The Psychology Internship Training Program at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is a one-year clinical experience and includes up to nine nationally matched interns. The goal of the Psychology Internship Training Program is to train future child psychologists for entry-level professional practice in health service psychology.
Specifically, the Program aims to prepare advanced doctoral-level students to take leadership roles in developing, providing, evaluating, and disseminating effective psychological services for a diverse population of children and families with health and/or mental health needs. The Program is committed to preparing psychologists as leaders in the field, who will be engaged in clinical practice, interdisciplinary collaboration, advocacy and scientific investigation.
The mission of the Program is to prepare future clinical child psychologists to take leadership roles in developing, providing, evaluating, and disseminating effective psychological services for the diverse population of children and families with health and/or mental health needs. The Program is committed to preparing psychologists as leaders in the field, engaged in clinical practice, advocacy, interdisciplinary collaboration, and scientific investigation. The program offers opportunities for broad and general training, as well as depth training in 5 interconnected tracks: autism spectrum disorders, pediatric psychology, clinical child psychology, pediatric neuropsychology, and integrated behavioral health care in primary care. We stress the interconnections between child, family, health care and school/community systems, and emphasize the bidirectional impact of research and practice.
The Internship Training Program embraces a scientist-practitioner training model and is guided by developmental, ecological and systems-based theories of psychology. Children operate in multiple systems, most notably the family, healthcare, and school systems that have a profound impact on their cognitive, emotional, health and social functioning. As a result, training occurs in multiple formats and multidisciplinary environments, with significant emphasis placed on effective functioning as a healthcare team member.