Internship Criteria

INTERNSHIP

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The internship is Extended and Diversified, differentiated from the traditional full-time one-year internship in one agency. The internship is extended in that it covers a two-year period. It is diversified in that each student spends two to three days per week in the schools and Mental Health Centers or other Community Agencies during those two years. This is in addition to practica associated with courses. Thus, students will have been exposed to various school, and community experiences and have acquired well-developed intervention and consultation skills by graduation. The value of an extended internship is that it occurs while the student is still taking courses in the Program. It thus provides an opportunity to evaluate field placements in the light of the experiences of other students in different settings and to discuss practices in the field considering the theory and practice being taught in the classroom. Integrating classroom and "real world" experiences provides a well-rounded yet intensive learning opportunity for our students.

IMPORTANT NOTE!!!

In order to complete the internship, it is expected that advanced-level students who are currently working will take a leave of absence from their full-time employment. It is not possible to complete internships and coursework while being employed full-time. We expect doctoral candidates to arrange their outside commitments so that these obligations do not interfere with their professional training in psychology.

Internship Criteria:

The criteria for internship are defined by both the New York State Education Department and the American Psychological Association. This information is detailed below and will hopefully clarify any confusion you might have regarding how we, and the organizations that accredit us, conceptualize an internship placement. An internship is an organized training program that, in contrast to supervised experience (e.g., practica) or on-the-job training, is designed to provide the intern with a planned, programmed sequence of training experience. The internship is the culminating training experience before granting the doctoral degree. It follows a programmed sequence of course work, practica, and field experiences and occurs after the substantial completion of all course work leading to the degree. The internship’s primary focus and purpose are to assure breadth and quality of training. The minimum number of internship hours required by the New York State Education Department is 1,750. The internship is designed to meet the needs of the graduate student and should provide an extension of education and supervised training from the university program. The psychology internship must include a range of activities such as consultation, assessment, intervention, supervision, program development and evaluation, and research designed to meet the health and psychological needs of the clients.

55 The internship agency employs a clearly designated doctoral-level psychologist, who is currently licensed/certified by the State Regulatory Board for Psychology at the independent practice level of psychology, who is responsible for the integrity and the quality of the internship program and is present at the training facility for a minimum of 20 hours per week. A licensed psychologist must provide intern supervision. Other certified personnel may also provide it in the psychological services unit. Still, the licensed psychologist assumes 100% responsibility for the supervision provided by staff members of the internship agency or by affiliates of that agency. The psychological service unit providing the internship training includes at least two full-time equivalents, licensed, doctoral-level psychologist supervisors. The internship includes at least two hours per week of regularly scheduled, formal, individual face-to-face supervision with the specific intent of dealing with the psychological services rendered directly by the intern. The supervisor must provide at least one hour per week of supervision but may delegate the other hour per week of supervision to appropriately certified members of the psychological services unit. The intern must regularly schedule, supervise, and document training activities with other psychology interns. The internship must have two or more full-time equivalent interns. However, agencies with the capacity of only one intern may meet the spirit of this criterion, the socialization of doctoral-level psychology interns, by having regularly scheduled and documented training activities with interns at other internship sites, with other psychology interns in the immediate geographic areas or, when internship sites are at a significant distance from each other, by making arrangements for regularly scheduled meetings of interns for several hours every month. Reports by the intern to consumers, other agency or school personnel, or other relevant publics, must be co-signed by the licensed psychologist supervisor responsible for the intern. The trainee has a title such as “intern,” “resident,” “fellow,” or other designation of trainee status and not be referred to as “psychologist” at this level of their training.