving competency in the following areas:

• Psychological assessment of a wide variety of conditions, particularly dementia, mood disorders, substance abuse disorders, and psychotic disorders, often in the context of communication challenges
• Psychological Consultation in an inter-disciplinary treatment team
• Provision of individual and group psychotherapies
• Provision of supervision (includes opportunity to practice supervision)
• Program evaluation
• Independent scholar activities to integrate contemporary research findings into psychological proctice
• Psychological and neuropsychological testing using a variety of tests including cognitive and adaptive functioning tests, and personality and projective measures.

Rotations

Rehabilitation Medicine

In this CARF-accredited hospital service, interns serve as an integral member of the assessment and treatment team. Rehabilitation is provided for patients presenting with strokes, respiratory problems, orthopedic injuries, spinal cord injuries, and neuromuscular illnesses, as well as for cardiac patients of all ages who are recovering from cardiac surgery or cardiac events, such as heart failure or heart attack. Emphasis is placed on applying supportive and/or cognitive behavioral theraputic techniques and employing psycho-educational interventions with the patients on this service.

HIV/AIDS

During this hospital rotation, interns provide psychological services to patients living with HIV/AIDS and coping with psychological issues related to their chronic, life-threatening medical condition and frequently associated psychiatric comorbidities, notably substance abuse as well as anxiety and mood disorders. As with all rotations, the intern provides individual and group therapies, relaxation training and psycho-education.

Geriatrics

Orientation Schedule

During the first few weeks of the internship program, interns receive an overview of the hospital's facilities and are introduced to the various services whose members will form the interdisciplinary team. These include primary care physicians and nursing, speech pathology and audiology, physical and occupational therapy, vocational counseling, social work and patient relations. The didactic program during this orientation period will include clinically essential topics such as clinical interviewing, mental status exam, DSM-IV-TR, and psychological testing.

Supervision and Evaluation

Each intern in the ColerGoldwater pre-doctoral program is assigned to a primary supervisor for each four-month rotation. In addition to providing clinical training, the primary supervisor is responsible for intern evaluations, the management of the interns' caseload, and the monitoring of interns' progress. Interns also benefit from having additional supervisors for group psychotherapy and for psychological testing. The interns’ training progress is constantly monitored and three formal interactive evaluations are conducted throughout the program.

Professional and Personal Development

Furthering each intern's professional development is an integral part of all training experiences. Interns are encouraged to pursue interests, such as individual research projects and/or group psychotherapies with special populations. Interns are also responsible for developing and conducting professional presentations on psychological topics for clinical staff as needed or requested.

Seminars

An ongoing seminar series will be presented by members of the senior staff and guest speakers. The single session seminars may include topics such as: Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches to Pain and Stress Management, Impact of Cultural and Ethical Values on Psychotherapies, and Psychopharmacology. Interns also attend weekly year-long seminars at the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine (RIRM) of NYU Medical Center on a variety of Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation topics. In addition, the Program provides weekly alternating Psychological Testing and Continuous Case Presentations Seminars, and Group Psychotherapy and Practitioner-Scholar Seminars, in which didactics are combined with individual case presentations and supervision. 

Support Group

Interns also participate in a mandatory support group (twice monthly), which is led by an outside psychologist, who keeps all group session contents and processes confidential. This group requires some degree of self-disclosure on the part of the interns.

Application and Benefits

All applicants to ColerGoldwater's internship program who have met course requirements and fieldwork criteria and have been given certification by their graduate school program director are eligible to apply. Applicants are required to complete the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) uniform application. In addition, a curriculum vitae, an official transcript of graduate courses, three letters of recommendation, one sample of an integrated adult psychological diagnostic report and one adult psychotherapy case summary should be submitted with the application. Applicants are required to rank order their site preferences through the APPIC internship computer matching program. ColerGoldwater's computer matching code is 167511.

Minimum requirements to receive invitation to interview:

• 700 hours of doctoral level intervention and assessment hours
• 5 adult integrated testing reports completed
• Dissertation proposal expected to be approved before start of internship

This 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.

This 12-month Psychologist-in-Training internship position consists of a 40-hour week beginning September 1st and ending August 31st. Benefits include a stipend of $25,197, 18 days annual leave, ten sick days, medical/dental insurance, and health club membership reimbursement.  Additional educational leave may be arraged at the Training Director's discretion.

Application Deadline: November 15th (earlier submissions are strongly encouraged)

PLEASE NOTE:

Interns' final acceptance to the program is contingent upon the successful completion of the pre-employment process, which includes a background check with fingerprinting (a charge of $99), a physical exam (including drug testing), and a check of past employers (last 10 years).

Faculty

The Department of Psychiatry is comprised of psychiatrists, psychologists and clinical social workers. The psychiatrists’ certifications include general psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry, and addiction psychiatry. The psychologists’ and social workers’ professional and research interests include severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI), substance abuse, the mentally ill and chemically addicted (MICA), personality disorders, neuropsychology, physical and cognitive rehabilitation, biofeedback, multiculturalism, and psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral treatment approaches, and dance-movement therapy.

Accreditation

The Pre-Doctoral Clinical Psychology Internship Program in the Department of Psychiatry at ColerGoldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility has been accredited by the American Psychological Association since 2006.

Initial accreditation period: 2006 to 2011
The next APA site visit is planned for 2011

Contact Information
Volker Schuetz, Psy.D.

Director, Psychology
Director, Psychology Internship Program

Department of Psychiatry
ColerGoldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility
1 Main Street
Roosevelt Island, NY 10044
(212) 318-4650
(212) 318-4653 Fax

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