Major Components

EVMS Clinical Psychology Internship - Major Components

The EVMS Clinical Psychology Internship Program is organized around major, minor, and outpatient rotations. The educational model requires that psychology interns concentrate their activities in their primary area of emphasis, i.e. their major rotation in Adult Medical Inpatient or Pediatric Behavioral Medicine, three days a week during their two 6-month training experiences of choice. One-day-per-week minor rotations complement the major rotations chosen. Activities at the outpatient training clinic ½ day a week round out the total internship experience. Hour-long seminars are taught or facilitated by full-time and community members of the EVMS faculty. The series varies from year to year, but topics typically covered include behavioral medicine, multicultural diversity, child and adolescent assessment and psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, sleep disorders, neuropsychology, ethics, professional development and advanced personality assessment.

Thus, in summary, the internship consists of four primary components: (1) major rotations; (2) minor rotations; (3) an outpatient psychotherapy caseload; and a (4) series of seminars

 

The Major Rotation

Major rotations reflect particular training emphases and are either in Adult Medical Inpatient, based at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital or Pediatric Behavioral Medicine, located at the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. All major rotations provide for a variety of brief therapy experiences, interdisciplinary team collaboration, consultation and opportunities for conducting mood, personality, cognitive, intellectual, and/or neuropsychological assessments, although depending on the site, the relative balance and nature of these activities will vary. One of the adult inpatient experiences centers on the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, and the other focuses on training on a Consultation Liaison service

Interns are assigned to one of the following Major Rotations/units each six months:

Minor Rotations

Psychologists trained to serve in collaborative and integrated care settings will be the model health care providers for the 21st Century. In fact, the 2009 APA SUMMIT on the training of future psychologists emphasized that it is crucial that successful components of "First-wave" (i.e., traditional) training models be retained while simultaneously developing emerging "Second-wave" models to prepare psychologists as health care providers to maintain the viability of the discipline. These types of insights by APA coupled with a recent emphasis on the PCMH further underscore the need for psychology's educational models to be one step ahead of where the field is currently in order to prepare trainees for a bright future and the needs of the future population.

Subsequently, the EVMS Clinical Psychology Internship Program has each Intern complete a minor rotation of eight hours per week in an area related to integrated care in primary care settings. Several minors have been offered in recent years and are expected to be available in the future. These include inpatient consultation-liaison services for primary-care physicians, outpatient primary-care psychology, child and adolescent neuropsychology, eating disorders, bariatrics, sleep disorders, geriatric primary-care psychology, and clinical research projects.

Track Preferences

Each intern is assigned to two different six-month rotations, one or more minor rotations, and one outpatient therapy supervisor to ensure breadth of experience. Assignments have been made based on the expressed interests of interns following matching to the program.

Seminar Series

Hourly seminars are provided for interns each Wednesday morning, and last from four to 35 weeks per seminar. They are taught or facilitated by full-time and community members of the EVMS faculty, based on their areas of expertise. While parts of the series are determined by the Internship Training Committee parts of the series are set by interns' preferences. The series varies somewhat from year to year depending upon Intern and faculty interests. Typical seminars in recent years have included:

  • Advanced Personality Assessment
  • Biofeedback
  • Child and Family Interventions
  • Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy
  • Forensic/Expert Witness
  • Multicultural Psychotherapy
  • Neuropsychology
  • Patients with Disabilities
  • Play Therapy
  • Primary Care Psychology
  • Professional Development
  • Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
  • Psychopharmacology
  • Psychotherapy for Gay and Lesbian Clients
  • Sleep Disorders
  • Suicide Assessment and Crisis Intervention

The Seminar Series for the upcoming academic year is included in Appendix 2 of the training manual.