Hamilton-Madison House is the largest mental health provider for the Asian American community on the East Coast. The internship program provides a comprehensive training in the requisite diagnostic and treatment skills needed to work in a community mental health clinic setting. Interns will have a variety of training opportunities in providing screening, intake assessment, individual, couple, group, couple and family therapy, and psychological testing in the Outpatient program. The clientele is diverse in terms of clinical diagnosis, age, gender, immigration history, racial and ethnic background. The value of diversity and the importance of understanding the individuals within their own cultural and racial context are strongly emphasized. Interns will have the opportunities to work with patients across the lifespan throughout the whole internship year. In addition, interns will facilitate groups in the Personalized Recovery Oriented Services (PROSpect Place) program to learn holistic and evidence-based treatment approaches for individuals with severe mental illness. Interns are mentored and supported to develop their own clinical philosophy and professional identity throughout the internship. Other unique training experiences include providing group supervision to Mental Health Counselor Interns, consultation services for service providers, and psychoeducation/training for community members.
In collaboration with Gracie Square Hospital (affiliated with the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Network), interns will also participate in the Inpatient Psychiatry Rotation at the inpatient Asian Psychiatry Program. The Asian Psychiatry program is directed by a culturally diverse clinical team and support staff able to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Chinese ethnic dialects, Korean, Japanese and other Asian languages. The rotation schedule will be on Wednesday for 15 weeks for each intern. Responsibilities include 1 group, 2 individual cases (including testing), attending meetings/rounds, case conferences, journal club and attending Psychology didactic training. Dr. Nadine Chang at Gracie Square Hospital is the site supervisor during interns’ rotation.
The Hamilton-Madison House internship program includes three licensed psychologists who are direct supervisors for the internship program. The Hamilton-Madison House also has several psychiatric staff and additional licensed personnel in various other fields such as social work, mental health counseling, rehabilitation and substance abuse counseling. They may provide individual intern supervision and mentoring, participate in didactic training and seminars, provide consultation, contribute to supervisory staff meetings and treatment team rounds, host case conferences, participate as members of the Internship Committee and/or assist with ongoing program evaluation. The internship program provides a structural and supportive environment, aimed at fostering the development of competent and independent clinical practitioners, capable of functioning in a rapidly changing health care system.
HMH has transitioned part of the services to telehealth since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Interns have been able to continue engaging in clinical work through providing telehealth services remotely. Several services and training activities (psychological testing, Gracie Square Hospital rotation) were temporarily suspended and re-started since September 2021. Current interns are providing in-person, phone, telehealth sessions. and working 2 days at the clinic and 3 days from home. For any questions and updates, please feel free to contact the Training Director directly.