The Pine Rest Psychology Internship in Health Service Psychology is designed to train interns in the Practitioner-Scholar Model.  Training takes place within the context of a private, non-profit psychiatric hospital with a 100+ year history of providing excellent behavioral health services across the continuum of care.  Pine Rest is one of the five largest free-standing behavioral health providers in the U.S.  In 2021, Pine Rest had 60,682 hospital days of care (7,250 hospital admissions), 337,140 outpatient visits to its 19 outpatient clinics, and 35,286 residential days of care.  The learning community at Pine Rest includes the psychology internship, a psychiatry residency with multiple fellowships, a psychiatric physician's assistant training program, and a clinical pastoral education program.  Interns are part of a multidisciplinary team where psychologists and psychology interns are valued as colleagues, with distinct contributions to patient care.

Pine Rest's internship has been continuously accredited by the APA since 1982.  Our next site visit is scheduled for 2027.  (See www.apa.org/ed/accreditation or contact the APA Commission on Accreditation [202-336-5979] with questions).  Program highlights include:

• Provision of services in inpatient, outpatient, and residential services.
• Elective participation in leadership teams, for example, clinical improvement committee, mother-baby team, external relations.
• Training in psychotherapy and assessment.
• Excellent faculty and supervision.  A collaborative culture.
• Opportunities for program evaluation and applied research.
• Collaboration with psychiatry residents and resident faculty.
• Training across all 9 Profession-Wide Competencies and our program specific competency: Spirituality

Our mission is to provide excellent clinical training in psychological assessment, intervention and consultation within a variety of settings (i.e. outpatient, inpatient, medical, and outreach). This training will equip graduates with the competencies needed to obtain employment in a variety of applied clinical settings.  Interns will be challenged to further their understanding of how personal history and worldview impact rapport, choice of interventions, and treatment outcomes. We believe that that best clinical work arises from clinicians who are self-aware, and who appropriately use their personal awareness to assist patients in making important life changes.  

Our program is strongly focused on diversity, individual differences, and cultural humility.  Diversity training is embedded into all case conceptualizations, all didactic trainings, and the selection of interventions.  Additionally, interns benefit from a monthly diversity training module led by a former intern who co-founded and leads a diversity consultation practice for organizations and individuals.  Pine Rest celebrates diversity and is committed to non-discrimination in employment policies and the provision of services to all people.

Our training philosophy emphasizes an environment that simultaneously nurtures and challenges interns, both as professionals and as people. We encourage collaboration among training faculty and interns. We view interns as junior colleagues who are valued member of our staff.  In sum, Pine Rest strives to equip interns with the ability to integrate science, practice, and worldview while constantly evaluating their appropriateness and effectiveness with the patients they serve.  Pine Rest is passionate about training doctoral psychologists who can make a difference in this world. To that end, we focus on an intern's clinical skills as well as the development of self awareness and sensitivity to matters of culture and individual differences.