Cincinnati VA Medical Center
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Psychology Training Program Predoctoral Internship in Professional PsychologyThe Psychology Training Program at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center offers a predoctoral internship training program in professional psychology with full accreditation by the American Psychological Association. The major goal of the program is the development of psychologists who have the knowledge, skills, and self-awareness necessary to deliver psychological services to diverse populations in a variety of settings competently and independently in a professional, empathic, and responsible manner. There are opportunities to examine a broad range of psychological problems, develop depth of skill in particular areas of specialization, and to gain practical experience that parallels and complements the academic background of doctoral-level psychology students. All activities during the training year are coordinated and supervised by the doctoral staff of the Cincinnati VA Psychology Program. Each intern’s training experience is specifically designed to meet that student’s needs, interests, and skill levels. As a federal agency, we are an equal opportunity employer, mandated to utilize fully all workers’ talents without regard to race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation or disability. Within the Department of Psychology, our goal is to extend this commitment to include the creation of a community that recognizes and values the inherent worth and dignity of every person. We believe that diversity among departmental members strengthens our staff, stimulates creativity, promotes the exchange of ideas, and allows us to provide more sensitive and effective patient care. Our program is based on a mentorship model, and we are proud to have a multicultural staff. We welcome diversity in our intern class, and we warmly encourage minorities and persons of diverse backgrounds of all types to apply to the Cincinnati VAMC internship. Interns are exposed to aspects of diversity unique to the veterans' population during the intern year through assessment, treatment, consultation, and intern-specific seminars. Our aim is to optimize the training experience through individual appreciation and clinical understanding of human diversity in all aspects of psychological practice. SupervisionMost of the over 45 doctoral members of the Psychology staff are actively involved in the predoctoral clinical internship program. The overall approach to supervision in our program is a mentorship model that tailors training to the developmental needs and skills of our interns. Over the course of the intern year, interns are expected to function increasingly independently as they mature in clinical and professional development. Special attention is paid to ways in which the scientific literature informs clinical work and decision making, and interns are expected to practice accessing and using the clinical literature throughout the training year. Our internship program is committed to a training approach that is sensitive to human diversity, and supervisors attempt to provide interns with as varied a caseload as possible, including efforts to provide interns with the opportunity to work with female veterans. Interns are also encouraged to bring issues of ethnic, cultural, and individual diversity into supervision. Each intern will work with at least four doctoral staff psychologists as primary supervisors during the year in their two major rotations, the minor rotation, and the long-term outpatient experience. A minimum of four hours of supervision is expected per week, of which three hours are individual meetings with primary supervisors. All members of the psychology staff are also available for consultation. The intern class has regular contact with the Director of Training, and interns are expected to provide ongoing feedback to their supervisors and to the Director of Training during the training year. Of note, self-disclosure may be required as part of some of these supervised experiences and intern candidates are encouraged to ask for more specific guidelines regarding particular rotations. Clinical InternshipThe predoctoral clinical internship program adheres to a scientist practitioner model of training. We emphasize the acquisition of basic diagnostic and therapy skills and the integration of these skills with psychological theory and research. Interns are also offered a variety of opportunities to learn more specific, evidence-based treatments within their rotations. The internship year is structured to maximize exposure to a wide range of experiences, while offering sufficient concentration to provide depth of learning and to build expertise in particular areas. As such, we strive to balance the needs for generalist training with opportunities to focus on areas of specialization. Our goal is twofold: to support our interns’ particular career interests while providing a well-rounded clinical training experience. Consistent with the APA guidelines on Accreditation, we strive to provide internship education and training in preparation for entry-level practice in professional psychology that is broad and professional in its orientation rather than narrow and technical. There are four basic experiences built into the internship program: (1) major rotations, (2) minor rotations, (3) outpatient psychotherapy cases and (4) training conferences. Intern requests for combinations of rotations that are narrowly focused (e.g. assessment rotations in Neuropsychology and Health psychology) are evaluated by the training committee in light of the APA guidelines prior to rotation assignment. Major Rotation Opportunities
Minor Rotation OpportunitiesEach intern chooses a minor rotation that lasts the entire year. This is meant to supplement the interns’ experience by giving the opportunity either to connect with a staff member with whom they would not otherwise have an opportunity to work or to work with a different population. Because the internship places a particular emphasis on training psychologists who are well-rounded, the minor rotation is also often used to fill gaps in previous training. This minor rotation is eight hours per week, which includes one hour of supervision with a licensed psychologist. Frequently, a minor rotation is simply a scaled-down version of a major rotation. The skills and foci of these can be found in the major rotation descriptions. Certain major rotations are not available as a minor. These include neuropsychology, health psychology/chronic pain, and residential rehabilitation. Some training experiences only exist as minor rotations such as the Psychiatric Evaluation Clinic and the Compensation and Pension Program (please see our brochure for more detailed descriptions of these opportunities). It is also possible that opportunities can be newly created to meet an intern’s particular training needs or interests (e.g., mindfulness, sleep disorders, geropsychology, spirituality) While the major focus of this internship program is the acquisition and development of clinical skills, students with a strong clinical background may choose research as a minor rotation. Working with a staff psychologist, the intern would develop, carry out and analyze results for a specific research project. At the end of the year, the work product would be a publication-quality summary of the research effort. Training in Empirically Supported Treatments and Empirically Based PracticesThe following are a list of trainings in ESTs and EPB available in the internship. Access to some of them is dependent on supervisor and rotation assignment:
Internship Year & StipendThe internship year begins July 30th, 2012 and ends July 26, 2013. The training stipend is $24,896. Interns receive ten paid federal holidays and thirteen days of leave for vacation and/or professional development. State and federal income tax and FICA (Social Security) are withheld from interns’ checks. The United States government covers interns for malpractice under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Eligibility RequirementsApplications for the predoctoral clinical psychology internship program are welcome from students who have met the following requirements:
Application ProcedureApplications must be received no later than November 1, 2011, and must be completed online (no paper applications will be accepted) including:
The psychology training committee will review all completed applications. This committee includes the Director of Training, the Associate Director of Training, psychology staff, and current interns. Applicants may seek consideration for any or all training tracks. Those not meeting the eligibility requirements will be notified as soon as possible. We seek applicants who have a sound clinical and scientific knowledge base from their academic program, strong basic skills in standard assessment, psychotherapy, and research techniques, and the personal characteristics necessary to function well in our internship setting. Our selection criteria are based on a "goodness-of-fit" with our training opportunities. We prefer to build an intern class that comes from many different kinds of programs and theoretical orientations, from different geographical areas, of different ages, of different cultural backgrounds, and with different life experiences. Of the over 150 applications we typically receive in a given year, we usually offer on-site interviews to 60 candidates. We do not conduct phone interviews. Our program, and the Cincinnati VA Medical Center as a whole, is committed to Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity in Employment. Applicants are welcome to contact Dr. Zinnbauer with any questions. Visiting Our SiteIf you are invited to interview, you will be invited to participate in a half-day visit to our facility. Most of this visit will include interviews with staff members and present interns. These will take place on the following days: Friday December 9 from 12:30-4:30 Applicants will be notified by email whether or not they will be invited to interview. All applicants will be notified of their interview status by December 1, 2011. Again, we regret that we are unable to offer phone interviews or interviews on dates other than the four dates noted above. Contact InformationThe Director of Training may be contacted through any of the information below: Brian Zinnbauer, Ph.D. Please NoteThis internship site abides by all APPIC policies, including the directive that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant prior to Uniform Notification Day. This predoctoral clinical internship is fully approved by the American Psychological Association. For information, please contact: APPIC Match NumbersOur match numbers are: Due to the specialized natures of the neuropsychology and the PTSD rotations, they are listed with their own match numbers. Applicants are permitted to rank a specialized track and the general track if they are interested in both of these. If your primary reason for coming to this internship is to train in neuropsychology or PTSD, you are encouraged to rank only that number to ensure that you are brought in on that list. Applicants who do not match on the neuropsychology or the PTSD lists cannot be guaranteed those rotations.
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