Doctoral psychology faculty
Sharp HealthCare's APA-accredited Psychology Doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology provides psychologists-in-training with a yearlong, in-depth training experience.
Core faculty members are listed below. They include primary rotation supervisors, seminar/didactic leaders, supplemental supervisors, and the training director. Core faculty are subject to change to meet the needs of the training program.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2014)
Internship: Sharp HealthCare
Fellowship: Northwest Neurobehavioral Health, Boise, Idaho
Areas of interest: child and adolescent mental health, psychological assessment, acute care, family behavior therapy, treatment of substance use disorders, complex trauma
Orientation: cognitive-behavioral, ACT
Argosy University, San Francisco Bay Area
Internship: UC Davis Medical Center, Neuropsychology & Rehabilitation Psychology Program
Fellowship: Fullerton Neuropsychological Services and St. Jude Medical Center, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Areas of interest: neuropsychology, psychodiagnostic assessment of adults and older adults, clinical training and supervision, behavioral health research
Orientation: cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, integrative
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2009)
Internship: University of San Diego Child and Adolescent Program
Fellowship: clinical psychology with emphasis in child and adolescent psychology, Sharp HealthCare
Areas of interest: child, adolescent and family systems; leadership in behavioral health settings, clinical program development, measurement-based care
Orientation: cognitive-behavioral
University of Nevada, Reno (2017)
Internship: VA Northern California Health Care System
Fellowship: VA San Diego Healthcare System
Areas of Interest: PTSD, trauma focused treatments, ACT, severe mental illness, forensic psychology
Orientation: behavioral, cognitive-behavioral
Palo Alto University (2017)
Internship: Sharp HealthCare
Fellowship: Sharp HealthCare, Cog/DBT IOP
Areas of Interest: child/adolescent, TAY, DBT
Orientation: behavioral/cognitive-behavioral
Alliant International University, San Diego (2020)
Internship: Sharp HealthCare
Fellowship: San Diego Center for Children
Areas of Interest: lifespan/developmental psychology, geropsychology, adolescence psychology, cognitive and social emotional development, masculine honor ideology and aggression/anger, ACT, behavioral and mindfulness-based approaches to lifespan issues, including acceptance and behavioral activation/values-driven behaviors
Orientation: integrative — behavioral/functional-contextual/cognitive-behavioral
The Chicago Medical School (1997)
Residency: Department of Psychiatry, Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of California Davis, Medical Center
Board certification: American Board of Family Practice, Candidate, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Areas of interest: adult psychiatry, consultation and liaison psychiatry, telemedicine, emergency psychiatry
Alliant International University, San Diego (2017)
Internship: Alvarado Parkway Institute
Areas of interest: OCD, SMI, Psychopharmacology
Orientation: Brief Psychodynamic, CBT, ERP
Medical school: University of Damascus, Syria
Residency: University of Missouri, Kansas City
Board certification: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Psychiatry), American Board of Addiction Medicine
Areas of interest: addiction disorders, electronic medical records impact on healthcare delivery, physician burnout and wellness
West Virginia University (1997)
Internship: Interdisciplinary Team Training Program, Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Stanford Affiliate
Fellowship: clinical psychology with emphasis in geropsychology, Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Health Care System
Areas of interest: cognitive, behavioral and mindfulness-based approaches to treatment of older adults and caregivers; clinical supervision; competency-based training; functional contextualism and ACT; interdisciplinary team functioning; cultural competence/critical consciousness; anti-racism
Orientation: behavioral/functional-contextual/cognitive-behavioral
Indiana University (1981)
Residency: University of Southern California
Fellowship: University of Southern California
Board certification: Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Alliant International University, CSPP San Diego (2016)
Internship: Youth Opportunity Center (Residential Treatment Center) Muncie, Indiana
Fellowship: Youth Opportunity Center (Joint Clinical and Forensic Placement: Court-Ordered Psychodiagnostic Testing Focus) Muncie, Indiana
Areas of Interest: children & adolescents, trauma-informed care, family systems, diagnostic testing, reducing suicide risk
Orientation: cognitive-behavioral
PGSP-Stanford (2019)
Internship: Sharp HealthCare
Fellowship: San Diego Center for Children, Behavioral Health Assessment/Residential
Areas of Interest: autism, neurodevelopmental disabilities, DBT, psychodiagnostic assessment
Orientation: behavioral/cognitive-behavioral
Wright Institute, Berkeley (2010)
Internship: Sharp HealthCare
Fellowship: clinical psychology with an emphasis in geropsychology, Sharp HealthCare
Areas of interest: geropsychology, program development, leadership
Orientation: cognitive-behavioral/integrative
Alliant International University (2018)
Internship: Southern Arizona Psychology Internship Center
Fellowship: Sharp HealthCare, SMC IOP
Areas of Interest: substance use, mindfulness, nature therapy
Orientation: ACT and behavioral/cognitive-behavioral
UC Santa Barbara (2015)
Internship: College of William and Mary Counseling Center
Fellowship: UC San Diego Counseling Center — urgent care emphasis
Areas of Interest: trauma, post-traumatic growth, positive psychology, clinical supervision, mindfulness, suicide prevention, disaster mental health, multicultural counseling/competence
Orientation: cognitive-behavioral
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (2008)
Internship: Child and Family Guidance Center, Northridge, California
Areas of interest: children, adolescents, family systems, trauma and abuse, psycho-diagnostic evaluations, community outreach, clinical supervision, anti-racism
Orientation: cognitive-behavioral, systems
Alliant International University, CSPP San Diego (2017)
Internship: Sharp HealthCare
Areas of interest: severe mental illness, hospital-based psychiatric care, Recovery Model, trauma-informed care, clinical training and supervision
Orientation: behavioral, cognitive-behavioral
Doctoral internship supervision and didactics
The doctoral internship in clinical psychology at Sharp HealthCare follows a practitioner-scholar model of training, interns meet routinely with supervisors on every rotation, and in most rotations they have daily contact with supervisors, working side-by-side with them in the provision of clinical service, staff training and program development.
Interns' progress through the training year is sequential, cumulative and graded in complexity. Interns typically begin a rotation by observing their supervisor providing service, progress to co-facilitation, are then observed, and finally facilitate group independently. Skills and knowledge developed in each rotation build on previous training experiences.
While much of the supervision received by an intern occurs during the course of the day in informal ways, we schedule formal supervision as follows:
Interns receive, at a minimum, one hour of scheduled, face-to-face supervision from their rotation supervisor each week. Rotation and assessment supervisors provide an additional hour or more of supervision on a weekly basis that can include co-facilitation, direct learning, and curbside consultation. Interns work with a new supervisor on each of the three rotations during the course of the year. Additionally, individual supervision is provided across the entire training year by the training director on a monthly basis. Having three rotation supervisors provides diversity and multiple perspectives, while consistency with the training director over the course of the year provides objectivity, perspective and additional opportunities for professional development.
Approximately two hours per week are dedicated to group supervision, with another 1.5 hours of seminar. In addition to providing rich learning experiences, these group activities are a cornerstone of the lovely support and camaraderie that exists in the training program and in the psychology department.
In weekly group supervision with the training director, interns review clinical cases and read/discuss relevant theoretical and empirical literature. In addition, interns provide peer supervision and read/discuss literature on theories, models and best-practices in clinical supervision.
The adult/gero and child/adolescent psychodiagnostic supervisors alternate an hour of weekly group supervision with all interns throughout the year. Early in the year interns are learning specific measures and soon progress to administering assessments and writing reports. Reports are carefully read, edited and cosigned by the psychodiagnostic supervisor. Early in the year interns rely more heavily on supervision for selection of relevant measures, but at the end of the year are expected to be able to select, and administer measures and write reports that require minimal if any editing.
Critical consciousness seminar promotes culturally competent assessment and treatment of the diverse populations served at Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital. The seminar focuses on building awareness of diversity issues in both providers and patients served. All seminar participants engage in an extensive cultural self-conceptualization in order to best understand the impact of their own culture on the provision of treatment. In addition, the seminar provides for intensive discussion of the many aspects of diversity necessary to become culturally competent clinicians. Diversity factors covered include age, cohort disability, religion and spirituality, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, sexuality and gender. Each trainee is responsible for generating and leading one of the monthly in-depth discussions.
Supervision-of-supervision allows interns to provide supervision to second- or third-year graduate students in psychology throughout the training year. Supervision-of-supervision is provided in weekly individual and/or group supervisions.
Professional development seminar: This seminar series is designed to help interns develop a sense of professional identity. Seminars are provided on professional ethics/law, cultural/individual diversity and evidence-based practices. Seminars are presented by Sharp psychologists and other clinicians as well as adjunct faculty from the community.
Case presentations: Interns formally present one of their patients in the traditional grand rounds style. The presentations include a description of the case, review of the literature and a discussion of how the literature has informed their clinical practice. Each intern presents two cases per year.