A wide range of formal didactic training experiences are offered as an integral part of the psychology internship training program. The training experiences are designed to build on prior experience and training and to provide new experiences that are sequential, cumulative and graded in complexity. Each training opportunity is developed to provide the intern with the knowledge necessary to obtain competency in the program specific goals and objectives. Didactic activities are also designed specifically to correspond and complement the interns’ comprehensive clinical experiences.

Because interns have already had their basic courses in psychological theory, the internship program concentrates on translating theory to applied work. However, interns participate in three to four hours per week of enriching didactic experiences.

Individual & Group Supervision

Each intern receives at least two hours of individual, face-to-face supervision, and two hours of group supervision per week. One group focuses on supervision of supervision and another group focuses on psychological assessment issues. Interns are expected to present cases, assessment tools and clinical intervention theories during group supervision. Supervisors may change according to the interns’ rotation.

Evidence Based Psychotherapy Seminar

During the 1st and 2nd quarter of the training year, interns participate in a weekly (1) hour professional training seminar examining advanced evidence based treatment, such as emotionally focused therapy (EFT) for couples. Interns are required to review and present one empirically supported treatment modality.

Faculty: Carlos Fayard, Ph.D.

Suicide Assessment and Risk Management Seminar

This is a combined class with 3rd year psychiatric residents that meets for weekly one hour sessions, during the third quarter of the training year.  It is heavily focused on developing clinical skills in the assessment and management of suicidal patients. This is a didactic course with discussion of experiences with suicidal patients, as by this time the interns and residents have been seeing outpatients for one semester. Training includes required reading, as well as both didactic and process materials; the course gradually becomes more practical and less theoretical.

Faculty: William Britt, Ph.D.

Diversity and the Spiritual Life Seminar

Interns participate in a year-long weekly (1) hour professional training seminar which combines clinical case presentations, didactic activities, scholarly inquiry, and ethical, legal, and clinical matters in the practice of professional psychology. Interns receive training on theories and methods of spiritual assessment and integration of spirituality into clinical practice, discuss literature, and conduct case presentations applying theory and research. 

Faculty: Carlos Fayard, Ph.D.

Professional Development Group

A weekly group devoted to issues that the intern faces when moving from the role of a student to that of an independent professional psychologist. The function of this group is to provide a setting in which interns can address issues of professional development, and discuss the potential development of any additional training opportunities based on the intern’s needs and experiences. One of the recurrent topics included in this group will be ongoing discussions regarding the intern’s progress in conducting a program evaluation; additional topics include overview of the medical/hospital culture, multidisciplinary team dynamics, identifying opportunities to develop and deliver lectures to professional and lay populations, involvement with research projects, applying for post-doctoral positions or first jobs, preparation for licensure and passing the licensure examination, how insurance affects practice, defining the first five years of one's career, and other topics of relevance to the current intern class. Topics are generally recurrent each month, so that the session during the first week of each month is focused on addressing current needs and difficulties interns may encounter, the second week is dedicated to a case presentation in which interns evidence the application of current scientific knowledge to practice, the third week session focuses on teaching, issues related to the selection of a new cohort, postdoctoral and licensure issues, the fourth week is dedicated to the presentation of a current journal article and discussion, and finally, if there is a fifth week, a topic of intern's choice is chosen and developed.

Faculty: Antonia Ciovica, Ph.D.

Case Conference

Interns present two 1-hour psychotherapy/assessment cases to other psychology trainees and staff psychologists over the course of the year. Interns will prepare a comprehensive case presentation and staff psychologists will collaboratively discuss the case and offer supervisory feedback.

Faculty: Antonia Ciovica, Ph.D.

Psychiatry Grand Rounds

Interns have the option to participate in a weekly (1) hour Grand Rounds led by psychiatry faculty which addresses the latest development in empirical research and treatment in mental health.

Faculty: Selected faculty from the Department of Psychiatry, and honorary guest speakers

Professional Conferences

Each year, LLU hosts a number of professional conferences, some of which are of great interest to psychologists and psychologists in training. Past examples of such conferences include an international conference on advancing a Christian worldview for generating, sustaining, and applying theory, research, and practice in the promotion of emotional health and wholeness, with presenters including Kenneth Pargament, Ph.D., Harold Koenig, M.D., Eric Johnson, Ph.D., Gary Burlingame, Ph.D., and Brent Slife, Ph.D., among many others (2011-2012), a series of lectures on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy presented by Marsha Linehan, Ph.D., ABPP (2010-2011), and a co-sponsored (LLU and Patton State Hospital) symposium focused on the latest developments in psychiatric research and treatment of severe and chronic mental illness (2009-2010).