Morrison Child and Family Services is a child and family community mental health agency, focusing on the treatment of low income youth 0-21 years of age and their families. Morrison Outpatient sites are collaborative, cross disciplinary teams located in urban areas, and serve only low income clients. In addition, we partner with Mindsights, a private practice assessment group specializing in comprehensive psychological assessments, with a particular passion to serve child welfare clients, for a 12 hour a week externship.
At Morrison, interns receive core training in outpatient treatment and diagnostic assessment, with weekly seminars, consultation groups along with individual and group supervision. Under the auspices of two, yearlong supervisors, interns will see a range of child, adolescent, and family clients for individual, family, and group therapy. Many cases involve consultation and coordination with community systems (20% foster children) along with trauma, so this is emphasized in training. All interns are trained in mental health assessments with a focus on diagnostics and clinical formulation with complex cases. Clientele are generally low income to poverty level, many with complex family dynamics, from diverse backgrounds and with limited community supports. Training is provided in Outcome Based Care (using FIT) as well as the Incredible Years curriculum, plus the entire outpatient team is integrating the Attachment, Co-regulation and Competency Model into our practice. In addition, Morrison as an agency is actively implementing the Sanctuary Model, and interns will be trained and integrated into that as well. Theoretical orientations and trainings include CBT, attachment, parent-training, family systems, multicultural/equity, and integrative, always with a developmental and trauma informed focus. There is an option for one day a week to treat mental health issues within a local elementary school identified as high needs, should that be a desired focus. Finally, interns are provided an opportunity to develop supervision skills by supervising a practicum student or new staff for part of the year.
All interns will now be joining the Mindsights staff for a 12 hour/week Externship. Interns will join the Mindsights staff for twice monthly trainings on advanced assessment related topics including professional development and assessment practice as well as understanding the child welfare system and preparing for court testifying. Supervision occurs both in a twice a month group supervision format and interns will be individually supervised on their assessments by one of their licensed staff. The interns will provide both more basic as well as fully comprehensive psychological evaluations primarily serving the child welfare population. These assessments involve about 6 hours of testing as well as consultation with foster parents and caseworkers, and are intended to help direct caseworkers and treatment providers with recommendations on ways to best meet the individual needs of children newly entering the child welfare system. Not surprisingly, these children often present with complex needs, and the assessments are tailored to the developmental age of the child, with a focus on neurodevelopmental, cognitive, relational and personality factors.
Overall, we are seeking psychology trainees with a passion to develop and hone assessment and therapy skills with complex, challenging child clinical populations, whether that training and experience is intended to lead to ongoing clinical practice or to help lay the foundation for a research or academic career. We also value and appreciate diverse applicants, and strongly encourage applications from bilingual Spanish clinicians, as we serve a sizeable population of monolingual and bilingual Spanish clientele within our local area.
Final note: we require a de-identified psychological assessment as part of the APPIC evaluation, and we require a minimum of 5 comprehensive child assessment batteries at the time of application as well as a minimum of 100 assessment hours. However, if the applicant is currently in a child assessment practicum, that could be taken into account in the application review process.