NMHC Psychology Internship Program is pleased to announce that APA accreditation of the internship program was granted July 21, 2019.

The mission of the NMHC-Psychology Internship Program (NMHC-PIP) is to provide an open and
research-informed learning environment in which to train competent, ethical and reflective psychologists who have acquired the awareness, knowledge and skills fundamental to the practiceof professional psychology. A program expectation is that interns are capable of entry-level autonomous practice at the end of the training year.

The focus of our training is concentrated on the development of APA’s SoA’s profession-wide competencies through integration of theory with practice by providing experiences that are sequential, cumulative, and graded in complexity. The scientist-practitioner model is used for the emphasis on research informed clinical practice and service delivery, as well as supervised and supported learning. Consistent with training model, interns are treated as professional colleagues who are expected to function as “primary” clinical therapists. As they become an increasingly independent practitioners, they also are provided an opportunity to develop their own interests.

Highlights of the training program:

• Individualized training plans are developed at the start of the training year based on the interns prior clinical experiences, interests, and career goals.
• Ability to identify and utilize evidence-based interventions from a variety of theoretical orientations that are based on the patient’s strengths and needs.
• Psychological assessment is an emphasized component with opportunity to gain experience in psychological, neuropsychological, substance use, and forensic specific assessment measures for children, adolescents, adults, and seniors. 
• Training experience and discussion for growth in the level of awareness and responsiveness to diversity, particularly the relevance of cultural and linguistic factors considered in conceptualizing psychological functioning.
• Serve children, adolescents, adults and seniors diagnosed with a wide variety of psychological and neuropsychological conditions through the provision of short and long-term individual and family psychotherapy, group therapy, setting specific service delivery, consultation, outreach programming, program evaluation/research, and administrative functions.
• Specific opportunities for clinical care include
  • Assessment, diagnosis and treatment of a wide variety of behavioral health disorders and neuropsychological conditions for children, adolescents, adults and seniors
  • Provide supervised leadership for various group therapy for the juvenile and adult probation systems
  • Possibly co-facilitate a group for men with history of committing adult domestic violence.
  • Unique to our training program is the cultural understanding of rural offices and the difference in service provision between rural and more urban settings. 
  • The opportunity to become certified in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
  • Overall, the breadth of experience that is available and received provides a solid foundation for a psychology intern to successfully and confidently transition into the next phase of their career.

 The mission of the sponsoring agency, Nebraska Mental Health Centers (NMHC), is to strive for excellence in meeting the dynamic behavioral health needs, in terms of assessment, diagnosis and treatment, of a diverse society while keeping abreast of the latest scientific discoveries in the field of psychology. NMHC is a multi-site that serves eastern and southeastern Nebraska. A broad ethnic and cultural diverse population is provided services in each of the clinic sites. There is a cooperative and collaborative working relationship with NMHC’s part time psychiatric service providers.

• The primary site in Lincoln, NE provides services for a population center of 27,000. 
• Satellite clinics are located in the communities of Fremont, Beatrice, and Wahoo, NE.
  • The clinic in Fremont, NE serves a community of approximately 26,000 that includes a large rural catchment area. 
  • The Beatrice satellite clinic serves a rural community of approximately 13,000 and the surrounding communities that contain a large population of socially and economically challenged families.
  • The Wahoo clinic is newly established in Auguest, 2022 and serves a rural community of 4,500 and the surrounding communities.

The psychology internship program is designed to be a 2000 clinical hours, which includes a minimum of 1000 direct patient contact hours, in a 12-month learning experience with intern full-time equivalency of at least 40 hours/weekly. NMHC-PIP requires interns to have 75% of their total time involved in direct patient service delivery including direct patient therapy, testing, patient reports and documentation, and consultation.