Child Clinical Psychology Elective

Interns in the Child Clinical Psychology Elective spend approximately half of their direct clinic services time in the Child Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic. This patient population is economically and culturally diverse and includes children and families with multiple psychological, social, and medical challenges. Typical referral problems include anxiety disorders, depression/mood disorders, ADHD and parenting difficulties. Interns obtain closely supervised experiences in individual child therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, parent guidance interventions and family therapy. There is frequent collaboration with child psychiatry fellows for treatment and case management. Intern caseloads are determined depending on their areas of interest and focus.

Additionally, interns have the option of gaining experience with special populations by choosing to complete up to two elective rotations over the course of the year including:

• Pediatric behavioral medicine: Seeing children who are referred by various pediatric medical services, including gastroenterology and endocrinology through the outpatient clinic with supervision by a pediatric psychologist.
• Dialectical behavior therapy: Co-leading a weekly DBT group for patients ages 12 to 18 years, attending weekly consultation group, weekly supervision with group leader and the option to see one group member in individual therapy.
• ARMS Program: Providing individual therapy and/ or co-leading parent groups for families of patients ages 14 to 22 with substance abuse related problems, attending clinic rounds, weekly group supervision.
• Transgender Health Program: Providing individual and/or family therapy to pediatric patients seen through the MGH Transgender Health Program with weekly group supervision.
• Early Intervention with Young Anxious Children: Evaluating and treating children ages 2-6 years who have shy or fearful temperament or anxiety disorders using family-based CBT, with weekly supervision.

Child interns have a minimum of 4 hours per week dedicated research time throughout the year to focus on activities such as participating in mentor-led research projects, publishing papers, and/or preparing grant applications for post-doctoral fellowship. There is a strong history of child interns collaborating on ongoing research projects within the department of psychiatry, within specialty areas of medicine (e.g., neurology, endocrinology, behavioral medicine), and within LEAP.

Interns committed to a career in academic research, as reflected by a strong record of publications and/or extramural grant funding, will receive mentorship further to develop their research skills, including through publication opportunities and guidance on preparing F32, K-level, or foundation grant applications. Interns who benefit most from these opportunities typically have their dissertation mostly or entirely finished prior to the start of internship. Interns may work with track directors to choose clinical rotations to allow for more time for research (up to 8 hours per week).

There are several opportunities to stay on after internship through T32s and intramural post-doctoral fellowships within MGH and Harvard.

Example faculty research interests include:

• Risk and resilience for youth suicide and depression
• Social media and ambulatory approaches (e.g., ecological momentary assessment and passive-sensing technology) for real-time assessment of mood and behavior
• Interventions for parents of very young children with anxiety
• Single-session intervention for child anxiety
• Development and evaluation of interventions for pediatric patients and families with chronic medical illness
• Executive function development and relationship to learning, emotional, and social functioning
• Defining and identifying learning disorders
• Impact of assessment on parent knowledge and ability to advocate for their children
• Genetic risk for neurodevelopmental disorders

In addition to the many opportunities for informal mentorship at MGH,

• Child interns are paired with a non-evaluative mentor for informal support throughout the year. Non-evaluative mentors are post-doctoral fellows or early career psychologists, often who have previously completed the child internship elective at MGH themselves.
• Child interns also meet 1 hour weekly, 3 of 4 weeks per month, with one or both child internship track co-directors for formal mentorship of the internship experience and planning for post-doctoral fellowship.