Thank you for your interest in the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center's Pre-doctoral Psychology Internship at Mountain Home (Johnson City), TN! We are located in the beautiful Appalachian Highlands.
We are proud that 15 former interns from our program are now permanent staff members; many of them serve as supervisors.
We adhere to a generalist model of education and training, and we teach the nine core competencies outlined in APA's Standards of Accreditation.
The internship provides an intensive clinical training experience. The program offers interns a balanced exposure to various clinical settings through major and minor rotations. In addition, interns carry about 4 long-term psychotherapy patients throughout the year, working with a supervisor of their choice, who also functions as a professional mentor.
For the most up-to-date information about our rotations, please see our internship brochure, posted on our website. Here is a quick summary:
MAJOR ROTATIONS:
Geriatric Patient Aligned Care Team (Geri-PACT) Clinic - Providing a range of assessments to and interdisciplinary consultation for an out-patient geriatric population in Primary Care, supervised by a neuropsychologist.
Oncology/Palliative Care Program - Experience working with patients at the end of life, providing family support, consulting with an interdisciplinary team.
Outpatient Mental Health - Provide intakes, individual and group therapy for a range of diagnoses, working with an inter-disciplinary MH staff.
PTSD Clinic - Conducting intakes and assessments, providing group and individual therapy, learning about various Evidence-Based Therapies for trauma.
Psychosocial Residential Recovery and Treatment Program (PRRTP) - Assessment and therapy with a residential population that includes Serious Mental Illness (SMI) and multiple co-morbidities, consulting with other MH disciplines.
Substance Use Disorders Program (SUDP) - Assessment, group, and individual therapy in an interdisciplinary team setting
MINOR ROTATIONS:
Acute Inpatient Psychiatry - Work on a psychiatric in-patient unit with a multi-disciplinary team, providing some assessment, group, and individual therapy.
Clinical Research - Finish your dissertation.
Couple and Family Therapy - Work with a national consultant certified in Integrated Behavioral Couples Therapy, learn about general family systems dynamics.
Home Based Primary Care - Travel to Southwest Virginia and accompany a psychologist to patients' homes to provide true interdisciplinary care in the heart of Appalachia.
Psychology Program Evaluation - Choose two programs to evaluate and improve, such as SUDP or PRTP.
Substance Use Disorders Program - see above
Supervision - Spend one day per week at East TN State University's doctoral psychology clinic, providing supervision to student therapists while under the supervision of a clinical psychologist. Off-site rotation.
Whole Health Integrative Mental Health - Be part of a health promotion/disease prevention multi-disciplinary team on the forefront of providing holistic care.
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One of our foundational values in Appalachia is hospitality. As such, we are committed to welcoming people of all identities, seen and unseen, across all intersections, as we weave a tapestry of differences into a strong and vibrant workforce. We strive to uphold values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we invite interested applicants from underrepresented groups who are also committed to a multicultural orientation.
Johnson City is beautiful and affordable, and our internship is a mature program that supports work-life balance, professional identity development, and mutual respect. When people think of Appalachia, many images/stereotypes come to mind. Johnson City has four Starbucks cafes and a Bonefish Grill - no one is "roughing it" here. And we are diversifying; Hispanic people are the fastest-growing demographic in our region.
Due to the rugged rural geography, our patients travel an average of an hour to the VA for care. Our mission is to help those who served and continue to face challenges with poverty, lack of health education and resources, geographic isolation, and stigma.
We founded our Mental Health Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in 2000, and we continue to focus on diverse staff and intern recruitment. Our VA employs 2500+ people from all backgrounds. We are affiliated with a medical school, several nursing schools, and a college of pharmacy. This hub of health care education attracts more ethnic/racial diversity to the community.
Interns also have the opportunity to co-lead our LGBT group and be involved in the care of transgendered veterans.
We hope you will consider applying to our program, and we wish you the best of luck in this process.