McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School Internship in Clinical Psychology for 2027-2028

Electives

The internship offers diverse training opportunities in both generalist and specialized settings. The three tracks include:

Adult General Tracks (6 intern positions available)

Interns in the Adult General Track will devote approximately 80 percent of their time to yearlong intensive clinical training working with a full spectrum of adult psychopathology in the McLean Behavioral Health Partial Hospital Program (BHP). This experience will be augmented by individual and group supervision, specialized seminars and didactics, and elective rotations that may include research opportunities as well as long-term psychotherapy experience in McLean’s outpatient clinics.

The primary clinical training site for the Adult General Track, the BHP is an insurance-based, multi-disciplinary, psychosocial milieu treatment program that serves the needs of patients from every major diagnostic category in DSM-5. The BHP provides empirically informed treatments that are adapted to the current state of hospital-based psychiatric care. Approximately 800 patients are served annually (~70 admissions per month). Approximately 50% of patients are referred from the McLean inpatient units, with the remainder coming from local hospitals, community mental health centers, private practitioners, and self-referrals. A small, albeit significant, percentage comes out-of-state to McLean for specialized treatment.

The BHP's mission is to help individuals develop skills to improve functioning, mood, and quality of life and to better cope with life circumstances. To achieve this mission, the BHP uses primarily CBT, DBT, and ACT-based approaches for a wide range of problems such as mood and anxiety disorders, personality disorders, thought disorders, and dual diagnoses.

Interns are considered to be crucial members of the multi-disciplinary treatment team. Within the BHP, interns engage in a variety of professional activities, including:

• Serving as individual program therapists.
• Leading and co-leading group therapy.
• Providing supervision to practicum students or community residence counselors.
• Participating in multidisciplinary team rounds as well as program therapy rounds.
• Engaging in ongoing or new research at the BHP.

Interns also have the opportunity to complete elective rotations across many of McLean's renowned programs. These rotations may include:

• Clinical Case Management.
• College Mental Health Program and Office of Engagement and Enrichment (Joint Rotation).
• Geriatric Psychiatry Division.
• Psychotic Disorders Division.
• McLean Trauma Continuum.
• McLean Obsessive Compulsive Disorders Institute.
• Klarmann Eating Disorders Program.
• Clinical Evaluation Center (adult crisis evaluation).
• Alcohol, Drug and Addiction Treatment Program.
• On Track First Episode Psychosis Clinic (year-long rotation).
• Suicide Prevention Rotation.
• McLean Anxiety Mastery Program (ages 6-19).
• 3East DBT Day Program (ages 14-20).
• OCD for Children and Adolescents (ages 10-18).
• Mentalization Based Therapy Program.

Additionally, interns can choose to complete a research elective with one of the ~400 Principal Investigators at McLean Research.

Please see the brochure for full track description.

Adult PTSD Track (1 intern position available)

The adult PTSD position is designed to provide comprehensive training in working with individuals impacted by various types of trauma and related disorders across multiple trauma-focused treatment settings. Across residential, partial-hospitalization, and outpatient settings, this intern will receive training in trauma-focused assessment and consultation, group skills-focused therapy focused on initial stabilization and symptom management, evidence-based trauma processing therapies (including Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, Written Exposure Therapy), and treatment of trauma-related and/or comorbid conditions, including substance use disorders and dissociative disorders. In addition, 4-6 hours per week will be dedicated to trauma-related research under the mentorship of Dr. Kerry Ressler in the Neurobiology of Fear Laboratory, or another PTSD researcher at McLean. Remaining time will be spent in individual and group supervision, interdisciplinary treatment team meetings, didactics, and supporting activities. While the amount of time spent in different clinical sites may be varied, the intern will engage in clinical training and research work across the following sites:

• The LEADER (Law Enforcement, Active Duty, Emergency Responder) Residential Program for first responders.
• The LEADER MAST (Mood, Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma) Outpatient Clinic.
• The Trauma Continuum at Hill Center, including partial hospitalization and outpatient programs.
• The Neurobiology of Fear Laboratory with Dr. Kerry Ressler.

Please see the brochure for full track description.

Child Psychiatry Tracks (3 intern positions available)

The Child/Adolescent Psychiatry Track includes three specific tracks and positions, each with a different area of focus and specialized training. In addition, each track includes a research component and appropriate protected time.

Child/Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Disorders Track

In this track, the intern will spend the year at the OCD Institute for Children & Adolescents (OCDI Jr). The intern will spend approximately 32 hours at the OCDI Jr, 3-5 hours in research-protected time, and 4 hours in supervision, meetings, and seminars.

Thus, nearly 80% of an intern’s weekly face-to-face hours will be devoted to providing treatment. The intern will gain experience in the following domains:

• Training and practice of exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy through participation at OCDI JR.
• Training and practice in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which promotes a willingness to accept difficult thoughts and emotions, instead of avoiding, and increasing motivation to engage in treatment.
• Conducting individual, group, and family therapy within a specialized treatment program.
• Experience conducting safety evaluations and crisis intervention plans.
• Training in some of the dialectical behavioral therapy skills with the goal of providing skills coaching to patients in need.
• A wide variety of didactic special topic seminars.
• Comprehensive clinical and research supervision.

The OCD Institute for Children and Adolescents OCD (OCDI Jr) is a state-of-the art residential treatment program for children ages 12-18 with OCD and related disorders. The residential program allows children to live on the premises and receive intensive treatment in both individual and group settings. This program is designed for children with moderate to severe OCD and comorbid conditions who have had limited access or success with past treatment. At OCDI Jr., we value a collaborative approach with children and families taking an active role as members of the treatment team. OCDI Jr. utilizes evidence-based treatment, including exposure and response prevention (ERP), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) as part of multi-modal treatment with medication therapy.

Child/Adolescent Acute and Intensive Services for General Psychopathology Track

In this track, the intern will spend the first 8 months at the McLean SouthEast Acute Residential Treatment Program (ART) and the Partial Hospital Program providing treatment to adolescents with anxiety or mood disorders. These programs rely on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy as a core treatment modality. During these months, the intern will spend 26-28 hours in the ART/PHP, 3-5 hours of protected-time research, and 4 hours in supervision, meetings and seminars.

The intern will spend the last 4 months at the McLean SouthEast adolescent inpatient unit, gaining experience with safety and crisis evaluation and working with suicidal or highly acute patients. During these 4 months the intern will spend 28-30 hours in the inpatient unit (with a combination of direct care, didactics, and meetings), 3-5 hours of protected-time research, and 4 hours in supervision.

Nearly 80% of the weekly intern’s face-to-face hours will come from treatment provided at the different therapeutic programs.

The intern will gain experience in the following domains:

• Conducting psychological assessments, including projective measures.
• Specific training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.
• Providing individual therapy and family therapy.
• Leading and co-leading therapeutic groups.
• Crisis evaluation and safety assessment.
• Development of treatment plans.

The McLean Adolescent Acute Residential Treatment Program (ART) and associated partial hospital program (PHP) are located at the McLean SouthEast Isaac Street campus. The ART is a 22-bed, short-term residential treatment program and the in-person PHP currently has up to 12 patients enrolled. Both programs serve a population of culturally and diagnostically diverse adolescents, across spectrums of gender and sexuality. Patients experience a variety of psychiatric and psychosocial challenges, including suicidal and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors, mood and anxiety disorders, substance misuse, psychosis, and trauma reactivity. Treatment is intensive and multidimensional and typically lasts about two weeks. The program's primary modality is DBT.

The McLean adolescent inpatient program treats adolescents up to 19 years old, of all developmental abilities and diagnostic categories. The breadth of the treatment population on the inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric program and the corresponding ability to individualize high quality psychiatric crisis care are defining characteristics of the program. Multidisciplinary assessment and crisis intervention on the inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric unit consists of expert diagnostic assessment, psychopharmacological treatment, and mobilization of the child’s family and support system. Program goals include the restoration of safety and successful continuation of treatment and recovery outside of the hospital setting. These goals must be met rapidly, within the typical parameters of managed care.

Child/Adolescent Emotion Dysregulation and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy Track

The intern will spend the training year at the 3East Partial Hospital Program running groups and carrying cases. The intern will be fully trained in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and will be providing skills coaching to patients, running therapy groups and participating in meetings and didactics. There will be a total of 32 clinical hours at the partial, 3-5 hours of protected-research time, 4 hours of supervision, additional meetings and seminars. Nearly 90% of the weekly intern’s face-to-face hours will come from treatment provided at the different therapeutic programs.

The intern will gain experience in the following domains:

• Implementation of adherent and comprehensive DBT.
• Effective identification of target behaviors and development of treatment plans to address complex clinical presentations.
• Conducting individual and family DBT therapy.
• Family DBT interventions.

The 3East PHP focuses exclusively on teaching the core curriculum developed by Marsha Linehan in her Skills Training Manual. Our population includes adolescents and young adults (ages 14- early 20’s) who are emotionally stable enough to live at home while receiving their treatment. The PHP specifically targets four skill areas: (1) tolerating and managing distress, (2) using effective interpersonal skills, (3) learning ways to regulate emotions more effectively, and (4) using mindfulness skills to accurately identify emotions, thoughts and urges as well as to remain in the present moment. The goal of the DBT PHP is to assist the students LEARN and GENERALIZE the skills to their home, social, and school life. We work with the students and their families to use the skills so they can avoid hospitalization and ultimately to live a life worth living.

The DBT program is a 4–6-week treatment program that also incorporates a parent skills group weekly, skills coaching for students and parents as they are learning to use the DBT skills, individual therapy two times per week, family therapy sessions weekly, and psychopharmacological consultation with a psychiatrist.

The interns will receive the following experiences:

• Training in dialectical behavioral therapy.
• Running therapeutic groups.
• Participation in consultation team.
• Carrying 1-2 patients’ cases at a time, which includes developing a treatment plan, collaborating with schools, outpatient providers, and state agencies, to facilitate disposition planning.
• Participation in research meeting to collaborate on various program research projects.
• Providing mentorship to younger trainees.

Research Component for all Child/Adolescent Internship tracks

Each track is complemented by a year-long participation in one or more of our research opportunities. Interns will be “off the clinical floor” on Wednesdays where they will have research meetings and protected time to complete their research projects.