Psychology Internship

Training Rotations

Currently, there are three rotation training sites within the Health Sciences System and each intern experiences all three rotations during the course of the year. Prior to the start of the internship year, interns will be asked to indicate a priority ranking for their rotations. The Director of Clinical Training (DCT) will consider these preferences in combination with interns' previous training experiences to determine the sequence of training settings through which each intern will rotate. Within each rotation, there will be Major and Minor subrotations, consisting of approximately 15 and 10 hours per week respectively.

PRIMARY ROTATIONS

Behavioral Medicine Service

The Major component of this rotation will involve providing psychological services in our new, state-of-the-art Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE), which is located on the Health Sciences Center Campus.  The supervisors for this rotation are Melissa Napolitano, Ph.D. and Gary Foster, Ph.D.  Interns will provide a combination of individual and group counseling and psychoeducational services.  In addition, interns will have the opportunity to: 1) conduct assessments and deliver treatment for individuals who are participating in clinical research (e.g., smoking cessation and weight management); 2) to evaluate individuals who are candidates for bariatric surgery (e.g., lap bands, gastric bypass); 3) provide one-on-one and group counseling for weight loss based on a 12-week treatment protocol. 

Faculty within the Center for Obesity Research and Education are committed to an environment in which trainees and staff learn and contribute to the clinical research endeavor within the unit.  As part of this earning environment, there are numerous opportunities for faculty, trainees and staff to interact and discuss clinical research challenges, pitfalls, and successes.  These include the CORE Seminar Series and the CORE Research Meetings and Journal Club (both described in the subsequent “Education and Seminars” section of the brochure).

A primary mission of CORE is to understand and treat obesity and obesity-related co-morbidities across populations, especially among minorities, nd individuals of lower socioeconomic status, among whom obesity is more prevalent.  Many of the treatment protocols have been adapted to be culturally sensitive and accessible for those of lower socioeconomic status.  Therefore, interns will have opportunities to provide multicultural assessment and intervention.

The Minor component of the rotation involves providing evaluation and assessment services as a member of the Hospital’s Consult and Liaison Psychiatry Services.  As such, the intern will work closely with Psychiatrists, Psychiatry Residents, and medical students.  Interns will be asked to valuate medical inpatients that may also have serious mental illnesses, are actively suicidal, are delirious, and/or may not be able to make medical decisions.  Interns may also be asked to perform neuropsychological testing as an aid in the diagnostic work-up or to follow an individual for short-term psychotherapy.  The primary supervisor for this component is Henry Weisman, M.D.

Pediatric and Child Psychology

Temple University Children’s Medical Center is a state-of-the-art facility built in 1998 that serves Philadelphia and the surrounding region. The mission of the hospital is to provide top-quality pediatric care by: pursuing excellence in pediatric patient care and services; improving the health status of children throughout the region; developing outreach and education programs to address public health issues crucial to the communities we serve; and, providing the clinical environment and services to support the highest quality teaching, training, and research programs for health care students and professionals. Temple Children’s Hospital Psychology Clinic serves children and adolescents (infancy through age 17) with emotional,behavior, developmental , and/or learning problems who come from a variety of racial and socio-economic backgrounds.

The major part of this rotation includes opportunities to engage in collaborative, brief and long-term individual and family-based treatment; parent skills training; psychological, psychoeducational, and neuropsychological assessment; and consultation/liaison services. Referrals are primarily generated by primary care physicians, but may also come from the departments of Neurology, Cardiology, Speech and Language, and Hematology. The intern is also expected to develop collaborative working relationships with schools, physicians, and other rofessionals in the community.  The primary supervisor for this component of the rotation is Brian P. Daly, Ph.D.

In addition, the intern will spend two half days at Shriner’s Hospital, which is adjacent to Children’s Hospital, and provide psychological assessment and treatment on their inpatient units.  Shriner’s is a leader in the rehabilitation of pediatric orthopedic and spinal cord injuries.  Heather Russell, Ph.D., is the supervisor for the Shriner’s component of the rotation. 

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R)

The Major component of this rotation consists of working on the Department’s 16-bed Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit in the Hospital with a multiculturally diverse patient population that presents with a wide range of physical disabilities. Impairments typically observed include strokes, amputations, orthopedic injuries, deconditioning due to major medical illness or cardio-pulmonary disease, burn injuries, as well as a wide range of diffuse and specific neurological problems.  The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation is a multidisciplinary setting offering physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech/language therapy, and psychological services. Hence, the intern functions as a member of the interdisciplinary team, providing psychological and neuropsychological interventions including assessment, psychotherapy and education for patients and families, and designing behavioral and environmental treatment strategies.  These interventions are communicated informally on a daily basis and formally to other treatment team members during weekly patient planning conferences.  In addition, the intern will be involved in consultations in the Surgical and Neurosurgical Intensive Care Units and on the medical floors, primarily focused on assessing the need for cognitive rehabilitation services of individuals with traumatic brain injuries or other neurologic conditions.  The supervisor for this component of the rotation is Robert Ruchinskas, Psy.D., ABPP.

The Minor component of this rotation involves working with the Lung Transplant Team.  As such, the intern will assist in conducting pre-transplant psychological evaluations, providing psychological services to the Pulmonary acute care floors, and working with outpatient transplant candidates.  Nancy Repetz-Ciccolella, Psy.D is the supervisor for pulmonary services.