Mission

The Program’s mission is to provide excellence in pediatric psychology training to graduate students, interns, and postdoctoral residents-fellows.
 

Values

  • Integrity – to exhibit high standards in ethical and professional behavior in the practice of psychology.
  • Dignity – to show dignity and respect through our interactions with our advanced psychology students, our patients, and all others, regardless of culture, race, religion, disability, gender, employment status or individual differences.
  • Nurturance – to support our advanced psychology students in a manner which nurtures mastery and excellence.
  • Multiculturality – to embrace cultural and individual backgrounds and to demonstrate the experience and the desire to work with various groups of children, adolescents, and families.

Philosophy

Phoenix Children’s Doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology trains interns as practitioners by using evidence-based practices. The training faculty at Phoenix Children’s operates from a practitioner-scholar model. Consistent with this model and its emphasis on the mutuality of science and practice, the focus of our training program is on the practical application of scholarly knowledge in the provision of direct patient care, coupled with the evaluation of the efficacy of those interventions and continued planning to improve those services. Interns are trained to think critically in the delivery of services that take into account individual, cultural, and societal factors. The majority of current staff members were trained in the scientist-practitioner model and see the inclusion of empirical work as a necessary component for the competent assessment and treatment of psychological problems. The program strives to provide interns with a breadth and depth of training experiences in the context of utilizing innovative scientific information to guide assessment and treatment conceptualization, planning and delivery. Though not the primary focus, there can be research opportunities for motivated interns.

The program utilizes a developmental process for the training of interns. Interns learn through the observation and subsequent practice of professional activities while receiving support and feedback regarding their progress. Supervisors work throughout the year to move the interns to a more autonomous role and prepare them to become early-career psychologists, who are well-prepared for their post-doctoral residency-fellowship by the end of the training year. 
The program provides a well-rounded psychology training experience and offers training in assessment, outpatient individual, family, and group therapies, as well as inpatient consultation/liaison work. All interns are expected to participate in these activities over the course of the year. Internship rotations offer opportunities for more intensive training experiences in areas of focus so that interns can hone their practice.

The internship program is administered by the Training Director with the assistance of the Graduate Medical Education (GME) Program Administrator and the Internship Training Committee, consisting of staff psychologists in the Divisions of Psychology and Neuropsychology at Phoenix Children's.
 

The Program

The primary goal of the program is to train interns in the core competencies needed to be a skilled psychologist working with children, adolescents, emerging adults, and families in a medical setting. The psychology interns provide empirically supported assessment, intervention, and consultation for patients. The doctoral internship program offers simultaneous training in assessment as well as inpatient and outpatient interventions with patients who have medical and/or psychological conditions.

The internship program offers two spots in one track: Pediatric Psychology (APPIC code 205212).

a. Engage in the assessment and brief treatment for inpatient medically-based consultation/liaison psychology with patient populations that include but are not limited to:
     i. Pain, complex chronic illnesses, coping with extended hospital stays, disordered eating, medically unexplained symptoms, adjustment to recent diagnosis, and non-adherence to medical regimen.
     ii. Anxiety and/or depression comorbid with medical conditions
b. Provide outpatient services within specialty clinics such as feeding, cleft and craniofacial, cystic fibrosis, pain, IBD, and/or hematology clinics
     i. Can include multidisciplinary clinics (MDCs) and outpatient follow-ups as well as group therapy.
c. Provide outpatient psychotherapy.
d. Complete a minimum of four psycho-educational evaluations over the course of the year

Year-round:

The Pediatric Psychology Interns will:

  • Maintain an outpatient psychotherapy caseload.
  • Conduct 2 outpatient therapy groups over the year such as, PMT for parents of children with ADHD, helping parents and teens enhance executive functioning, illness recovery (CHIRP), etc.

The program embraces cultural and individual backgrounds and desires interns to demonstrate the experience and the desire to work with various groups of children, adolescents, and families. The patient population at Phoenix Children's reflects the cultural and socioeconomic spread of the Southwest. In 2020, 43.1% of Phoenix Children's patients were Latinx, 6.5% African American, 2.2% Native American, 3.6% Asian and 8.5% other. Six percent of Phoenix Children's patients were older than 18 years of age; as of 2017, 55% were patients receiving benefits through (Medicaid/AHCCCS).

To better enable interns to care for these patients, we offer monthly seminars covering topics such as: cultural awareness, humility, social drivers of health, and caring for unique patient populations.

Phoenix Children's will also provide reasonable accommodation to qualified trainees with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), as amended and related state laws, and Phoenix Children's Graduate Medical Education Accommodations for Disabilities Policy, which can be accessed on Phoenix Children's intranet (InDEx) or by requesting copies from PC’s Medical Education Office. Trainees who require accommodations should contact the Training Director to make arrangements.

Additionally, integration of science and practice, ethical practice of psychology, communication and interpersonal skills, supervision, and the development of professional values and attitudes are addressed during the training year. Further, there are opportunities for supervision of junior trainees and scholarly inquiry. The Psychology Department also trains psychology/neuropsychology practicum students, psychiatry fellows and medical residents, and pediatric psychology fellows/residents.

The program will provide training in tele-therapy and the use of the Phoenix Children's telehealth system (e.g., Zoom) as well as training in use of interpretative services in the practice of psychology with patients and families. 

The Division of Psychology also offers a one-year postdoctoral residency/fellowship in pediatric psychology. The residency is affiliated with the Arizona Psychology Training Consortium and, thereby, a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC).
 

Supervision

Currently, many licensed psychologists on the faculty are supervising interns. The psychology staff view the role of quality supervision as paramount to intern training. Interns will have the handbook for more detailed information. Because of this emphasis on training, there are opportunities to:

  • Observe supervisors’ work
  • Provide co-therapy with supervisor
  • Observe/be observed live and/or on a telehealth platform
  • Review video recordings of sessions

Interns receive a minimum of four hours of supervision per week, including a minimum of two hours of individual supervision. Interns also have the opportunity for additional input with case presentations as well as journal club. Working with the psychology practicum students will provide the opportunity to supervise a graduate student under the umbrella supervision of a licensed psychologist. 

Faculty psychologists represent an eclectic mix of theoretical perspectives, including: 

  • Cognitive behavioral (including DBT and ACT)
  • Family systems
  • Interpersonal
  • Solution-focused
  • Behavioral
     

Consultation

Given that the faculty work with physicians and other medical staff on a regular basis, both inpatient and outpatient, it is important to work in an interdisciplinary manner. Interns will have the opportunity to observe faculty in these interactions while gradually gaining more experience, skill, and independence in their consultant role. With a pediatric population, interns also often engage in consultation with school personnel in order to ensure continuity of care from the medical setting to the patient’s broader environment.
 

Location

The Division of Psychology is located on the fourth floor of the Ambulatory Building at Phoenix Children's Hospital - Thomas Campus. Many other outpatient medical specialties are located in the building. Multiple disciplines request inpatient hospital consultations that occur throughout the hospital and in the East building on Thomas Campus. There may also be opportunities for rotations at other satellite clinics.