Adler Community Health Services

Adler Community Health Services

Adler Community Health Services (ACHS) provides psychological services to underserved populations through its clinical training programs. ACHS training programs include the Adler Community Mental Health Doctoral Internship in Clinical Psychology as well as psychotherapy and diagnostic assessment externships (practica). The internship is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) and is a member of the Association of Psychology Post-doctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC).

Interns and externs offer clinical services at and through community-based partnerships. Trainees are assigned to particular community sites based on their interests, training and educational needs, and abilities. In addition to providing direct clinical service, trainees receive individual, group, and peer supervision; participate in case management and case disposition meetings; and attend didactic workshops and seminars.

ACHS also offers the Adler Juvenile Justice Doctoral Internship and the Adler Juvenile Justice advanced practicum through a partnership with the Illinois Youth Center - St. Charles.

Services provided in the community through community partnerships include individual, group, family, and couples psychotherapy; neuropsychological, personality, and cognitive ability assessment; support groups; parenting classes; consultation; and psycho-educational programs.

ACHS's programs and services are designed to assist children, adolescents, adults, couples, families, and groups in dealing with personal issues including marital/family problems, depression, anxiety, stress, school adjustments, family conflict, partner distress, grief/loss, substance abuse, and other emotional/psychological issues. In the spirit of socially responsible practice, ACHS reaches out and provides services to underserved and disadvantaged populations. ACHS's psychological services are primarily provided by master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral students under the supervision of licensed staff clinical psychologists. Additional supervision may be provided by consultants or individuals holding supervisory responsibility at community partner locations.

ACHS's APA Accredited Internship

The program is exclusively affiliated with the Adler School of Professional Psychology (i.e., only Adler School students are eligible to apply) and includes rotations through several community-based partnership sites that provide training at primary care clinics serving the homeless, HIV affected persons, and those struggling with poverty, at residential rehabilitation facilities for formerly incarcerated men and women, adult transition centers for incarcerated men in a work-release program, and an elementary school for children and families living in a low income community. Through these rotational experiences interns become competent in the areas of clinical intervention, diagnostic assessment, professional development, multicultural issues, and professional ethics and standards. The primary objective of the program is to prepare interns to become entry-level clinical psychologists.

The APA-accredited internship program offers five full-time positions and one part-time position for Adler School students. The internship begins in September and ends one year later. The part-time position occurs over two consecutive years.

Interns are trained by a team of diverse and well-qualified Illinois licensed clinical psychologists. The core training team includes the Director of Clinical Training and five staff psychologists. The current core training staff includes:

• Dan Barnes, Ph.D. (Director and Chief Psychologist)
• Shannon Allegretti, Psy.D. (Staff Psychologist)  
• Michael Hakimi, Psy.D. (Staff Psychologist)
• Mary Pfeiffer, Ph.D. (Staff Psychologist)
• Jennifer Schmidt, Psy.D. (Staff Psychologist)
• Daniel A. Vogel, Psy.D. (Staff Psychologist)

Intern Compensation
 

• $23,000 Annual Stipend (Part-time Intern $11,500)
• Health Insurance
• Two Weeks Paid Vacation (Part-time Intern One Week)
• Audit up to Three Courses

Training Model

Professional psychology has been defined by Adler Community Health Services as the application of psychological knowledge and skills to forward the improvement of the human condition in the broadest sense with an emphasis on the direct delivery of professional services, including the design, implementation, and evaluation of assessment and change strategies as they are applied to individuals, families, groups, couples, and organizations.

The internship uses the practitioner-scholar model of training as articulated by the National Council of Schools and Programs in Professional Psychology (NCSPP). Throughout training, the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitude in competency areas established by NCSPP is emphasized. The seven NCSPP competencies include:

1. Therapeutic relationship
2. Psychological assessment
3. Therapeutic intervention
4. Research/evaluation
5. Consultation/education
6. Management/supervision 
7. Diversity

In addition to the NCSPP competencies, the internship adds two more:

1. Adlerian competency (based on the School’s and internship’s tradition)
2. Socially responsible practice competency

Program Objectives

Based on this model and to achieve the program goal, the program provides training and experiences to achieve the following objectives:  

1. Knowledge of and skill in relational therapeutics both as necessary and sufficient means of engaging and helping others   
2. Knowledge of and skill in a range of intervention theories and methods; knowledge of and skill in case conceptualization and treatment planning; knowledge of and skill in progress note taking, report writing, and record keeping
3. Knowledge of and skill in the design, administration, scoring, analysis and report writing of cognitive, personality, and neuropsychological assessments
4. The integration of science and practice using the local clinical scientist model
5. Knowledge of and skill in consultation and community education
6. Knowledge of and skill in administrative and peer clinical supervision as well as peer mentorship
7. Knowledge of and sensitivity to individual and cultural diversity
8. Knowledge of and skill in key Adlerian concepts and principles, including early recollections and lifestyle assessment
9. Knowledge and appreciation of treating a person holistically and in his or her context (extra psychic factors that contribute to good or ill health)

Internship Training Activities

Interns provide service, receive supervision, and participate in other meetings and seminars throughout the internship. Services are provided at community sites. Community sites are grouped into thematic rotations. Current rotations include: Primary Care Services, Forensic Services, and Child and Family Services. An additional rotation, Services for Elders, will be developed within the next year.

Typical Weekly Schedule For Full-Intern
Primary Care Services	16 hours per week (approximately 10 cases)
Forensic and/or Child/Family Services	16 hours per week (approximately 10 cases)
Assessment/Testing	Minimum of 6 full batteries

Supervision

Each intern is assigned two supervising psychologists. The intern will meet one hour per week for supervision with each of the two supervisors. The intern’s primary supervisor is responsible for 70% of psychotherapy cases. The secondary supervisor (Internship Director) is responsible for 30% of psychotherapy cases and supervision of the intern’s supervision of their extern team.

Supervision
Individual Supervision (1 hour with 2 different supervising psychologists)	2 hours per week
Director’s Meeting	1 hour per week
Case Disposition/Coordination	1 hour per week

Seminars
Socially Responsible Practice	12 one hour sessions
Adlerian Theory and Practice	12 one hour sessions
Clinical Supervision	12 one hour sessions
Program Evaluation	12 one hour sessions

Other Meetings
Extern Supervision/Mentorship	3 hours per week
Therapy Didactic	10 one hour sessions
Therapy Case Conference	10 one hour sessions
Assessment Didactic and Case Conference	Supervisor Discretion
Dissertation Completion	4 hours per week

Part-Time Intern

Since there are many internship candidates who have unique life situations that make a full-time internship a significant hardship, the program created a part-time internship to address this diversity issue.

The part-time intern will experience the same program activities as the full-time intern, only over a 24 month period as opposed to the full-time intern’s 12 month period. Service hours will be proportionate to the overall hour commitment for the year. Seminars and other meetings (including Director’s Meeting and Case Disposition/Triage) will be sequenced and divided over two years. Extern supervision/mentorship will maintain over two years as will two psychologist supervisors for individual supervision. 

Since the internship is cumulative and sequential, performance expectations increase proportionately, i.e., performance expectations for the full-time intern at four months would be equivalent to performance expectations for the part-time intern at 8 months. 

Applying for the Internship

All prospective interns should submit the following documents to ACHS:

1. Letter of intent summarizing interest in psychology, experience, training, internship training goals, and reasons for applying to the program
2.  APPIC Application for Psychology Internships (AAPI)
3. Current curriculum vitae
4. Official transcripts of all graduate work
5. Letters of recommendation from at least three professionals who are familiar with you and your work, including two letters from clinical placement supervisors
6. A letter of eligibility from the applicant's director of clinical training

Selection Procedure

A staff psychologist and current intern will rate each applicant’s submitted materials. After all applicants have been so rated, the Director and staff psychologists will discuss all applications toward determining a list of applicants who will be invited to interview. Those invited to interview will be interviewed by the Director, a staff psychologist and a current intern. After all interviews have been completed the Director and staff psychologists will determine the rank list for submission to the APPIC match program. 

Internship offers are made in compliance with APPIC guidelines. The internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.

Accreditation

The Doctoral Internship Program at Adler Community Health Services is accredited by the American Psychological Association.  The Commission on Accreditation of the APA can be contacted at:

Commission on Accreditation
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 First St. NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
(202) 336-5979