PhD/PsyD Reputation of Internship Sites

[WhatsTheDealHere]

Hello! I am applying for internship this coming summer/fall and have been casually talking about sites with others. It seems, though, that most people I know here are only familiar with the competitiveness and quality of local sites- I thought I would put a few out there to see if anyone on this site had more insight. Also, are there ways in general to find out information on the reputation/competitiveness/quality of internship sites beyond just seeing their application to interview to position ratio? That seems less useful now that there is such competition.

Here are a few sites I have been considering so far- I am looking for a solidly clinical experience at a hospital, preferably with inpatient rotations primarily available and strong background for obtaining a postdoc/job in inpatient/IOP for the future!

Sharp HealthCare- San Diego, CA
Institute of Living- Hartford, CT
Denver Health Medical Center- Denver, CO
CMHI Fort Logan- Denver, CO

Thanks everyone in advance!

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[psychrat]

I interviewed at the Institute of Living. It is part of Hartford Hospital so has a good name in CT. The program seemed solid with both therapy and assessment. The primary orientation appeared to be psychodynamic with a bit of CBT mixed in. Many of their interns stay on for postdocs and jobs, and the director specifically said they like to keep their interns bc he knows they are trained well. They offer inpatient, outpatient, and IOP experience, mostly with SMI. It sounds like it would be a good site for you 🙂

 

[WhatsTheDealHere]

I interviewed at the Institute of Living. It is part of Hartford Hospital so has a good name in CT. The program seemed solid with both therapy and assessment. The primary orientation appeared to be psychodynamic with a bit of CBT mixed in. Many of their interns stay on for postdocs and jobs, and the director specifically said they like to keep their interns bc he knows they are trained well. They offer inpatient, outpatient, and IOP experience, mostly with SMI. It sounds like it would be a good site for you 🙂

Thank you, PsychRat! Any ideas on their reputation overall? Would someone from out of CT have heard of this site if they'd not interviewed there for internship?

 

[eremitestar]

My program is in Denver, so I'm pretty familiar with Denver Health and Fort Logan (I know people who have been prac students and interns at both sites, but I never did a placement at either personally). I have heard wonderful things about both sites as far as training goes, and both have former trainees from my program who have stuck around in staff positions. However, the sites are VERY different. Denver Health is a medical center first and foremost. They do have an inpatient unit, but I think it's a more traditional short-term acute unit. Denver Health also has a lot of health psych opportunities, as well as child/adolescent psych. I don't beleive they have any exclusively inpatient internship slots, so this would be only part of your training year there (with the rest being either general outpatient or health psych outpatient depending on the track you apply to). Fort Logan, on the other hand, is a state psych hospital, not a medical facility at all. They treat a lot more long-term, severe psychopathology. Clinical work there would be exclusively with adults, and they have lots of opportunities for forensic work and neuropsych testing. All of the work there would be inpatient. One thing I appreciate about them is that they will not release someone unless they have a stable place to be discharged to.

It's hard for me to speak to reputation. I think, in general, academic medical centers as a group have a certain level of prestige that state hospitals may not. That said, if your goal is to work in inpatient, then I think you'd be hard-pressed to find better training than Fort Logan. I interviewed for internship at Fort Logan last year, and really appreciated the atmosphere created by the team of psychologists and their attention to issues of social justice. Also, Denver is an awesome place to live 🙂

 

[PhDToBe]

You might want to consider Eastern Virginia Medical School. It is 90% inpatient, mostly therapy and intakes, some assessment, and a few outpatient clients on the side. I think it is at least average in terms of its reputation, but I don't know for sure. It is not very competitive, which could make it a good "safety" site.

 

[eremitestar]

You might also consider VAs. They tend to be well-respected, and there are tons of postdoc opportunities. Also, most VAs will offer at least one inpatient rotation. I'm on internship at a VA now, and I actually spent 2/3 of the year in different inpatient units (one was general acute psych, the other a specialized inpatient PTSD program).

 

[soccercat]

I interviewed at Denver Health. The interns seemed very happy there and it seems like they have solid training. I'm health focused and that aspect of their training was very strong.

When you say you want to work at a hospital, what exactly do you mean by that? Hospitals have varied clinical experiences (health, SMI, generalist, neuro, etc.) and, if you haven't already, you'll need to figure out which type of program you will fit into as that will help a lot as you conduct your search for your site list. It will also help programs to see what your fit is rather than just "I want to work/like working in a hospital setting."

 

[WhatsTheDealHere]

Thank you, everyone, for your thoughts. I will look into VAs for sure since many seem to have inpatient experience as I outlined in my initial post (@soccercat, this is what I meant by hospitals that I like- those with inpatient and IOP experience). For people in the future looking this up, I received a couple of PMs that spoke very highly about Sharp HealthCare in San Diego. If anyone has anything to add on public forum, that might be useful for those people as well!

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

I second the consideration of a VA. They have some excellent training sites, particularly the academically affiliated ones (e.g. Boston, Palo Alto, etc).

*Edit to add*

I don't know which are known for in-pt rotations, but I'm sure that is something you can look up if you have the time. Off the top of my head:

Brooklyn VA (Harborview I think it is called) offers an in-pt/residential substance abuse treatment program. They also do out-pt programs and possible other in-pt programs (in-pt psych, top floor?). They have an assessment slant (which I wanted), though there is plenty of therapy and intervention based training too.

I'm not sure what kind of in-pt experience you are looking for, but the Topeka VA offers an intensive residential program for military sexual trauma. There are only a handful of those programs in the country, so it is a unique experience.

Tampa VA is another great site. They are known for polytrauma, but they offer a ton of other services too. I'm most familiar w. their rehab/neuro stuff..but all around I was impressed by what they have to offer. Some staff have shifted around over the years since I looked there, but they are very well regarded within the VA community.

I know these three are very contrasting geographic settings, but training is top notch at all of them.

 

[soccercat]

Again, though, impatient for what? Recovering from medical illness? Acute severe mental illness? Inpatient to me as a health psych person means something totally different than to someone who works with SMI.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I interviewed at the Institute of Living. It is part of Hartford Hospital so has a good name in CT. The program seemed solid with both therapy and assessment. The primary orientation appeared to be psychodynamic with a bit of CBT mixed in. Many of their interns stay on for postdocs and jobs, and the director specifically said they like to keep their interns bc he knows they are trained well. They offer inpatient, outpatient, and IOP experience, mostly with SMI. It sounds like it would be a good site for you 🙂

I'm a bit surprised to hear that their primary orientation is psychodynamic, given that David Tolin is there and he seems *very* CBT, with an emphasis on the "B".

 

[WhatsTheDealHere]

Again, though, impatient for what? Recovering from medical illness? Acute severe mental illness? Inpatient to me as a health psych person means something totally different than to someone who works with SMI.

Okay, but if you look at my list you'll see a list of hospitals with psychiatric inpatient units, some acute and some long term. Sorry to not have been more specific, I assumed people would recognize some on the list.

 

[WhatsTheDealHere]

I second the consideration of a VA. They have some excellent training sites, particularly the academically affiliated ones (e.g. Boston, Palo Alto, etc).

*Edit to add*

I don't know which are known for in-pt rotations, but I'm sure that is something you can look up if you have the time. Off the top of my head:

Brooklyn VA (Harborview I think it is called) offers an in-pt/residential substance abuse treatment program. They also do out-pt programs and possible other in-pt programs (in-pt psych, top floor?). They have an assessment slant (which I wanted), though there is plenty of therapy and intervention based training too.

I'm not sure what kind of in-pt experience you are looking for, but the Topeka VA offers an intensive residential program for military sexual trauma. There are only a handful of those programs in the country, so it is a unique experience.

Tampa VA is another great site. They are known for polytrauma, but they offer a ton of other services too. I'm most familiar w. their rehab/neuro stuff..but all around I was impressed by what they have to offer. Some staff have shifted around over the years since I looked there, but they are very well regarded within the VA community.

I know these three are very contrasting geographic settings, but training is top notch at all of them.

This is great information! Thank you.

 

[psychrat]

I'm a bit surprised to hear that their primary orientation is psychodynamic, given that David Tolin is there and he seems *very* CBT, with an emphasis on the "B".

In the anxiety disorder clinic there are more behaviorally oriented therapists, but the general feel of the place was pretty dynamic. It surprised me a bit too 🙂

 

[kestrelcry]

I think the Puget Sound VA (Seattle) has in-patient opportunities. That might just be for post-doc though - it's all gotten a bit blurry.

 

[WhatsTheDealHere]

I'm a bit surprised to hear that their primary orientation is psychodynamic, given that David Tolin is there and he seems *very* CBT, with an emphasis on the "B".

Interestingly, the only really solid thoughts people locally told me about IoL is that they are one of the few primarily psychodynamic sites left.

 

[MetaMuse]

In the anxiety disorder clinic there are more behaviorally oriented therapists, but the general feel of the place was pretty dynamic. It surprised me a bit too 🙂

They have a CBT Track (separate from the General Adult Track) where you are headquartered in their Anxiety Disorders Clinic and have rotations in SMI/IOP/DBT/etc. From my understanding, this particular track is very evidence-based.

 

[psychrat]

They have a CBT Track (separate from the General Adult Track) where you are headquartered in their Anxiety Disorders Clinic and have rotations in SMI/IOP/DBT/etc. From my understanding, this particular track is very evidence-based.

That makes sense. I applied for the general adult. I believe they only offer one spot for the CBT track, but three for the adult and child focus. The campus was very beautiful and historical (but I love old buildings). They stated that the elevators were slow bc they used to do lobotomies back in the day and there used to be regulations.

 

[smalltownpsych]

I don't know about prestige but I applied to several state hospitals because the experience seemed like the best fit for my training needs. I was impressed with the quality of the woes I interviewed at and eventually matched at a state hospital and got solid experience there. I don't know if prestige is as important as getting the experience you need for whatever area you are shooting for whether that is neuropsych, forensics, health, generalist, pediatric, substance abuse, research, etc. if you haven't quite resolved your postdoctoral goals at the time you apply for internship which I hadn't then think of what will provide the most opportunities. I still haven't figured out what I want to do when I grow up. My last five year plan shifted about halfway through and now I have a whole new five year plan.