Child & Family Center is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit, public-benefit corporation. The main campus is located in Santa Clarita, CA, with an outpatient clinic in Palmdale, CA; both located in Los Angeles County. The Agency is Medi-Cal and Drug Medi-Cal certified in the state of California, and a Medicare-eligible provider through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and have other various third-party funding arrangements to support the clients served. 

Dedicated to meeting the mental and behavioral health needs of children, adolescents, adults, and their families, a range of services are provided such as counseling, intervention services, and parent education. Professional training is offered to all staff, members of the community, psychology interns (“Interns”) and mental health trainees. The Agency is data-informed and community driven. The Agency is committed to evidence-based practices, staff training and development, culturally and linguistically appropriate services, and continuous quality improvement. Child & Family Center strongly values individual differences in its working, clinical, and learning environments. Celebrating individual and different perspectives is at the core of the Agency’s mission. Every effort is made to create a climate in which all staff, Interns, and volunteers feel respected, comfortable, and in which success is possible and obtainable. An overall goal of the Program is working with clients, colleagues, and community members from various backgrounds. Interns are expected to engage in reflection and consider different perspectives, as well as personal factors that may impact their work with clients through supervision, didactic trainings, and personal reflection.

The Agency and the Training Program support individuality and different perspectives by providing training related to various populations, encouraging Interns to consult and collaborate with interdisciplinary staff members, and by challenging Interns to reflect on their own personal experiences and how these affect their work with clients.

Individuality and different perspectives are integrated in the following ways:

• The Agency’s Cultural Awareness Team meets regularly. This Team focuses on initiatives to support the development and deployment of practical, experience-based knowledge and advances excellence through individuality and different perspectives across programs and services. Interns have opportunities to participate in these meetings throughout the training year.
• The Agency offers a Bilingual services workgroup for all Agency staff, that Interns are provided with opportunities to attend. This group meets to discuss experiences and challenges in providing care to bi-lingual clients and families.
•  The Agency also has a Reading Club where staff members meet to read a book related to individuality and different perspectives. The group members collectively choose a book, share information, perspectives, and personal stories related to the chosen book. Interns are given opportunities to attend and participate.
• A Helping the Helpers group is facilitated by Agency staff. This group meets to co-create a safe and brave space for clinicians and staff from all backgrounds to share personal experiences, create a circle of community support, and engage in authentic discussions about each individual’s diverse lived experiences.

The mission of Child & Family Center’s Doctoral Psychology Internship Program is to provide comprehensive professional psychology education and training that supports evidence-based knowledge acquisition and exceptional skills development for tomorrow’s psychologists.

By participating in the C&FC Doctoral Psychology Internship Program, Interns acquire requisite clinical skills to change lives and heal relationships while developing their professional identity as psychologists. This occurs through didactic experiences, individual and group supervision, and active involvement in learning opportunities within a multidisciplinary community mental health setting. The Doctoral Psychology Internship Program is designed to broaden the Intern’s experience and build competence with clinical theory and the principles and practice of psychology focusing on these Aims:

• Provide comprehensive, evidence-based clinical training that prepares Interns to become skilled and compassionate clinicians in the professional practice of psychology.
•  Offer exposure to varied clinical experiences, structured training, and supervision that support the cultivation of foundational and functional competencies for the successful, ethical and skillful delivery of psychological services.
•  Grow expertise in clinical assessment, diagnosis and treatment, integration of science and practice, and understanding of diversity and individual differences.
• Gain experience working with diverse populations and specialized service areas to enhance their understanding of themselves as clinicians.
• Prepare Interns to transition from the role of student to professional so they may possess attitudes essential for lifelong learning, inquiry, and problem-solving as psychologists in the context of an evolving body of scientific and professional knowledge.