The Doctoral Internship in Psychology at the Danielsen Institute focuses on clinical skills and clinical practice in an outpatient setting. The program integrates relational approaches to psychotherapy, religious/spiritual/existential concerns, cultural humility and social justice commitment, therapist formation and professional development, and integration of research with clinical training and practice. Our clinical orientation draws from developmental theory and research (attachment, differentiation, intersubjectivity), psychodynamic perspectives, systems theory, trauma treatment, multicultural and social justice perspectives, and relationally-oriented psychotherapy research. Our approach to spirituality and religion is pluralistic and includes attention to diverse traditions, spiritual dwelling and seeking, spiritual struggles, positive and negative impacts of religion, dialectics and paradox, and crucible processes. We seek to provide formative training, that is, training that attends to personal capacities, humility, accountability, and support as well as the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Interns will be asked to reflect on their identities and background as relevant for working with identity and diversity in clinical practice. Supervisory staff remain committed to their own on-going formation and growth, and seek to build sturdy and supportive professional relationships with interns.
The Doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology aims to equip interns for competent early career practice in the nine profession wide competencies defined by the American Psychological Association, and one additional program defined area of competence:
- Research
- Ethics and legal standards
- Individual and cultural diversity
- Professional values, attitudes, and behaviors
- Communications and interpersonal skills
- Assessment
- Treatment
- Supervision
- Consultation
- Spiritual/religious/existential issues in clinical practice.
In terms of broader professional development themes and aims for future practice, we have organized the internship to ensure that interns leave the program with (a) strong skills in outpatient psychotherapy informed by relational approaches (psychodynamic, developmental, and systems), (b) generalist knowledge of psychological testing including assessment for clergy and seminarians, (c) working knowledge of our Relational Spirituality Model (Sandage, S. J., Rupert, D., Stavros, G., & Devor, N. G. (2020). Relational spirituality in psychotherapy: Healing suffering and promoting growth. American Psychological Association), (d) established and committed engagement with diversity and social justice in professional psychology, (e) foundational skills for engaging spiritual, religious, and existential issues in clinical practice; (f) exposure to and awareness of community collaboration, prevention, and flourishing interventions, (g) exposure to and engagement with practice-based research and integration of research in professional development and clinical service; (h) a strong and growing sense of one’s professional identity and integration of self in professional practice, and (i) professional skills in clinical administration.
Our interns typically extend their training at the Institute by transitioning into a second year as postdoctoral fellows. The internship program and the internship match are separate experiences/processes. We prefer internship applications from candidates who have a strong interest in the option for additional training after internship.
