Clinical and Didactic Training Activities

Primary Rotations

All adult psychology interns will spend their year in both inpatient and outpatient settings throughout the week. These settings are designed to align with four specific focus areas (all listed on the APPIC Site):

• Serious and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI): This emphasis focuses on serving SPMI populations, ranging from acute to chronic. 
• Health Psychology: This emphasis involves working with medically complex populations, including chronic illness, pain, and disability.
• Deaf Wellness: This emphasis focuses on serving the Deaf/Hard of hearing populations. The intern must be fluent in ASL to be eligible. For more information about the Deaf Wellness program at URMC, you can view this recent Grand Rounds presentation here
• Lazos Fuertes: This emphasis focuses on serving our community's spanish speaking population. The intern must be fluent in Spanish to be eligible.

Psychology interns function as full members of a multidisciplinary team across inpatient and outpatient settings and participate in interdisciplinary meetings. Caseloads are tailored to personal learning goals and with an effort to ensure exposure to patients with diverse cultural backgrounds, clinical presentations, and needs. Individual supervision occurs with faculty as well as community clinicians when available. Options for group psychotherapy training and practice is also offered in select clinical settings.

Elective Experiences (as available)

Electives are designed to provide interns with exposure to clinical settings and populations they may be curious about or have had limited opportunities to engage with thus far. While our primary focus areas offer robust training, not all interns may have room in their schedules for elective experiences due to the intensive nature of their primary training. However there are opportunities for electives, primarily clinical in nature, as schedules permit. Research electives are also offered as available and as the interns schedule allows.

Elective rotations are subject to change and new offerings may be made in the future.

Examples of previously offered clinical electives:

• Telehealth/Geriatrics: Telehealth interventions for aging populations in long-term care. Included multidisciplinary consultations and integrated care skills development.
• Pain Clinic: Specialty outpatient clinic for chronic pain populations
• OCD Clinic: Specialty outpatient clinic for OCD Populations
• Advanced Group Therapy: Outpatient group psychotherapy with a focus on DBT.

Examples of previously offered Research Electives:

• CBT to Reduce Loneliness in Opioid Use Disorder: Pilot study with Dr. Lisham Ashrafioun on CBT-L's impact on loneliness and drug use. Involved delivering interventions and contributing to research outputs.
• Telehealth in Geriatric Oncology: MAAT-G Interventions for older adults with breast cancer vis telehealth. Included enhancing coping skills and participating in related research with Drs. Allison Magnuson and Lauren DeCaporale-Ryan.
• Disability Identity Development in Early Spinal Cord Injury/Disease: Pilot study with Dr. Renee Madathil examining the trajectory of identity.

Didactics / Structured Training Experiences

• Advanced Topics in Psychology Series. The overall goals of this seminar are to enhance clinical fund of knowledge and general therapy skills, highlight interventions and population specific issues, and build competency in delivering select empirically based treatment for adults. Examples include psychotherapeutic interventions for suicide prevention, including Problem-Solving Therapy (PST) and Dialectal Behavior Therapy (DBT), OCD treatments such as CBT and ERP, and CBT-I for insomnia.
• Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds, (weekly 1-2 hours). This weekly forum features research and clinical presentations by local, regional, and national experts in selected areas of psychiatry and psychology. In addition, our Office of Diversity, Inclusion, Culture and Equity hosts several presentations to maintain a steady focus on celebrating diversity and engaging in anti-racist activities. Occasionally, the speaker will meet with interdisciplinary trainees for an extra discussion session. Interns may also choose to attend other Grand Rounds relevant to their training goals (i.e., Primary Care, and Public Health Sciences).
• Professional Development Seminar, (some meetings combined with fellows). This seminar features a wide range of topics pertaining to both professional and academic development presented by selected psychology faculty, including community-based psychologists. Topics include Psychologists in Medical Centers, Diverse Career Paths of Psychologists, Fellowship and Job Search Strategies, and Psychologists as Administrators.
• Multicultural Case Conference (8-10 sessions, 1 hour). The overall goal of this seminar is to increase cultural awareness and sensitivity of psychology trainees via the lens of the APA Cultural Formulation Interview, with trainees presenting clinical case conceptualizations using the APA Cultural Formulation Interview framework. Trainees will be able to (a) recognize their own cultural identities, (b) increase their knowledge, awareness, and skills in multiculturalism, (c) recognize their personal bias, and (d) better meet the needs of a diverse patient population. This seminar will help trainees become more aware of how culture impacts clinical work, research, and teaching. 
• Ethical and Legal Practices for Psychologists (6 sessions, includes court visit). The purpose of the seminar is to provide exposure to, and information about, the types of court-related experiences psychologists may encounter in practice. Each session is facilitated by experts from mental health and legal fields who present their perspectives on a topic, followed by Q&A and discussion. Relevant Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct will be discussed. Participants include clinical psychology trainees as well as law students for mutual learning about the ethical and legal issues experienced by both professions.
• Welcome to Rochester (6 hours). The overall goals of this two-part required learning activity are to: a) learn the story of the Haudenosaunee and honor their legacy and the contributions they have made over the last 2000 years to the arts, culture and society; b) enhance trainees’ understanding of the city of Rochester and the University of Rochester Medical Center’s historical context as it relates to racial/social injustice and how past and current policies impact people from historically marginalized groups today; and, c) appreciate and honor the diverse ways that individuals from historically under-represented groups have contributed to and continue to contribute to the community or Rochester. Trainees view a video and complete readings regarding the history of Rochester and current healthcare disparities and about influential Rochesterians. For the second part and then participate in a group meeting to share reflections. For the second part, trainees will meet at the Ganondagon historic site for a guided tour with reflection.
• Amplification and Allyship (6 hours). The overall goals of this learning activity are to: a) increase appreciation and awareness for how structural racism and systematic oppression impact members of historically marginalized groups; 2) amplify the voices/perspectives of members of historically marginalized groups and 3) provide ongoing opportunities for reflection on action and allyship. Trainees will view/listen to media that address structural racism/oppression of historically marginalized groups and social justice movements in various systems (e.g., health care, education, criminal justice) as well as content that highlights the vital importance of racial/cultural joy and then share reflections related to amplification and allyship in sharing/connecting circles.
• "SafeSide"(Suicide Prevention) Workshop (5 hours). The overall goal of this video-based education is to prepare trainees with the knowledge and skills needed to conduct person-centered, standard-of-care interviews, risk assessments, safety planning, documentation, and decisions with suicidal patients. 
• CPI: Verbal Intervention w/disengagement skills (Tier 3) (5.5 hours). Verbal Intervention training equips staff with the knowledge and skills to identify a person in crisis and verbally de-escalate disruptive behaviors. In addition to verbal de-escalation training, this curriculum includes training on how to block and move away from a strike.  This is a blended curriculum consisting of both an online component (1.5hrs) and in-person class (4hrs).
• Intimate Partner Violence and HEAL Collaborative (1 hour). This presentation reviews definitions of intimate partner, interpersonal, and domestic violence and summarizes biopsychosocial correlates.  It reviews special considerations related to telehealth, confidentiality,  documentation, safety, and provider wellness/self-care. Finally, it reviews community and URMC specific resources including the HEAL collaborative, the services provided, and how clinicians can access these services for their patients and themselves.
• Leadership Projects, 1-2 hrs/wk (10 months). Each intern, in conjunction with a faculty mentor, completes a leadership project focused on developing tailored approaches for education, intervention, prevention and evaluation initiatives in Psychology. Past projects have included: “Developing a brief curriculum on trauma, caregiver stress, and resilience of kinship caregivers,” and “Identifying an adaptation framework for a diabetes prevention program for individuals with severe mental illness”. Trainees present their leadership projects in June at the Department's interdisciplinary Education Poster Day. Please go to our Scholarly Activities page to view current and past projects.
• OPTIONAL: Assessment and Treatment of Eating Disorders (4 meetings, 12 hours). This elective opportunity is an interdisciplinary didactic series focusing on evaluation and evidence-based treatment of eating disorders, with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary treatment team functioning and planning.

Interns present their Leadership Projects at the Department’s Interdisciplinary Education Poster Day.