Psychology Internship Specializations & Training Areas

The Adult Outpatient Psychiatry Division for our adult specialization track is an Article 31 Clinic located on the ground floor of the Klau Pavilion on the Moses Campus. The Moses AOPD serves a heterogeneous group of approximately 17,500 patients (about the seating capacity of Madison Square Garden), representing 25,000 visits per year. Patients are seen in individual and group or family therapy settings, and many receive psychopharmacologic treatment as well. There is no single therapeutic approach or orientation in the AOPD since different clinical supervisors (including off-service supervisors) may recommend different therapeutic approaches. We assign interns to a variety of supervisors so that they may be exposed to a range of therapeutic approaches. All interns are assigned to a treatment team led by an attending psychiatrist, attending psychologist, social workers and psychiatry residents. Each intern in the AOPD will be given office space with a computer, internet access, a phone line with an extension and a hospital email.

Interns in the AOPD rotation see a full caseload of patients (approximately 16 visits per week if not adding any electives) as well as one group. The AOPD is licensed as a telehealth provider so that interns will get experience conducting telehealth and traditional in-person visits. While several of these cases may be transferred to the intern from a previous intern, interns will also be assigned to an intake clinic to build and maintain their caseloads. Interns are expected to complete five initial diagnostic evaluations, one of which will be an evaluation for gender-affirming medical procedures for transgender and gender nonbinary patients. In addition, they will complete one neuropsychological testing case. Interns are also required to attend a weekly case conference (with the psychiatry residents) and present at least one case (including the write-up) at one of the weekly case conference meetings. Interns must attend a TGNB consultation meeting weekly for 2-3 months and choose to be either a DBT or THRIVE consultation team member.

Interns in the adult specialization also carry two adult outpatients during the six months they are not in the AOPD. This allows the interns to see at least two patients for longer-term therapy (i.e. for the duration of the 12-month internship). In addition, as previously noted, interns in the adult specialization may adjust the length and/or intensity of any of the above rotations or choose to add electives for up to one day per week for up to eight months of the year.

When patients apply for treatment in the AOPD, their initial appointment is considered the intake, and an initial evaluation and treatment plan are completed. Most patients are covered by insurance (such as Medicaid and Medicare). A few patients pay a sliding scale fee ranging from approximately $30 to $160 per visit.

Dr. Rachel Held serves as the adult specialization’s AOPD Lead Psychologist and Associate Director. In this role, she oversees the assignment of all patients, maintains the intern’s full patient load, arranges for case transfer and disposition, and is the point person for interns regarding their scheduling and rotations. Dr. Shahab Motamedinia serves as a Senior Psychologist in the AOPD and is also an important resource to interns. In addition to Drs. Held and Motamedinia, there are six attending psychologists in the AOPD who are involved in intern training and supervision and are available for urgent consultations as the need arises.

The Adult DBT Program at the Moses Campus is a specialty program housed in the AOPD that provides DBT for adults with behavioral and affect dysregulation. Dr. Denise Guarino serves as Director of the program. Individuals participating in the program may be diagnosed with a range of disorders, including mood and anxiety disorders, trauma and stress-related disorders and substance-use disorders. Interns interested in DBT will co-lead a DBT skills group, participate in weekly DBT consultation team meetings, and serve as the primary therapist for one or more DBT cases.

THRIVE is a specialty clinic housed within the Moses AOPD, dedicated to providing evidence-based therapy for trauma-related disorders. Dr. Held serves as the Director of THRIVE, where interns learn to conduct a comprehensive trauma assessment and make stage-based, individualized treatment recommendations. 

Interns will serve as the primary therapists for individuals who are experiencing trauma-related stress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex trauma, racism-related stress and trauma, traumatic stress related to gender expression and traumatic bereavement. Interns have the opportunity to implement evidence-based trauma treatments, including cognitive processing (CPT), skills training in affective and interpersonal regulation plus modified prolonged exposure (STAIR/MPE), prolonged exposure (PE), and Written Exposure Therapy (WET). Interested interns can also attend a weekly THRIVE consultation team.

The Psychiatric Observation Suite is a five-bed unit within the Emergency Department (ED) psychiatric emergency room at the Moses Campus. It constantly ranks as one of the country’s busiest EDs and is one of the most visited in the state of New York. Patients are seen either in the POS or as a medical or pediatric ER psychiatry consult. Most patients who are acutely ill are seen for immediate evaluation, crisis intervention and disposition. The length of stay in the ED largely depends on bed availability for admission, which could be a few hours or several days. As such, interns learn to diagnose patients quickly, make triage and referral decisions, perform suicide and violence potential assessments and conduct crisis interventions.

The POS medical director, Dr. Rebecca Klein, assigns patients to interns, who are supervised closely by Dr. Klein, the other attending psychiatrists, and Dr. Kahlil DuPerry, a licensed psychologist. Interns also collaborate closely with the Chief Resident, nurses and social workers and attend rounds and didactic meetings. They will also have the opportunity to provide formal and informal psychological consultation.

The Moses Psychiatry Consultation/Liaison (C/L) Service rotation provides psychiatric consultation services in one of the largest teaching hospitals and public safety-net medical centers in New York City. Given the diversity of treatment units covered, a full range of medical and psychiatric issues are encountered in this fast-paced service, and interns are exposed to the wide range of cultures and international communities in our patient population. Thus, interns are required to incorporate diversity and cultural awareness throughout all aspects of service delivery. The C/L service allows the interns to collaborate with a vast array of hospital-based medical teams and enhance their skills in managing and treating medically and/or psychiatrically compromised patients. Psychological consultation may be requested for a number of concerns, including pre-existing psychiatric issues, current illness-related distress, wide-ranging adjustment issues, behavioral management strategies, poor adherence to treatment and addressing capacity issues to provide informed consent and/or clearance for hospital discharge.

Psychology interns will learn how to conduct rapid assessment of medically compromised patients—the ability to render a diagnosis and provide brief bedside evidenced-based treatment in medical areas that require rapid decision-making and follow-up. The rotation also provides learning and exposure to multiple health psychology and behavioral medicine training opportunities within a medical inpatient setting. Psychologist Dr. Katie Console and the attending psychiatrists supervise interns in their clinical evaluation of patients and in their consultative role with other providers. This service also provides learning opportunities alongside medical students, psychiatry residents and C/L fellows.

The Montefiore Einstein Center for Transplantation is a Center of Excellence in kidney and liver transplantation. We pride ourselves in providing state-of-the-art multidisciplinary care for patients undergoing kidney, pancreas and liver transplantation, as well as kidney and liver living donation. The psychology and psychiatry services are fully integrated into the transplant program and highly regarded across disciplines.

Interns will work within the transplant team to assess patients for psychological contraindications to liver and kidney transplantation and living donation, as well as provide inpatient assessment and therapy for patients hospitalized post-transplant and presenting with a variety of psychological concerns, including alcohol/substance use disorders, depression and anxiety. Interventions used with transplant patients are based on CBT, motivational interviewing and mindfulness.

Interns will collaborate closely with multidisciplinary team members, including surgeons, hepatologists, nephrologists, social workers and nurses, to provide high-quality integrated care for transplant recipients and living donors. There are opportunities to participate in multidisciplinary team meetings with the transplant team. Clinical supervision and consultation will be provided by Drs. Teh, Cho and Spyrou.

All interns must participate in research and will have protected research time. While this can be configured in a number of different ways, most interns choose to protect two to three hours per week over the course of six to 12 months for their research time.

The psychology faculty members at Montefiore Einstein are currently involved in research in a number of different areas, including anxiety and depression, personality disorders, behavioral health services utilization, psychological assessment, cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), adolescent suicide and eating disorders. Interns may select a faculty member from our research mentor list or request an alternate mentor (e.g. a professor from the intern’s graduate institution) with whom the intern has already formed or would like to form a mentor-mentee relationship.

Research mentors provide regular supervision during the research rotation. Mentors may help the intern develop and conduct a new project or may have an existing project to which the intern can contribute in a significant way. Examples of scholarly projects include hypothesis-driven studies, descriptive studies (e.g. chart reviews and questionnaire administration), secondary analyses of existing data sets and literature reviews. Surveys, quality improvement (QI) projects or program design, implementation and evaluation projects that benefit our patients or services will also be considered. Regardless of the type of project, the intern must take significant ownership of its content, leading to a “deliverable" (e.g. a manuscript suitable for journal submission or an abstract suitable for conference submission) at the local (including the host institution), regional or national level by the end of the internship year. A research mentor-mentee contract is completed and signed, ideally by the end of the first month of the training year, and the mentee provides quarterly progress reports and a project summary by the end of the training year. Interns are also encouraged to present their work during the department’s annual “PRIME Research Day,” which takes place in May each year.

Click here to view a weekly schedule of one of our previous adult track interns

The Child Outpatient Psychiatry Division (COPD) is a community clinic licensed by the New York State Office of Mental Health, providing services to a heterogeneous group of children and adolescent patients (between the ages of 4 and 21) with diagnoses ranging from disruptive behavior disorders, anxiety and depressive disorders and psychotic disorders to adjustment disorders and learning disabilities. Interns in the COPD will serve as primary therapists for individual and family cases (patients will be assigned across all ages and diagnoses), co-therapists for group therapy and conduct evaluations of children, adolescents and emerging adults.

During this rotation, interns receive intensive training and supervision in CBT, DBT, family therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and group therapy. They have the opportunity to co-lead youth and parent groups. Interns also learn to liaise with schools, foster care agencies, the Committee on Special Education and other relevant organizations.

The Anxiety and Mood Program (AMP) at Montefiore Einstein’s Moses Child Outpatient Psychiatry Division offers evidence-based interventions for children, adolescents and emerging adults with primary and comorbid anxiety, mood and related disorders. AMP serves children and adolescents between the ages of 4 and 21 and families from the surrounding Bronx community. Interns will learn to conduct comprehensive intake assessments (e.g. ADIS). They will serve as primary therapists for youth experiencing anxiety (e.g. social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety, separation anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobias, Obsessive-compulsive disorder—OCD, PTSD), depression, tics, trichotillomania and related concerns.

During this rotation, interns will provide individual and family-based cognitive behavioral treatments (e.g. coping cat, exposure/response prevention, trauma-focused CBT, comprehensive behavioral intervention for tics and parent management training). They will co-lead CBT groups for socially anxious adolescents and participate in multidisciplinary team rounds. Interns also collaborate with teachers, school personnel, pediatricians or other providers who may be involved in the child or teen’s care. Interns also have the opportunity to participate in academic activities, including authoring articles, presenting at conferences, conducting research and leading workshops at local schools regarding youth anxiety, depression and related topics.

The DBT-A Program is a specialty outpatient service within the Anxiety and Mood Program that serves suicidal and emotionally dysregulated teens (between the ages of 13 and 18) and their families. Many of these youth have experienced trauma and have comorbid anxiety and substance-related, personality and disruptive behavior disorders.

During this rotation, interns learn adherent DBT-A in their role as primary therapists for individual patients and co-leaders for multi-family skills groups. They also learn crisis intervention skills and assessment for borderline personality disorder (BPD) diagnosis and features. Some patients receive concomitant psycho-pharmacological treatment.

The Eating Disorders Program at Montefiore Einstein is a multidisciplinary outpatient program in the Moses COPD and the Department of Adolescent Medicine at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM). This service provides evidence-based care for children and adolescents presenting with anorexia, bulimia, avoidant-restrictive food intake disorder and other eating disorders.

During this rotation, interns serve as individual and family therapists using Family Based Treatment (FBT) and CBT interventions for eating disorders, including DBT. Interns may collaborate closely with the multidisciplinary team, including the physician, psychiatrist, social worker and dietician. During the year, interns will conduct assessments specific to eating disorders and have the option to carry an eating disorder case. Opportunities to participate in the inpatient medical stabilization service may also be possible.

Arts and Integrative Medicine (AIM) in Psychiatry provides programming that integrates evidence-based and evidence-informed arts interventions, community and environmental engagement, mindfulness practice and technology as part of a patient’s comprehensive mental health treatment plan. AIM encompasses programming that incorporates the arts (dance, visual arts, improvisational theater), yoga and gardening.

Over the year, interns will have the opportunity to participate in varied capacities (e.g. co-lead, volunteer, clinical observation if their patients are participants) of AIM programming, including the Youth Empowerment Series (YES) Art Gallery, YES Garden Project, HearYourSong, Multigenerational Crochet Group and Behavior Regulation Movement Groups performances.

The Child and Adolescent Assessment Service within the COPD helps interns develop proficiency in comprehensive child/adolescent psychological and diagnostic assessment. At a minimum, interns administer five comprehensive diagnostic evaluation assessments during the year, with more available for those interested in developing special expertise. Referral questions typically cover a wide range of diagnoses and presentations and often include making differential diagnoses and assessing the need for medication. 

Interns will also complete two full neuropsychological assessments evaluating the presence of neuropsychological deficits and learning issues. Supervision highlights the impact of health disparities, race-based trauma, cultural differences and bilingualism and employs a developmental framework.

The Becoming an Emerging Adult at Montefiore (BEAM) Program is a multisite specialty program that offers developmentally informed, evidence-based interventions for emerging adults presenting with a wide range of concerns. The program aims to offer assessment, treatment, consultation, education and training to improve our ability to meet the needs of emerging adults as they present to and transition among clinics across our health system. We work across our medical system in partnership with Moses AOPD and Wakefield COPD and AOPD. 

Interns will have the opportunity to provide assessment, intervention and transition services to these emerging adults and their families. Interns will also have the opportunity to co-lead a college readiness group that aims to prepare our college-bound patients. Interns will have the opportunity to participate in scholarly activities, including authoring articles, leading staff training sessions throughout the hospital and presenting at conferences.

All interns in the child and adolescent specialization must participate in research and will have protected research time. While this can be configured in a number of different ways, most interns choose to protect two to three hours per week over the course of six to 12 months for their research time. The psychology faculty at Montefiore Einstein is currently involved in research in a number of different areas, including anxiety and depression, personality disorders, behavioral health services utilization, psychological assessment, CBT, DBT, adolescent suicide and eating disorders.

Interns may select a faculty member from our research mentor list or request an alternate mentor (e.g. a professor from the intern’s graduate institution) with whom the intern has already formed or would like to form a mentor-mentee relationship. Research mentors provide a minimum of one hour per week of supervision to the intern during the research rotation. Mentors may help the intern develop and carry out a new project or may have an existing project to which the intern can contribute in a substantial way. Examples of scholarly projects include hypothesis-driven studies, descriptive studies (e.g. chart reviews, questionnaire administration), secondary analyses of existing data sets and literature reviews. Surveys, QI projects, program design, implementation and evaluation projects that benefit our patients or services will also be considered. Regardless of the type of project, the intern is expected to take ownership of a significant aspect of the research and final submission. It should lead to a “deliverable" (e.g. a manuscript suitable for journal submission or an abstract suitable for conference submission) at the local (including the host institution), regional or national level by the end of the internship year. 

A research mentor-mentee contract is completed and signed, ideally by the end of the first month of the training year, and the mentee provides quarterly progress reports and a project summary by the end of the training year. Interns are also encouraged to present their work during the department’s annual “PRIME Research Day,” which takes place in May each year.

Click here to view a weekly schedule of one of our previous child and adolescent track interns