Overview of Internship in Clinical Psychology

Overview

Our Internship in Clinical Psychology is designed to provide an intensive American Psychological Association-accredited (Commission on Accreditation, 750 First Street N.E., Washington, D.C., 20002-4242, 202-336-5979) clinical internship training experience. Due to the Pandemic, our 2023 site visit has been shifted to 2025. The accreditation status of the program will not be impacted by the site visit delay. Additional information can be found on the OPCA website: https://accreditation.apa.org/ The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is the coordinating agency for the development and operation of the training program in Clinical Psychology. The faculty as a whole participates in the internship. The Psychology Internship Training Committee serves as the major forum for ongoing discussion of the training program. Applicants are invited to review an abbreviated, deidentified version of the 2024-2025 Handbook Manual, the complete version of our 2024-2025 Policies and Procedures Manual, and our Internship Brochure. These Manuals are updated annually and are subject to change. Along with these manuals, applicants are expected to be familiar and in compliance with the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.

Training Philosophy

UT Health San Antonio’s Psychology Internship Training Program is an APA-accredited Clinical Psychology Internship Program. The program subscribes to a scientist-practitioner training philosophy and generalist training model. Our program aims include the following: breadth of training, intensive supervision, practice and science of applied psychology, and ethical and sensitive practice to individual and cultural differences.

Program Aims

Breadth of training – As applied psychology expands to encompass many new areas, the clinical psychologist needs to be trained in a broad variety of skills rather than any single specialty. A good program should be comprehensive in scope.
As a generalist program, we are able to provide our interns with a wide range of training activities including intake work, diagnostic assessment, and group, individual, and family psychotherapy. Interns provide care for diverse patient populations including adults, adolescents, and children with a wide range of presenting problems. A significant percentage of the patients served come from under-served urban areas. Approximately 50 to 60 percent of the training experiences involve services to minorities (primarily Hispanic). There are also opportunities for work with Veteran and military populations at some sites. In addition to clinical care, we have provided interns with opportunities for involvement in applied clinical research and/or process improvement activities.

Intensive supervision – A second major point is the importance of close and careful monitoring of each intern’s experience, with useful feedback to the intern. The content and timing of evaluations is set to maximize a student’s growth. This implies a close individual involvement in each student’s progress by faculty and supervisors.
Interns’ work is intensively supervised on an individual basis, with each intern scheduled for a minimum of four hours per week of supervision. Most supervision is provided by the psychology faculty. Interns may also have the opportunity to work with and receive feedback from psychiatry faculty and social work staff.

Practice and science of applied psychology – Quality clinical internship training should impart skills focusing on the process and science of psychological work.
The Clinical Psychology Internship was established in 1970 with the faculty making a philosophical commitment to the “scientist-practitioner model,” emphasizing the practitioner side of the Boulder model. More recently, we have added opportunities for training in evidence-based assessment and treatment approaches. The internship year is seen as a time to emphasize first-hand experiences with clinical involvement under intense individual supervision by faculty who demonstrate clear and visible scientific and professional interests.

Psychology Interns receive year-long education designed to help strengthen their understanding and skill in assessment and psychotherapeutic process. Our students also learn the fundamentals of outcome evaluations and use of available scientific principles and data to guide their selection of clinical interventions and help them learn to evaluate and evolve their clinical practice.

Practice ethically and with sensitivity to individual and cultural differences – All psychologists should be able to practice ethically and with sensitivity to cultural and individual differences that impact their clinical and professional activities.
UT Health San Antonio and the internship program have made systematic and long-term efforts to attract interns and staff from culturally diverse backgrounds, including diversity across age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, language, national origin, race, religion, culture, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background. The internship sites have a training environment that is sensitive and shows respect for individual and cultural diversity.

The psychology training program values diversity and evaluates interns on multicultural competencies. The internship has a series of diversity didactics during the year, and interns have numerous opportunities for supervised experiences in clinical services delivered to an ethnically and culturally diverse client population within San Antonio and the surrounding communities (over 60% of the population in this area is Hispanic). The internship provides routine discussion of diversity issues within the context of clinical supervision and formal didactic seminars.

Application Process

The internship year begins on July 1 and ends June 30. Applicants are invited to apply to one or more tracks and are encouraged to rank one or more tracks if interested. Some applicants will be invited to attend an interview through Zoom. Applicants invited to interview will speak with a current intern, faculty, and the training directors in separate interviews via Zoom. There will be additional “Open Houses” for each track to provide interns the opportunity to hear more about the track and sites in a less formal setting. The Open Houses are not mandatory; however, they are encouraged. Invites for the Open Houses will be sent once interview dates are scheduled with applicants.

Additionally, we ask that all applicants review the video embedded above entitled, “UT Health Psychology Internship Program” prior to attending the Zoom Open House and individual Zoom interviews with faculty, interns, and the training directors. This video provides an orientation to our program with more detail about our tracks and sites. Some of our tracks have also developed videos to describe their services and training opportunities. Please see the links next to each track name for more in-depth introductions to our tracks. Please note: For individuals who are bilingual in Spanish and applying to the Integrated Primary Care Behavioral Health Track, faculty interviews may be conducted in Spanish. However, it is important to note that the ability to speak Spanish is not a requirement for any tracks within our internship.

Application Deadline: 30 November 2024
Interview Notification: 09 December 2024

CBT Track:

Open House Dates:

• Wednesday, December 11, 2024                     11:00 am – 12:30 pm CST
• Wednesday, December 11, 2024                         3:00 pm – 4:30 pm CST

Interview Dates:

• Thursday, January 9, 2025                             7:00 am – 12:00 pm CST
• Thursday, January 9, 2025                             12:00 pm – 5:00 pm CST
• Monday, January 13, 2025                             7:00 am – 12:00 pm CST
• Monday, January 13, 2025                             12:00 pm – 5:00 pm CST
• Thursday, January 16, 2025                           12:00 pm – 5:00 pm CST

Forensic Track:

Open House Dates:

• Wednesday, December 11, 2024                     3:00 pm –  4:30 pm CST
• Thursday, December 12, 2024                        11:00 am –  12:30 pm CST

Interview Dates:

• Wednesday, January 15, 2025                       7:00 am – 12:00 pm CST
• Wednesday, January 22, 2025                       12:00 pm – 5:00 pm CST

Integrated Primary Care Behavioral Health Track:

Open House Dates:

• Wednesday, December 11, 2024                  11:00 am –  12:30 pm CST
• Monday, December 16, 2024                        11:00 am –  12:30 pm CST

Interview Dates:

• Wednesday, January 8, 2025                         7:00 am – 12:00 pm CST
• Wednesday, January 15, 2025                       12:00 pm – 5:00 pm CST
• Thursday, January 16, 2025                           7:00 am – 12:00 pm CST

The best way to contact us with questions is through email.

Points of Contact:
Director
Cindy McGeary, Ph.D., ABPP, Professor
Phone: 210-567-5497
Email: mcgearyc@uthscsa.edu

Associate Director
Tabatha Blount, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Email: blountt@uthscsa.edu

Cognitive Behavioral Track Coordinator
John Moring, Ph.D., ABPP, Assistant Professor
Email: moringj@uthscsa.edu

Forensic Track Coordinator
Maranda Upton, Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor

Integrated Primary Care Behavioral Health Track Coordinator
Stacy Ogbeide, Psy.D., ABPP, Associate Professor
Email: ogbeide@uthscsa.edu

Program Coordinator
Sandy Collazo
Email: collazos@uthscsa.edu

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
UT Health San Antonio
5788 Eckhert Road
San Antonio, Texas 78240

Generalist Program

Our program provides generalist training involving a full array of patients (children, adolescents, adults) seen in diverse treatment settings (inpatient, outpatient and community organizations) receiving a full spectrum of psychological evaluations (interview and test-based) and interventions (individual, family, and group). Our interns receive intensive supervision and are exposed to multiple theoretical orientations, including behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and systems.

During the year-long internship, interns participate in their track-specific major rotation(s) as well as several year-long clinical activities (i.e. on-going individual therapy cases through our ADVANCE Clinic; co-leading group therapy). Additionally, interns attend weekly seminars and didactic trainings designed to enhance their understanding of the scientist-practitioner model, evidence-based practice, integrative assessment, and ethics/diversity.

Tracks

Our program strives to provide training that has depth as well as breadth. We accomplish this balance through the use of a track system, which was first implemented during the 2014-2015 training year. The track system provides applicants with stronger assurance of the training experiences they will receive when they arrive. Interested participants can apply and rank one or more of our three tracks:

1. Cognitive Behavioral
2. Integrated Primary Care Behavioral Health
3. Forensic

When applying to more than one track, please indicate in your cover letter which track you prefer.

The Cognitive-Behavioral Track

The Cognitive Behavioral Track provides training in empirically supported psychological assessments and interventions across treatment settings, presenting problems, and patient populations. Interns on the Cognitive Behavioral Track will rotate at two six-month rotations. For 2025-2026, there will be 5 full-time positions available through this track.

Institutions/Programs that are affiliated with the Cognitive Behavioral Track include:

• UT Health San Antonio, Department of Psychiatry, STRONG STAR (6 month rotation)
  Interns learn evidence-based treatments for PTSD. Interns see Veterans and Active Duty military members diagnosed with combat PTSD. Interns receive training in evidence-based assessments and treatments for trauma-related disorders and co-morbidities. Interns also have the opportunity to collaborate in team-based scientific research.
• Transitional Care Clinic (6 month rotation)
  The UT Health Transitional Care Clinic (TCC) and NOW clinic are linked programs that provide outpatient psychological, psychiatric, and social work services to adults and adolescents with the full spectrum of behavioral health problems, including higher risk patients recently discharged from inpatient treatment. Clients also represent wide cultural and socioeconomic diversity, including un- and underinsured clients, as well as commercially insured clients. Interns work within a multidisciplinary treatment team, providing primarily individual and group therapy, as well as intake assessments and peer supervision to counseling students. Psychological services are provided within an integrative theoretical model with emphases in: motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. Interns have the choice to participate in the clinic’s DBT program, psychotherapy research program and/or to be trained and supervised in the delivery of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD.
• UT Health San Antonio’s Student Counseling Center (6 month rotation)
  The Student Counseling Center (SCC) provides psychological and psychiatric consultation to students in the graduate and professional schools within the university, which enrolls more than 4,000 students each year. Clients present with academic, vocational, psychological, and personal concerns. In this setting, interns have the opportunity to work with students that are high functioning but are in very stressful environments. The students range from eighteen to fifty years of age. Interventions and diagnostic activities in the SCC include intake evaluations, counseling, study skills consultation, relaxation training, outreach presentations, couples and marital consultation, group counseling, and consultation with faculty and staff.
• San Antonio State Hospital (6 month rotation)
  San Antonio State Hospital (SASH) is a 302-bed, public residential psychiatric hospital that has been in operation since 1892, and serves an area of 56 counties in South and South Central Texas. Patients at SASH may be receive services at SASH voluntarily, by civil commitment, or on a forensic commitment as either incompetent to stand trial, or not guilty by reason of insanity. The training program includes the participation and gradually increased responsibility of the intern under careful, direct clinical supervision, and experience with both acute and forensic patients. The trainee will join doctoral psychologists in individual clinical interviews and group therapy (such as DBT) sessions and later conduct interviews and sessions without direct observation. The trainee will also administer evaluations (general psychological and forensic) with direct observation by the supervisor and will later conduct testing without direct observation. The trainee will provide feedback to the treatment teams and will complete group and individual therapy notes and testing reports.

Integrated Primary Care Behavioral Health Track

1. Outpatient Individual Psychotherapy
   Each intern will be assigned 2 individual psychotherapy cases through the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences ADVANCE Clinic. Patients will be selected in order to provide the intern with the experience of discovery, formulation, and the attempt to alter symptom constellations. Theoretical orientation for outpatient psychotherapy cases vary by supervisor, though most are expected to be long-term treatment cases. Through the combination of individual supervision and participation in seminars and case conferences, each intern should receive first- or second-hand experience with a wide variety of psychopathology and of therapeutic approaches.
2. Yearlong Elective Rotation
   Each intern will be assigned to one of the following elective experiences: 1) co-facilitating an evening DBT skills group, 2) co-facilitating Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, or 3) engaging in Chronic Pain Research.  Prior to the start of the internship year, interns will rank their preferences for these three electives.

Internship Admissions, Support, and Initial Placement Data

Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation: