Program Mission
The mission of the internship program is to develop psychologists who will serve as future leaders in health service psychology. To this end, we seek to provide interns with the clinical and leadership skills that will enable them to be competitive health service psychologists and program managers.
As the number of professions involved in mental health care expands and there is a greater emphasis on cost-efficiency, the future for doctoral-level psychologists will increasingly be in academic and leadership roles, with a reduced role in front-line care. Our program strives to train psychologists who possess strong clinical abilities to deliver care in an effective and efficient manner, along with supervision and consultation skills to train psychology trainees as well as other professionals, and the leadership skills to influence professional practice and policies.
Program Model
Our program is based on a scientist-practitioner model emphasizing empirically grounded theory and practice of cognitive-behavioral assessment and therapy. A wide range of opportunities with interdisciplinary teams, performance improvement projects, and supervision are available to develop a systems perspective as well as leadership, teaching, and managerial skills.
Training opportunities are available across multiple levels of care including general outpatient clinics, specialty teams, and residential programs for PTSD and Substance Use Disorder. In addition to serving the local metropolitan area, our facility serves a rural population throughout Mississippi and parts of Louisiana and Alabama. Telehealth is a rapidly growing treatment modality, delivered to Veterans at CBOCs and in their homes.
Program Structure
Psychology interns have time devoted to three main activities: clinical rotation, supervision, and didactics. Interns can request time (up to 4 hours/week) for professional leadership activities during the second and third rotation.
Clinical Rotations
Clinical rotations are four months. Current rotations include: Addictive Disorders Treatment Program, Primary Care-Mental Health Integration, Neuropsychology, and Trauma Recovery.
Didactics
Interns will spend 2 hours a week in didactics. This will include a combination of didactic seminars, discussion hours, and intern presentations. Our program provides didactics which focus on profession-wide competencies, career development, personal and financial development, and leadership development.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Training
In order to provide interns with a solid, generalist foundation in CBT, interns will attend a CBT training each week. The format will consist of a combination of didactic training, group discussion, and role play. Interns will gain skills in the following competency domains: Generic Therapeutic Competencies, Basic CBT Competencies, Specific Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy Techniques, Problem Specific Competencies, and Metacompetencies. This training will also serve as an opportunity to obtain and practice CBT Supervision Skills.
Diversity and Diversity Training
Our internship program recognizes, values, and encourages diversity. Diversity strengthens our services, enriches learning, and broadens the perspectives of the training class. Our internship program follows principles of inclusion, respect, tolerance, and acceptance. Our program will not tolerate discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital/parental status, and political affiliation.
We encourage students who are passionate about working with underserved populations and determining ways to improve reach and effectiveness of mental health services in underserved populations, particularly African-American and rural populations, to apply to our program.
Training in cultural and individual diversity is an essential component of our program. Please see program brochure for more information on diversity training and a list of didactics focusing on individual and cultural diversity.