Syracuse VA Medical Center Psychology Internship

This web site is intended for psychology interns who are considering VA for internships. Veterans can find VA health care information at the VISN 2 website. Program Components Psychology Internship Home The Medical Center The Program Psychology Faculty at the VAMC The Community – Syracuse Chamber of Commerce * Application Requirements Successful Completion of the Internship The Psychology Internship Program The Psychology Internship Program at Syracuse VA prepares interns for professional practice in a medical center or health services setting that serves primarily adults. There is a General Track and a specialty Rehabilitation Psychology Track. Graduates of our Internship program are well trained for employment as psychologists within the Department of Veterans Affairs. VA training staff are guided by the words of Abraham Lincoln who charged the nation "to care for him who shall have borne the battle," a mission and value that interns increasingly grow to appreciate throughout their internship training. Although many alumni have secured work within the VA healthcare system, we provide a broad training experience that may be applied to a wide range employment in health care settings. Several alumni have pursued academic careers as well, and we have a strong record of students securing post-doctoral fellowships. Training goals of this program include the development of entry-level competence in psychological assessment and intervention, as well as a thorough understanding of the role of science, ongoing evaluation, and influence of cultural and individual diversity in clinical practice. A distinguishing characteristic of this program is commitment to personal/professional development and healthy professional relationships. Specific learning objectives within each of these goals are listed on a separate webpage, "Successful Completion of the Internship." Philosophy of Training The Syracuse VA Internship strives to be balanced, integrative, and flexible in its approach to training students for independent practice as professional psychologists. These values are embodied in our approach to clinical and scholarly work, as well as training, and we seek to instill similar values in the personal and professional development of our interns. We aim to balance scientific and humanistic sensibilities as well as empirical and theoretical epistemology. We balance specialized training experiences with a strong grounding in the fundamentals of outpatient assessment and intervention. Our approach to training values mentorship and intensive supervision in a supportive atmosphere. There are many opportunities for formal supervision and ad-hoc meetings or "curb-side consultations," as supervisors are on-site and widely available. Balancing support with increasing independence, we follow a developmental model of transferring knowledge and skills; interns often have the chance to observe supervisors' clinical work, receive in-vivo-supervision and feedback, followed by increasingly independent practice. We value an integrative approach to clinical care and hope to inspire such treatment integration among our interns. In respecting multiple theoretical orientations, we provide a broad perspective within which to conceptualize psychopathology and its treatment. Our supervisors represent a wide range of theoretical orientations and treatment modalities; these include cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic/object relations, integrative, health psychology/behavioral medicine, brief therapy, and group therapy. We frequently emphasize an integrative approach to case conceptualization. We wish to provide interns with exposure to the best traditions of effective clinical practice and to instill an ability to adapt to the rigors of the changing health care environment. Interns receive instruction in empirically supported interventions, and supervision assists in adapting them to diverse patient characteristics and various treatment constraints. A number of forums exist in which the merits and applications of both empirical and theoretical articles are discussed and debated. We believe that interns learn respect for diversity by experiencing respect for their ideas and contributions. We strive to offer a supportive atmosphere for professional and personal growth among our interns and staff. Training is flexible and individualized to the particular needs of each intern, based on level of professional development and areas of interest/experience. Indeed, interns frequently have contributed to the medical center's mission by electing a "special project" rotation and developing a new treatment program.