Pre-Doctoral Internship in Psychology for 2010-11
Hamm Clinic
Hamm Memorial Psychiatric Clinic, Inc. is an outpatient, mental health clinic that provides services to adults and families in the greater Twin Cities area. It is a private, non-profit clinic founded in 1954 by the Hamm Foundation. The clinic continues to receive significant funding from the Hamm Foundation Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation. Hamm Clinic provides services on an ability to pay basis, accepting client fees determined by a sliding scale, insurance, or medical assistance reimbursement. The pre-doctoral internship program is accredited by the American Psychological Association.* The clinic is also a MN Department of Human Services Rule 29 approved facility and an APPIC member psychology training site. Interested students will participate in the APPIC match.
Mission Statement
Hamm Memorial Psychiatric Clinic is dedicated to providing mental health services to adults and families in the culturally diverse Twin Cities metropolitan area, particularly those who are unable to afford the full cost of treatment. The clinic is founded on a belief that access to quality mental health care is crucial to the well being of the individual and the stability of family and community.
Hamm Clinic's primary area of service is outpatient psychotherapy. We serve a broad client population, from those experiencing situational crisis or adjustment difficulty, to those with serious emotional disturbance. Each person's history, clinical condition and current life situation inform the treatment effort. Hamm Clinic is staffed by a multidisciplinary team of professionals who value the client-therapist relationship as an intrinsic part of the therapy process. We extend a commitment to providing sufficient care and time for constructive change to occur.
Hamm Clinic further supports quality mental health care by serving as a specialty training and educational facility for graduate students and professionals in the community. In addition to clinical work, we are dedicated to the role of teaching psychotherapy and conducting research on psychotherapy outcomes.
Client Population
People come to the Hamm Clinic by many routes. Most refer themselves and learn of Hamm Clinic from friends or former clients. College counselors, clergy, physicians, insurance providers, and social or community agencies make referrals as well. The client population at the Clinic is about two thirds female and most clients are between the ages of 21 and 45. The clients tend to be well educated with a small minority saying they have less than a high school education. In keeping with our mission, many clients have incomes below $20,000. Hamm Clinic works continuously to broaden our services to people of color. We currently serve approximately 20% people of color, which is similar to the demographics of our five county service area. We have markedly increased our services to the Hispanic/Latino Community by providing psychotherapy service in Spanish. The entire spectrum of personal problems is represented by those who come to the Clinic and students in training are exposed to a wide variety of acute and chronic mental health conditions.
Services
Clients who come to the clinic may be seen in individual, couple, or group psychotherapy. The majority of the service provided at Hamm Clinic is individual psychotherapy. The length of treatment is determined by client need and commitment, allowing for the possibilities of brief, moderate, and longer-term psychotherapy. At the outset of treatment, a client is seen for one to three sessions for intake and diagnostic evaluation. The therapist and client will then determine parameters for the therapy and jointly establish goals for their work together. The Clinic offers psychological assessment and prescription of medication to clients as needed, but these services are considered a part of the primary psychotherapy process. Psychological assessment and medication management are not offered as isolated services. In addition to adult, outpatient psychotherapy, the Clinic is beginning to provide outreach and specialized services to seniors in the community. We are also expanding our clinical services in the area of parent-guidance and family care.
Structure
Hamm Clinic administration includes: a Management Team comprising of the Director, Clinical Director, Training Director, Finance Director, Development Director, Communications Director and the Administrative Director who provide leadership on a day to day basis. Additional planning and leadership are provided by an active community Board of Directors. Working staff committees include: the Research Committee, the Cultural Diversity Initiative, the Family and Community Initiative, Clinical Practice Review Committee, Coordinators Committee, and the Education Committee. We have a one hour staff meeting each week with rotating areas of business: all staff business, clinical staff business, supervisors business and forum (ie.consultation dedicated to cultural competence.)
Staff
Hamm Clinic has a multidisciplinary staff comprised of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and clinical social workers. Students in training will have a rich learning experience in working contact with all of the disciplines. The clinical staff and support staff are a culturally and racially diverse group of people. We have Spanish-speaking support staff and Spanish-speaking psychotherapists.
The preferred therapeutic orientation of the Hamm Clinic staff is psychodynamic. However, other theoretical orientations and treatment approaches are used and valued. A commitment to consultation in planning and reviewing clinical work is strongly supported. All staff psychotherapists and trainees present case material in a weekly multidisciplinary team meeting to receive in-put from colleagues.
Pre-Doctoral Internship in Psychology
The Pre-Doctoral Internship in Psychology at Hamm Clinic is available to doctoral level Ph.D. and Psy.D. graduate students. Hamm Clinic’s pre-doctoral psychology internship provides a comprehensive and integrated training program for doctoral level clinical and counseling psychology students. The clinic’s model of training is in accordance with the practitioner-scholar model. Our training is based on the premise that practice and science inform one another and a commitment to both is necessary for quality mental health care. As a psychotherapy clinic, we focus primarily on applied research. In line with the practitioner-scholar model, students are expected to use the literature to become knowledgeable about the scientific findings surrounding issues prevalent in their caseload.
The clinic’s orientation towards psychological practice is psychodynamic This particular orientation to therapy relies heavily on clinical data and the relationship between the therapist and client. Therefore, students are trained in and become competent in the use of the therapist’s self as well as in the use of the process of therapy in the treatment of clients. Though our focus is psychodynamic therapy, the clinic’s commitment to individual clinical data, its own outcome research, as well as the research in the literature, compels us to give way to our preferred theories if refutable information exists. Therefore, students are trained in other methods of conducting psychotherapy, based upon the needs of their clients.
The internship is structured to provide training in eight core areas of learning: diagnostic assessment, individual psychotherapy, scholarly inquiry, crisis intervention, multi-cultural diversity, professional ethics, therapist’s use of self, the psychologist’s role in mental health and consultation and supervision. An internship at Hamm emphasizes clinical work with a major focus on careful diagnostic evaluation (primarily MMPI-2) and individual psychotherapy from a psychodynamic perspective. Training may also be available for supervised work with couples and group psychotherapy. Each student has the opportunity to learn and experience the multifaceted role of a clinical psychologist in an out-patient clinic setting: providing psychotherapy, providing personality testing and test interpretation, being responsible for on-going case-management, attending meetings and seminars, preparing written records, coordinating therapy and medication management, arranging referrals to other agencies and services, and learning the ethical and legal considerations involved in service delivery to a broad mental health population.
An internship at Hamm Clinic is an opportunity to train with a professional staff that functions comfortably and supportively with one another. The student is encouraged to develop his/ her professional identity as a clinical psychologist but also as one who can work in harmony with those from other mental health backgrounds.
Supervision
Student psychologists at Hamm Clinic receive intensive clinical supervision while treating a variety of persons and problems. The student and her/his primary supervisor meet weekly for three hours in face-to-face supervision. The supervisory experience includes attention to such things as: how to listen to the presenting problems during intake, how to gather a psychiatric history and a psychosocial history, how to interpret psychological testing and write reports, how to clarify the patient's symptom profile and arrive at an accurate diagnostic assessment, how to create a treatment plan, how to work with defense and resistance, how to understand transference-countertransference reactions, how to work dynamically during various stages of the therapy process, and any other discourse relevant to quality clinical work and the students specific learning objectives. Clinical cases will be discussed from various theoretical and therapeutic perspectives. The Clinic is equipped with audio recording equipment which may be used to facilitate close and helpful supervision. Opportunities for co-therapy with staff members may also be available. Supervision is provided in a group setting as well. All students participate with staff psychotherapists in a one-hour weekly, multi-disciplinary team meeting for case consultation.
In addition to the primary learning derived from close supervision of therapy cases, education for students at the clinic involves other structured activities including: diagnostic evaluation with a battery of measures, various consultation experiences, participating in a formal case conference, and the possibility of participating in events such as poster sessions at state or national psychology conventions, and other opportunities designed to promote professional competence and affiliation.
Curriculum
The course curriculum at the clinic is a major aspect of training and is organized to promote sequential learning for students while they are immersed in the experience of managing psychotherapy cases. Throughout the year the clinic staff offers a series of classes and seminars on various psychotherapy topics. Past offerings have included courses on: Basic Psychodynamic Theory and Therapy, Attachment and Empathy, Transference, Counter-transference, Personality Disorders, Couples Therapy, Cross-Cultural Competence, Resistance, Dreams, Anxiety, and other clinical or theoretical issues of importance. The classes are regularly scheduled on Thursday morning, are taught by the Hamm Clinic staff, and are attended by the clinic trainees and practicing clinicians from the community.
In-services and Conferences
Organized learning for students and staff is also provided by way of monthly in-services which are taught by outside professionals who are invited to the clinic for continuing education. Additionally, the Clinic sponsors at least one conference during the year featuring a nationally recognized speaker. All psychology students in training are expected to attend the conferences.
Time Commitment and Stipend
The Pre-Doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology at Hamm Clinic is a 2000 hour training requirement that involves a one year, full-time commitment of on site training. The intern can arrange to take clinic scheduled holidays and approximately 2 weeks of vacation time. Psychology students are also allowed two hours per week to work on their dissertations or to work on research of their choice.
The specific expectations of the internship and arrangement of time and training content must be approved by Hamm Clinic, the student, and the graduate school program.
Selection Process
The Pre-Doctoral Internship Program participates in the APPIC match and require that applicants participate in the match as well. We accept applicants from clinical and counseling programs. All applications are reviewed by at least two staff members. Applicants are notified by e-mail of interview status. There is a preference for in-person interviews although phone interviews are acceptable. The program looks for applicants who are interested in adult psychotherapy in an out-patient setting and who have expressed interest in a psychodynamic/relational theoretical orientation. There are also expectations that before the onset of the internship, applicants will have had experience in use of the MMPI-2. Applicants are also expected to have had passed their comprehensive examinations and have had their dissertation proposal approved by the onset of the internship. Interns are expected to have completed both a therapy and an assessment practicum by the start of the internship. We require that interns have a minimum of 100 hours conducting adult psychotherapy. We also expect that students will have a minimum of 350 direct service practicum hours at the point of applying to the program and a minimum of 600 direct service practicum hours prior to starting the internship.
Inquiry
Inquiries regarding the Pre-Doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology should be addressed to: Robert Mantell, PhD, LP, Associate Director of Psychology Training, Hamm Memorial Psychiatric Clinic, 408 St. Peter Street, Suite 429, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55102-1119. E-mail: rmantell@hammclinic.org. Further information about the clinic, application processes, deadlines, etc., are also available in the APPIC handbook of training sites and the on-line directory.
Hamm Clinic is committed to fully utilizing our human resources through a policy of equal employment opportunity. We will not knowingly discriminate on the basis of any legally-protected category, including race, age, color, religion, creed, sex, marital status, national origin, handicap / disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, public assistance, or membership or activity in a local commission.
*Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
(T) 202-336-5979 (F) 202-336-5978