Doctoral Internship – Fremont

We are committed to nurturing and integrating diversity training into all aspects of our doctoral internship by:

• Providing interns with opportunities to work with diverse patients who represent various aspects of diversity, including age, religion, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, values, and lifestyle
• Placing a high value on interns’ willingness to engage in self-reflection and learning and supporting the exploration of attitudes, beliefs, and therapeutic postures that could have a negative impact on clinical interactions
• Maintaining a consistent focus in clinical supervision on expanding interns’ multicultural awareness and competence in the provision of psychotherapeutic services and by providing guidance, suggestions, and resources on topics related to diversity
• Providing formal in-person or online training on diversity topics such as discovering and mitigating unconscious bias, respecting every voice, and cultivating a sense of inclusion and belonging in the workplace
• Encouraging interns to participate in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Mental Health Training Program Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Committee’s advanced trainings on topics related to cultural sensitivity and competence alongside a forum to reflect on and discuss their varied experiences in a safe environment

Regularly scheduled weekly didactic seminars are organized and administered by the Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) Mental Health Training Program. Interns are required to attend the two-hour weekly seminar, which focuses on aspects of clinical practice that the interns may not regularly encounter.

Diversity issues are always integrated into seminar presentations. Seminar topics include Frontiers in Trauma Treatment; Advanced Risk Assessment; Updates in Substance Abuse Research & Treatment; Advancements in Psychopharmacology; Cognitive Processing Therapy; Technology and Mental Health; Trans/Nonbinary Mental Health; Building a Better Brain through Exercise, Nutrition, Sleep and Stress Management; and Self-Compassion.

The KPNC Mental Health Training Program also sponsors professional training courses for continuing professional development. These courses and presentations are offered at select times during the year for all KPNC mental health trainees and medical center staff. The KPNC Mental Health Training Program brings in national experts and keynote speakers on a variety of cutting-edge topics in mental health treatment and research. Interns are expected to attend all MHTP Speaker Series seminars. Current seminar schedules and a list of speakers and topics can be found on the KPNC Mental Health Training Programs website. In addition, many of these lectures are recorded and available on this website under the Continuing Education Seminar Library.

Doctoral interns will rotate between Child and Adult Team staff meetings each month, as well as attend the Department wide meeting each quarter. Individual and group supervision utilizes components of feedback informed care for case consultation.

All doctoral interns are supervised by licensed psychologists and are assigned to a primary and secondary supervisor. These two clinical supervisors meet with their assigned intern one hour per week for individual face-to-face supervision, for a total of two hours of individual supervision per week. The primary and secondary supervisor are responsible for supervising the direct delivery of clinical services. The primary supervisor takes the lead role in developing the intern’s learning plan, monitoring their progress, and evaluating their training schedule. The primary supervisor is also responsible for supervising the intern’s clinical work and completing quarterly evaluations after gathering input from the other delegated supervisors and staff who have worked with the intern.

Doctoral interns are also provided with weekly clinical group supervision and group supervision for psychological assessment. During clinical group supervision, interns learn how to conceptualize treatment plans and frame interventions through a cultural framework that considers age, gender identity, race and ethnicity, family systems, socioeconomic status, work and school history, and other cultural factors. Interns also gain experience presenting clinical cases, as well as giving and receiving peer feedback. These feedback interactions help interns to develop both collegial and supervisory aspects of their professional identities as psychologists. Assessment group supervision provides support for interns gaining proficiency conducting psychological evaluations. During assessment group supervision, interns have an opportunity to discuss several aspects of the assessment process, including how to interpret test results, formulate clinical impressions, and plan patient feedback.

Reflecting Kaiser Permanente’s core commitment to mental health and wellness in our communities, each doctoral intern will spend at least 32 hours during their training year on a Community Partnership Project that focuses on improving mental health in the local community beyond Kaiser Permanente patient membership.

The goal of this project is to provide outreach to underserved populations in the community to promote healthy behaviors. Anchors for this project include developing alliances with individuals and/or systems to improve the lives of those served; providing education and training based on the empirical literature; collecting, analyzing, and presenting relevant outcome data to partnership stakeholders.

The scope and focus of the projects are site specific, reflecting the unique opportunities available in each community to develop meaningful partnerships. Projects are developed in conjunction with the site training director and can take a wide range of forms. Many Community Partnership Projects entail psychoeducational programs at local high schools or community centers, with emphasis in such areas as mindfulness, stress reduction, parenting education, anger management, or communication trainings. Other projects have involved staff consultation at county or non-profit agencies (e.g., homeless shelters, community mental health clinics, prisons, etc.).

All doctoral interns complete psychological testing as part of the internship training program. During the training year, interns further their knowledge about test battery design, administration of various tests and measures, interpretation and integration of test results, and communication of test results. Opportunities exist for interns to develop proficiency in both child and adult assessments.

A minimum of two assessments a year are required but there are opportunities to conduct more as well as expand the complexity of the assessment battery based on the intern’s experience, interest, and clinical need. Interns primarily receive assessment supervision in group format with additional modalities for support available as needed. A 6-month rotation in ADHD screening for children is also available. This rotation consists of running a weekly ADHD assessment group and supporting the administrative needs of the service.

Each doctoral intern is required to undertake a program evaluation project during their training year. The project is selected based upon the intern’s interests and skill set and should fall within the regular scope of departmental services.

Program evaluation may involve collecting and analyzing data to improve administrative operations, or a quality improvement project aimed at improving or assessing a treatment program or process. Examples include developing and evaluating a treatment group, intake procedure or other new programming; evaluating factors associated with treatment outcomes; or a needs assessment of a service that may be enriched by psychological consultation. Interns meet regularly with their program evaluation supervisor as a group over the course of the training year to review progress on their projects.

Doctoral interns in the Generalist track will provide mental health services to both adult and pediatric patients. They will work on multi-disciplinary teams of therapists, psychiatrists, nurses, and clinical pharmacists to treat patients with a wide range of diagnoses and presenting problems. Interns will learn how to collaborate with patients for treatment planning purposes and gain proficiency utilizing evidence-based interventions within a feedback informed care framework. Adult Services will comprise 50% of the intern’s schedule and Child Services the other 50%, with clinical time dedicated to providing intake appointments and individual psychotherapy.

A group therapy rotation is mandatory for this track, but the specific groups can be selected based on interest, clinical need, and scheduling availability. Typically, a rotation through two different groups is expected, however interns may choose more if desired. Available group opportunities with Adult Services include DBT, Anxiety Management, Depression Management, the Intensive Outpatient Program, and more. Available group opportunities with Child Services include Child Worry, Mood Skills, Social Skills, the Intensive Outpatient Program, and more.