The Goodman Psychological Services Center’s (GPSC) Doctoral Internship Consortium Program has been evolving throughout the years and has made significant changes as it improves the depth and breadth of its training. The program requires the completion of 2,000 hours and grants Doctoral Interns with a greater level of autonomy and responsibility by fostering independent functioning as a practicing professional.  The Internship program offers advanced graduate students in clinical psychology a range of experiences upon which to build their theoretical and applied clinical skills.  These include opportunities to work with culturally diverse clients and provide psychotherapeutic interventions to improve the overall psychological well-being of a variety of mental conditions, which include but are not limited to the following conditions: depression, anxiety, trauma-related disorders, adjustment disorders, behavioral disorders, relationship and communication problems, parent-child issues, personality disorders, bereavement/grief issues, and others.  Interns also have opportunities to conduct diagnostic evaluations and learn a variety of treatment approaches.  Seminars and didactic trainings enhance developing skills while Interns simultaneously serve as mentors/supervisors to practicum students. Interns also provide consultation and demonstrate their ability to critically evaluate research and relevant literature in the field of psychology as they apply them to presentations and to treatment options.

In October 2015, the Internship program further expanded its training program and became a consortium as it began a partnership with Camillus House & Health, Inc., an established and long-standing agency in the South Florida community. Camillus House & Health provides humanitarian and health care services to men, women and children who are poor and homeless in Miami-Dade County. As a ministry of the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God, Camillus was originally established to serve Cuban exiles. Camillus has now grown into a full service organization offering a comprehensive “system of care” including food, clothing, emergency, transitional and permanent housing, physical and mental health care, and substance abuse treatment.

Currently, the GPSC’s Internship program has 6 full-time internship slots available each year, and the consortium site, Camillus House & Health, has 2 full-time internship slots available each year. Full-time is defined as (40 to 44 hours per week) generating a total of 2,000 hours over a 12-month period. Goodman Center Interns complete their entire internship at the Goodman Center Clinic, while the Camillus Interns complete their entire internship at Camillus House & Health. Camillus interns will either complete an entire year in the inpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment facility or in the outpatient medical and mental health services unit. Consideration has been given to the possibility in the future for the interns to do rotations, but currently this is not in place yet. Both Goodman Center and Camillus House Interns participate weekly in 1-hour group supervision and 2-hour didactic seminars at the Goodman center. Group supervision is led by a licensed psychologist, and didactics are either led by psychologists or experts in the filed related to the topic.  In addition, both Camillus House and Albizu University provide didactic trainings throughout the year at their respective sites, and all interns are welcomed to attend. Trainings provided at Camillus during internship include: ethical and legal implications, psychological testing, knowledge of medications, service delivery, working with culturally diverse populations, religious and spiritual diversity, and individual differences related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered populations.

Since its inception, the GPSC’s doctoral internship program had been exclusively reserved for Carlos Albizu University doctoral-level students who were interested in applying for a full time position. However, effective for the class of 2017-2018, the internship program will no longer be exclusively reserved for CAU students, but will open nationally to all graduate students who come from an APA accredited clinical psychology doctoral program.

GPSC is a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) and abides by its guidelines. The Goodman Center Internship program was granted “Eligible Status” on 8/18/15 by the American Psychological Association’s Commission on Accreditation (CoA).  Eligible status means that the internship program has made public notice of its intent to seek full accreditation in the next 2 years. At the present time, the program has been working diligently in the writing of its self-study and will be submitted to CoA by September 1, 2016. The self-study will then undergo an extensive review by CoA, who will then decide on a subsequent site visit. Once a site visit has been granted and completed (hopefully in 2017), the internship program will then await response and feedback from CoA regarding the granting of accreditation.