Psychology Internship:
Overview of the Adult Track
The Adult Track emphasizes adult outpatient clinical services. This includes assessment, consultation, and individual, group, and couple/family psychotherapy with an emphasis on psychotherapy practice. Other experiences include training in child psychotherapy and/or primary care behavioral health, didactic training, time for research and professional development, and elective experiences of your choice (see electives tab). Interns receive at a minimum of 5 hours of supervision each week, at least 2 of which are individual. We aim to pair you with a diverse array of supervisors, offering you a well-rounded supervision experience.
Weekly Sample Schedule for the Adult Track
(all components can occur at various times of the week; the below sample schedule provides an overview of time allotments).
Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | |
Morning |
Outpatient Clinic |
Elective |
Outpatient Clinic & Intake Clinic |
Seminars & DBT Consultation Team |
Outpatient Clinic |
Afternoon |
Outpatient Clinic & Couples Therapy Training Clinic |
Elective |
Child Therapy Training Clinic/Primary Care Behavioral Health |
DBT Skills Training Group |
Research & Professional Development Time |
Core Components of the Adult Track
- Outpatient Clinic. Interns participate in the Outpatient Clinic at the Wisconsin Psychiatric Institute and Clinics (WisPIC) for about two days per week. Patients are quite diverse diagnostically ranging from adjustment disorders to severe and complex mood, anxiety, trauma-related, and personality disorders. Interventions offered are consistent with evidence-informed outpatient clinical practice from a variety of theoretical orientations. In addition to individual supervision, our outpatient clinic provides in-session supervision in which a faculty member is present for a small portion of every 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: Adult faculty.
- Intake Clinic. Interns complete Psychotherapy and DBT intakes on Wednesday mornings. Supervision is provided during the intake and then in a group format with the other adult interns. Group supervision also allows for didactics related to psychiatric diagnosis, formulation and treatment planning, and psychological assessment practices. Each intern has the opportunity to use standardized assessment measures to inform treatment planning and outcomes monitoring. Supervisor: Daniel Dickson, PhD.
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills Training Group. Interns co-lead a weekly DBT Skills Training Group for a half-day per week, including the 2-hour group, 1 hour for group preparation, and 1 hour for group DBT consultation. Supervisors: Stephanie Steinman, PhD, Daniel Dickson, PhD, and Maura Grasshoff, MSW.
- Couples Therapy Training Clinic. Interns participate in this clinical experience with third-year Psychiatry residents. A didactic seminar is provided that emphasizes humanistic, experiential, and emotion-focused interventions for couples as well as a review of relevant special topics for couples. Demonstrations of assessment interviews and clinical interventions are incorporated into the activities of this clinic. Couples interventions are offered in a co-therapy structure and group supervision is provided using a “live supervision” model. Supervisor: Madelyn Esposito, LPC, NCC, CST.
- Wednesday Afternoon Clinic. To gain experience across the lifespan, adult interns have the opportunity to rotate at the Child Therapy Training Clinic or Primary Care Behavioral Health for 12 months or with each training experience for 6 months.
- Child Therapy Training Clinic. Adult interns treat children and adolescents with diverse presenting issues along with child interns, pediatric interns, child psychology post-doctoral fellows, and/or child psychiatry fellows. During this half-day, interns observe child therapy, receive supervision, and then see patients weekly with in-session supervision. Clinical cases are chosen to match an intern’s experience in working with children, allowing flexibility to accommodate trainees with either significant or minimal experience with this population. Supervisors: Jason Horowitz, PhD, and Aisha Rosh, PhD, NCSP.
- Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH). Adult interns treat individuals across the life span from children to older adults at a federally-funded clinic, Access Community Health Centers, which uses a PCBH model. The PCBH model in an integrated care that places the mental health professional directly alongside the primary care provider to intervene. Interns learn how to perform brief functional consults and communicate recommendations both to the PCP and patient effectively and efficiently. The supervision is immediate as students are paired with a staff member, which means that the trainee works right alongside a psychologist and learns how to present cases efficiently. If an adult intern has strong PCBH interests, they can also engage in this clinic as an elective for up to a total of 1.5-2 days of PCBH rotation experience. Supervisor: Meghan Fondow, PhD.
- Seminars. Each week, a half-day is set aside to engage in didactic learning alongside the child 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 and/or other professional development. 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 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 provides an overview of time allotments).
Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | |
Morning |
Outpatient Clinic |
Elective |
Outpatient Clinic & Intake Clinic |
Seminars & DBT Consultation Team |
Family Therapy Clinic |
Afternoon |
Outpatient Clinic |
Elective |
Child Therapy Training Clinic |
DBT Skills Training Group |
Research & Professional Development Time |
Weekly Sample Schedule B for the Child Track
(completed opposite semester as Schedule A)
Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | |
Morning |
Primary Care Behavioral Health |
Elective |
Outpatient Clinic & Intake Clinic |
Seminars |
Family Therapy Clinic |
Afternoon |
Primary Care Behavioral Health |
Research & Professional Development Time |
Child Therapy Training Clinic |
Outpatient Clinic |
Elective |
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 every 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 for 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. Supervisors: Jessica Umhoefer, PsyD, and Chris Wirth, 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 provides an overview of time allotments).
Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | |
Morning |
Inpatient |
Elective |
Inpatient |
Seminars
|
Inpatient |
Afternoon |
Inpatient |
Inpatient |
Elective |
Research & Professional Development Time |
Inpatient |
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.
"We greatly value the consideration of a variety of theoretical orientations as well as a warm and supportive environment in which to learn and work together."
Meredith Rumble, PhD, Psychology Training Co-Director UW Madison Department of Psychiatry