The program emphasizes a scientist-practitioner model of training and encourages the development of professional and scientific skills consistent with this perspective. Skill development is consistent with state-of-the-art scientific inquiry and scholarship within a perspective that fosters the successful integration of science and practice. Within this viewpoint, the program emphasizes diversity of training across populations, problems, and settings, in the context of an academic medical setting that provides care to largely adult veterans of the US armed services.

The overall goal of our training program is to prepare the predoctoral psychology intern with entry-level skills in Professional Psychology through a series of didactic and supervised clinical and research experiences that are broad and general in their scope. The development of these occur within a track system that additionally provides opportunities for developing more specialized expertise in the areas of General Mental Health, Clinical Health Psychology, and Clinical Neuropsychology. For individual therapy experiences, interns in all tracks are required to take on multiple individual therapy cases throughout the year that come from inpatient and outpatient settings, representing an extensive array of psychopathology and other behavioral/medical problems. All tracks will have ‘minor’ rotations in other specialty areas that will range from 8 to 16 hours per week over the course of the year. For example, an intern in Clinical Health Psychology will complete rotation(s) within the Clinical Neuropsychology and/or General Mental Health sections.

Seminars and Didactics:

The clinical training activities within each specialty track are buttressed by a combination of formal didactic seminars and informal, one-to-one teaching during the course of regular supervisory meetings. Formal seminars that all interns are required to attend include: a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Seminar, a Group Therapy Seminar, a Family Therapy Seminar, a Core Seminar, and our monthly Psychology Colloquia. In each training track there are specialty experiences that include: a Clinical Neuropsychology Seminar, a Clinical Health Psychology Conference, and a Behavioral Health Series. Frequently, students give clinical and research presentations in these seminars. All students are further encouraged to attend lectures and seminars offered through Yale University (the schedule of offerings is updated and made accessible to all students).

Supervision and Mentoring:

At least 4 hours of supervision (i.e., consistent with APPIC guidelines) are provided by our staff each week. Interns work in close collaboration with Psychology staff in clinical settings. In addition to clinical supervision, interns will be expected to specify a goal for empirical research or scholarly activity involving collaboration and mentorship with one of our faculty. They will be given up to 4 hours each week to work on this goal. By the end of the training year, each intern will be expected to provide a specific product of this collaboration, such as a formal presentation as part of one of our existing seminars or conferences, a presentation at a regional or national meeting, or a completed draft manuscript for publication (research may include work on the intern’s dissertation). If interns are interested in conducting research at this VA hospital, it will be important to discuss the arrangements well in advance in order to obtain approval from the Human Studies Subcommittee and Research and Development Committee.