Doctoral Internship – Roseville

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) are vital parts of training in North Valley. We have a diverse staff, which is reflected in our diverse supervision team. In addition to the weekly didactics, here are some of our local JEDI trainings we offer:

• Cultural Humility and Unconscious/Implicit Bias
• Multicultural Assessment
• Telebehavioral Health: Ethical, Clinical, and Cultural Considerations
• Culturally Aware Feedback Informed care
• Working with African-Americans in a Medical Setting
• Muslim American Populations in Behavioral Health Settings
• Black Men’s Experience of Police Harassment
• Gender Affirming Surgery Evaluations

Furthermore, Journal Club is specifically focused on JEDI issues and research. Trainees are also invited to join the local JEDI improvement planning group for the North Valley.

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 seminars are aimed at supporting professional developmental and clinical growth. Doctoral interns can expect to attend the following meetings.

• Weekly Huddle: 15-minute meeting with training director to review and prepare for the day.
• All-Staff Meeting: Monthly meeting with department staff. Focus is on operations and announcements.
• Journal Club: Weekly meeting to review research. Research articles are selected by the trainee. Twice a month the research article is focused on Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion topic.
• Trainee Hike: At the start and end of the training year we take a hike in the Auburn Forest to reflect on the training year and connect as cohort.
• Research Hour: Interns are provided 1 hour per week to complete their research project.
• Mentorship: Interns are offered the opportunity to mentor a practicum or master’s trainee. The intern also has the option to be a mentee through our regional mentorship program. Both of these opportunities are voluntary.
• Supervision: Interns are given the option to supervise a practicum trainee.
• Licensure preparation: Interns are provided 1 hour per week to prepare for licensure.

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 rotation 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. Time allotted for all group supervision ranges from 2-4 hours per week depending on the time of year and the training schedule dictated by the specific rotations and tracks.

Reflecting Kaiser Permanente’s core commitment to mental health and wellness in our communities, each 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.

We have variety of local partnerships for our Community Partnership Program. Currently, we have partnerships with several community colleges, high schools, junior high schools, elementary schools, and after school programs. Often these partnerships include completing a mental health presentation, tabling for a career fair, being part of a career panel, 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. Interns primarily receive assessment training support in a group supervision format with additional modalities of support available as needed.

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.

The internship program offers training experiences in three areas: Adult Outpatient Mental Health (12-month track), Trauma Informed Care (6-month rotation), and Adult Psychological Assessment (6-month rotation). Doctoral interns will participate in all three training experiences.

Doctoral interns in the Adult Outpatient Clinic can expect to work with a broad range of presenting disorders, including behavior and relational problems, depression and anxiety, psychosis, psychosomatic concerns, trauma, and personality disorders. Treatment at Kaiser Permanente Roseville is grounded in evidence-based practices, such as CBT, ACT, DBT, among others.

On average, doctoral interns are expected to see 8-10 patients per week. Caseload size will vary depending on the number of new patients seen and the cadence with which patients are scheduled. Interns will also be assigned ADHD evaluations throughout the training year. In addition, interns are expected to co-facilitate therapy groups and assist in the teaching of psychoeducational classes.

The internship program offers training experiences in three areas: Adult Outpatient Mental Health (12-month track), Trauma Informed Care (6-month rotation), and Adult Psychological Assessment (6-month rotation). Doctoral interns will participate in all three training experiences.

The Trauma Informed Care rotation is focused on evidence-based treatments for individuals with PTSD/Trauma Related Stress Disorder. Doctoral interns in this rotation will have the opportunity to work closely with the Managing Complexities Program (MCP). It should be noted, many of the patients involved in the MCP program have co-occurring histories of trauma and likely Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

Doctoral interns involved in the MCP rotation will focus on aspects of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) in their clinical practice. Additionally, training in Skills Training in Affective Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR) for PTSD is also part of the rotation experience. Interns will also incorporate elements of Cognitive Processing Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Programming (EMDR), and Exposure Therapy into their work with this patient population. Within this rotation, interns will receive training in both individual psychotherapy and group treatment.

The internship program offers training experiences in three areas: Adult Outpatient Mental Health (12-month track), Trauma Informed Care (6-month rotation), and Adult Psychological Assessment (6-month rotation). Doctoral interns will participate in all three training experiences.

Doctoral interns in the Psychological Assessment Rotation will have an opportunity to conduct in-depth, comprehensive psychological evaluations for diagnostic clarification. Interns will evaluate for a range of different psychological disorders, including ADHD, personality disorder, ASD, mood disorders, etc. On average, interns are expected to complete 4-6 evaluations per week.

The evaluation process in this rotation consists of completing an initial intake interview in order to rule out other psychological factors (e.g., examining mood, substance use, and/or psychological factors) which may confound the psychodiagnostic process. These evaluations also consist of the administration of a battery of psychological tests and measures in order to guide treatment recommendations and connect patients with appropriate care. Once the evaluation process and report are completed, feedback is provided to the patient via telephone/video/in-person visit (when appropriate). Doctoral interns in this rotation can greatly enhance their knowledge base of ADHD, ASD (adult or children), and/or differential diagnosis.