Doctoral Internship – Redwood City
West Bay Internship Consortium (Redwood City and South San Francisco)
Redwood City lies on a peninsula on the northern edge of Silicon Valley, approximately 25 miles south of San Francisco and 6 miles north of Stanford University. A center of high-tech industry, Redwood City is home to several global technology companies including Oracle, Electronic Arts (EA), and Evernote. Redwood City enjoys a mild Mediterranean climate, moderated by the effects of the San Francisco Bay to the east and the Pacific Ocean over the coastal range to the west. It is the third largest city in the County of San Mateo, with 86,000 residents. Incorporated in 1867, Redwood City is home to the San Mateo County History Museum, and the only active deep-water port within the south bay of San Francisco. For outdoor enthusiasts, the nearby Edgewood Park and Natural Preserve provides miles of hiking trails and site seeing opportunities.
The new Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center opened in 2014. It a regional center for neurological care and surgery. The patient population falls along a broad ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic spectrum and includes Medi-Cal enrollees who are part of the San Mateo County Partnership. All age groups and mental health conditions are represented in our Psychiatry Department.
Program Curriculum
Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity
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
Didactic Training and Seminars
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.
Meetings and Case Consultation
Doctoral interns are expected to attend weekly team staff meetings and case consultation. During case consultation, interns practice creating a working hypothesis for a diagnosis and treatment plan and learn how to incorporate Feedback Informed Care (FIC) and symptom management in their plan. Additionally, interns learn how to align their patient’s cultural background and values system with their treatment plan.
Supervision
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 in each training track is 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.
Community Partnership Program
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.).
Psychological Assessment
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. Assessment training is primarily focused on developing proficiency in specialty ADHD evaluations. Interns primarily receive assessment training support in a group supervision format with additional modalities of support available as needed.
Research Training
At the beginning of the training year, the site training director works with each doctoral intern to determine which research-based training activity they will engage in over the course of the training year. Interns may choose to collaborate with local department staff to develop a site-specific program evaluation project, collaborate on a program evaluation project with the MHTP Evaluation and Quality Improvement Lab (EQI Lab), or join the MHTP Journal Club.
- Site-Specific Program Evaluation: projects are focused on existing clinic service lines, treatment programs, or patient care workflows and should fall within the regular scope of departmental services. Projects may involve collecting and analyzing administrative data to improve operations, or they may be a quality improvement/assurance project whose purpose is to improve or assess existing Kaiser Permanente programs or procedures (e.g., evaluation of factors associated with treatment outcomes or an empirical needs assessment of a clinical area that would be enriched by psychological services). Interns meet regularly with training faculty over the course of the training year to review progress on their projects.
- MHTP EQI Lab Program Evaluation: projects are guided by quality improvement goals that extend beyond local, site-specific programs. Projects may focus on outcomes of training program models, the impact of MHTP specialty training, the effectiveness of MHTP-sponsored treatment programs, or the incorporation of outcomes measures into clinic workflows. The EQI Lab holds weekly, 1-hour meetings throughout the training year to coordinate MHTP program evaluation projects and monitor progress. During these weekly lab meetings, interns receive consultation from MHTP clinical supervisors to ensure that their projects are relevant to current clinical work, integrated into clinical care, and appropriate for dissemination.
- MHTP Journal Club: research training consists of reviewing and critically evaluating research within a select subfield of psychology and developing a didactic tool for other clinicians to use to augment their clinical practice during the delivery of services within KP Mental Health. The primary expectation for interns in the Journal Club is to prepare brief presentations that take place during the last month of each quarter. The Journal Club holds monthly, 1-hour meetings in addition to weekly presentations during the last month of every quarter.
Tracks and Rotations
Adult Psychiatry Track
12-month track (candidates who apply and are accepted into this track will complete their internship within this track for the duration of the training year)
The Adult Psychiatry track offers training experiences in individual therapy and group therapy. Doctoral interns are assigned cases from the broad and diverse patient population served at the clinic, with referrals addressing mental health needs related to the treatment of major depression, peri- and postpartum depression, anxiety disorders (e.g., generalized, panic, phobias), PTSD and trauma-related disorders, and OCD. We have specific therapy groups that address the aforementioned disorders and challenges. Additionally, our clinic offers a gender support group to aid individuals questioning their gender and/or transitioning into their congruent gender.
Interns typically see between 10 to 15 individual patients per week and conduct between two to three intakes per week. Supervisors in the Adult Psychiatry Track are dedicated to helping each intern develop their skills in a manner congruent with their values. Training via co-facilitation of therapy groups is designed to enhance and expand interns’ knowledge and proficiency in the use of evidence-based interventions. Evidence-based modalities utilized in our clinic include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), exposure and response prevention (ERP), internalized family systems (IFS), and cognitive processing therapy (CPT). While most of our therapy groups are behaviorally oriented and utilize evidence-based frameworks, interns are not necessarily required to operate from a specific theoretical orientation when conceptualizing and/or treating their individual patients.
Interns in this track also have a year-long rotation in our adult Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP). IOP is focused on crisis stabilization and is intended to either (1) prevent patients from becoming hospitalized (e.g., expressing SI/HI without necessarily imminent danger and/or subthreshold grave disability) or (2) assist patients being discharged from an involuntary hospitalization transition effectively into their lifestyle.
Adult Psychiatry is a multidisciplinary team consisting of psychiatrists, psychologists, LCSWs, LMFTs, psychiatric nurses, and case managers who regularly collaborate on treatment planning in order to deliver the best possible integrated service to the patient. This interdisciplinary training environment allows interns to hone their ability to communicate with other professionals regarding the coordination of patient care.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Track
12-month track (candidates who apply and are accepted into this track will complete their internship within this track for the duration of the training year)
The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry track offers training experiences in individual, dyadic, family, group, and consultation-liaison treatment modalities with children, teens, and their families. Doctoral interns are assigned cases from the broad and diverse patient population served at the clinic, with referrals addressing mental health needs related to the treatment of mood disorders, anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorders, attention and impulse control disorders, behavioral issues, and more. Interns will have the opportunity to engage in minor training rotations through various groups programming. Interns have an array of therapy groups they can co-facilitate such as the Teen Intensive Outpatient Program (Teen IOP), a CBT and ACT-based skills groups, and parent management training groups. Depending on the rotations selected, interns will have the opportunity to enhance their clinical skills with training in cognitive behavioral therapy, family systems, parent management training, solution-focused, and brief psychodynamic interventions.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is a multidisciplinary team consisting of psychiatrists, psychologists, LCSWs, LMFTs, psychiatric nurses, and case managers who regularly collaborate on treatment planning in order to deliver the best possible integrated service to the patient and/or family. This interdisciplinary training environment allows interns to hone their ability to communicate with other professionals regarding the coordination of patient care.
Addiction Medicine and Recovery Services (AMRS) Track
12-month track (candidates who apply and are accepted into this track will complete their internship within this track for the duration of the training year)
Addiction Medicine and Recovery Services (AMRS) offers adult intensive recovery services, ongoing recovery groups, harm reduction treatment, dual diagnosis treatment, medication assisted treatment, withdrawal management services, adolescent treatment, and codependency treatment on an outpatient basis. Over the course of the year, doctoral interns will gain expertise in utilizing evidence-based substance use and dual diagnosis treatment modalities.
Doctoral interns will work with patients of various ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds who present with a range of dual diagnoses and personality disorders. Trauma is a common presenting problem among our patient population, and interns will have the opportunity to integrate trauma informed techniques that include psychoeducation about trauma and the nervous system, techniques from the Seeking Safety curriculum, grounding and mindfulness, and role play interventions. Other treatment strategies utilized in AMRS include elements of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), compassion-focused therapy (CFT), and brief psychodynamic psychotherapy.
While doctoral interns in AMRS primarily work within a brief therapy model for individual treatment, they may offer long-term individual therapy to a couple of patients on their caseload where clinically indicated. Interns receive 3-4 new patients every week, generally amassing 30-40 patients as their caseload grows over the course of the training year. Interns will also have an opportunity to conduct treatment with couples as well as co-facilitate psychoeducational, skills-based, and process-oriented groups.
Schedule
Weekly 40-hour Schedule
- Direct Patient Services: 19 hours
- Indirect Patient Care: 5.5 hours
- Individual Supervision: 2 hours
- Clinical Group Supervision: 1 hour
- Assessment Group Supervision: 1 hour
- Didactic Training: 2 hours
- Research-Based Training Activities: 2 hours
- Clinical & Professional Enrichment: 2 hours
- Community Partnership Project: 1 hour
- Meetings & Consultation: 2 hours
- Paid Breaks: 2.5 hours
All tracks are based on a hybrid model of both on-site and remote work
Current Opportunities
Position | Track(s) |
---|---|
Adult Psychiatry | Adult |
Child Psychiatry | Child |
Addiction Medicine Recovery Service | Addiction Medicine Recovery Services |