The Psychology Department of TPH, in conjunction with the New Jersey Department of Health offers a one-year, full-time (1750 hours), APA-accredited internship in Clinical Psychology. Interns are able to accrue 2000 hours if necessary for licensure in their state. Interns' core experience involves intensively supervised clinical work at TPH with an inpatient adult psychiatric and forensic population. TPH patients display a broad spectrum of psychopathology and are from diverse cultural, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. Interns are exposed to a range of theoretical orientations. They gain experience with varied treatment modalities and acquire assessment experience utilizing a range of assessment tools. Individualized competency-based training plans are developed for each intern, facilitating the development and expansion of a broad base of clinical skills. Goals of the internship are to graduate interns who will: 1. Function as competent psychotherapists, psycho-diagnosticians and interdisciplinary treatment team members. 2. Effectively apply literature, supervision and continuing education to their clinical work. 3. Conduct themselves in a professional manner, in accordance with ethical and legal guidelines applicable to the setting in which they practice. 4. Possess sensitivity to individual and cultural differences that enable them to provide effective psychological treatment for the individuals they serve.
TPH's psychology department is comprised of 16 psychologists, 4 psychology interns, 2 behavior analysts, and 10 behavior support technicians. Currently there are 6 psychologists, 4 interns, 1 behavior analyst and 2 behavior support technicians. Four full-time psychologists are licensed in New Jersey. The hospital is divided into 4 complexes: Drake – 3 admissions units; Raycroft – 4 extended acute locked units; Lincoln –4 less restrictive units comprised of patients with either medical issues, chronic mental illness, or those who meet criteria for DBT milieu treatment; one unit, King, has transformed into a COVID Unit as per CDC requirements for hospital settings; and Travers – 12 unlocked cottages each housing between 5-8 patients comprise the Transitional Living Unit which helps to prepare patients for discharge. Each complex has unique functions, but is interdependent with the other parts of the hospital. During the course of the year-long internship, each intern spends 6 months in 2 rotations in different sections of the hospital. Depth and variety of experience are further promoted by having our interns participate in a specialty rotation within TPH.