Briefly describe in narrative form important information to assist potential applicants in assessing their likely fit with your program. This description must be consistent with the program’s policies on intern selection and practicum and academic preparation requirements.
The APA Accredited Internship Program at Sharp Healthcare is designed as a generalist site. We offer broad & diverse training possibilities. Our rotations span the life-span with opportunities to work with serious mental illness and substance use disorders in child/adolescent, adult, and senior settings. We offer both inpatient and outpatient rotations with each of these populations, and we offer rotations in a specialty hospital for treatment of substance use disorders. You might choose to apply here so that you can obtain experience with a setting or population that is new to you or because you want to build on an area of expertise. We appreciate both types of applicant.
Interns who match with Sharp HealthCare are asked to rank order available rotations. Most years, interns are assigned to at least two of their top three choices. However, there are no guarantees and because we are a generalist site, applicants must be okay with assignment to ANY of our rotations. It is rare that interns would be assigned any "last choice" rotation, but it has happened. It's worth noting that interns often end up finding great value even in a rotation that they might not have initially ranked high.
We are frequently asked, "What are you looking for in your selection process?" Every APPI is thoroughly reviewed by at least two members of our psychology team, in addition to the training director. We carefully look at the rigor of university training, the depth and range of clinical experience, as well as other life experience. Interns who do well in our program arrive with advanced fluency in behavioral, third-wave, and traditional cognitive-behavioral theory and technique. Group therapy and psychological assessment experience is highly valued because these are both large parts of our training program and clinical services. We prize a devotion to empiricism (big E and little e) and evidence-based treatment. We also prize trainees who demonstrate emotional literacy, a desire to increase self-awareness, and an ability to communicate genuine respect for individuals who are similar to and different from them. Given the diversity in San Diego (e.g., in all components of the ADDRESSING model), and our desire to have an intern class that reflects that diversity, we appreciate learning about the individual diversity of our applicants. We prize applicants who demonstrate the abilities and traits required to thrive in a fast paced, interdisciplinary, collaborative, acute-care environment. Please refer to our doctoral psychology internship overview for additional details.
Does the program require that applicants have received a minimum number of hours of the following at time of application? Yes.
Required Minimum Direct Contact Intervention: 600 hours
Required Minimum Direct Contact Assessment: 100 hours
Describe any other required minimum criteria used to screen applicants.
Musts:
In good standing in an APA-accredited or CPA-accredited doctoral program in psychology
Comprehensive exams passed by application deadline
Dissertation proposal approved by start of internship
Completed minimum of 3 years of graduate training by start of internship
Able to attend a full-day virtual interview in late January on one of the dates identified by the program
We are also looking for a healthy sense of humor, a strong work ethic, a commitment to self-awareness and self-care, a belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings, a devotion to empiricism (big E and little e), flexibility, humility, kindness, a strong commitment to cultural competence, a strong interest in assessment (you'll do a lot of it here), strong interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a team, excellent time-management skills, interest in advancing your competence as a clinical supervisor, interest in leadership and organizational/systems level influence.