Tracks

Overview of the Child Track 

The Child Track emphasizes child and adolescent outpatient clinical services.  This includes diagnostic assessment, consultation, and individual, group, and family psychotherapy with an emphasis on psychotherapy practice.  Other experiences include didactic training, time for research and development, and elective experiences of your choice (see electives tab).  Interns receive a minimum of five hours of supervision each week, at least 2 of which are individual.  Each clinical experience has its own supervision structure, and efforts are made to allow each intern to have contact with as many supervisors as possible. We believe that the more people you can interact with, the more you will learn.

Weekly Sample Schedule A for the Child Track

(all components can occur at various times of the week; the below sample schedule just provides an overview of time allotments).

Weekly Sample Schedule B for the Child Track

(completed opposite semester as Schedule A)

Core Components of the Child Track

• Outpatient Clinic.  The largest portion of clinical work for child track interns occurs in the outpatient clinic at the Wisconsin Psychiatric Institute and Clinics (WisPIC). WisPIC serves a diagnostically diverse population, including patients with behavioral disorders, anxiety, depression, ADHD, and OCD. Interns provide ongoing therapy for children, adolescents, and families throughout the year. In addition to individual supervision, our outpatient clinic provides in-session supervision in which a faculty member is present for a small portion of each therapy session. From one of our past interns: “I won’t deny that I was a little nervous about the in-session supervision and worried about how it might interrupt the flow of a therapy session. I quickly realized how beneficial it was to have direct supervision with every session. …I believe that this model has significantly helped with my growth as a clinician.” Supervisors: Child faculty.
• Intake Clinic. Interns complete a diagnostic assessment on a new child patient to the clinic once a week. A parent or family member is required to be a part of the intake process. Interns determine what measures to include as part of the intake process and get supervision both during and after the intake. Weekly group supervision offers an opportunity to discuss the intake, diagnosis, and treatment plan. Interns are responsible for writing up a mental health diagnostic evaluation each week. Supervisor: Stephanie Steinman, PhD.
• Primary Care Behavioral Health. Each child track intern spends 6 months working in a primary care behavioral health setting. The rotation is one day per week and occurs at a UW Health Pediatric Clinic. The clinical experience involves collaboration with physicians, nurses, and staff psychologists. It is a faster-paced setting than the outpatient clinic, with warm handoffs on a daily basis and a focus on consultation and brief interventions. Supervisor: Shanda Wells, PhD, and Andrea Bird, LCSW.
• Family Therapy Clinic. Child track interns spend a half-day per week in the Family Therapy Clinic. A didactic seminar is provided that emphasizes modern and post-modern conceptualizations of family dynamics, structural, experiential, and emotion-focused interventions, and a range of other topics related to families. Demonstrations of assessment interviews and clinical interventions are incorporated into the activities of this clinic. Family interventions are offered in a co-therapy structure, and group supervision is provided before and after sessions. Supervisor: Mike Thalasinos, LMFT.
• Adolescent DBT Group. Child track interns spend 6 months co-leading a DBT skills group for adolescents and their families. Group occurs once per week, and adolescents participate in multiple modules with their parents. Supervisors: Hannah Koerten, PhD, and Stephanie Steinman, PhD.
• Child Therapy Training Clinic. Led by child psychologists, this experience can include pediatric and adult track interns, child psychology post-doctoral fellows, and child psychiatry fellows. Therapy demonstrations are presented behind a one-way mirror by child therapists in the department, and group supervision of cases is conducted. The group has diverse training backgrounds and expertise, and this is often an opportunity for child track interns to take leadership roles and provide peer supervision to other trainees with less child therapy experience. Supervisors: Jason Horowitz, PhD and Aisha Rosh, PhD, NCSP.
• Seminars. Each week, a half-day is set aside to engage in didactic learning alongside the adult and pediatric psychology track interns, as well as some shared seminars with UW Psychiatry residents.  For a sample of topics covered in this series, please see the section on seminars.  A variety of faculty are involved in this training.
• Research and Professional Development Time. All interns have a half-day per week protected for research activities. Your supervisor will work with you to figure out the best use of this time.  Some interns use this time to complete their dissertations and/or apply for post-doctoral fellowship. Others work with their graduate school supervisors on continued projects or engage in research at UW.  There are also opportunities to expand your research time with a research elective.
• Electives. Interns have 1 day per week to engage in elective activities. For more details, please see the section on electives.

Overview of the Pediatric Psychology Track

The Pediatric Psychology Track emphasizes the application of the principles of psychology to the understanding of health and illness, through assessment, intervention and consultation within a medical setting. Over the course of the year, interns will spend the majority of their time on the pediatric inpatient consultation liaison service.

Weekly Sample Schedule for Pediatric Psychology Track

(all components can occur at various times of the week; the below sample schedule just provides an overview of time allotments).

Core Components of the Pediatric Psychology Track

• Inpatient Consultation-Liaison Service.  Interns provide psychological assessment, intervention, and consultation to children and families hospitalized in the American Family Children’s Hospital (AFCH). Routine consults are seen for the following services: Hematology/Oncology, Rehabilitation, Pulmonary, Endocrine, NICU, Trauma, BMT, and a wide variety of other medical populations. Interns will have the opportunity to participate in multidisciplinary team meetings, including medical rounds and family conferences, as well as medical specialty rounds, such as hematology/oncology, rehabilitation, pulmonary and Neonatal ICU. Supervisors: Stephanie Farrell, PhD, Emily Schweigert, PhD, and Julia Benjamin, PhD.
• Seminars. Each week, a half-day is set aside to engage in didactic learning alongside the adult and child track interns, as well as some shared seminars with UW Psychiatry residents.  For a sample of topics covered in this series, please see the section on seminars.  A variety of faculty are involved in this training.
• Research and Professional Development Time. All interns have a half-day per week protected for research activities. Your supervisor will work with you to figure out the best use of this time.  Some interns use this time to complete their dissertations and/or apply for post-doctoral fellowship. Others work with their graduate school supervisors on continued projects or engage in research at UW.
• Electives. Interns have 1 day per week to engage in elective activities. For more details, please see the section on electives.