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:

Individual supervision

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.

Seminars and group supervision

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.