APPIC Special Notice: This Internship Program has been a Member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) since APPIC’s founding in 1990, and conducts intern selection in accordance with the policies and procedures of APPIC. This 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 prior to Uniform Notification Day.
Navy Psychology Training and Practice:
Since few of our interns have had prior military experience, all attend the five week Officer Development School at Newport, Rhode Island prior to arrival at an internship site. This school includes didactic presentations on the history, traditions, and organization of the Navy. Instruction is designed to provide new officers with the knowledge and skills necessary for professional conduct in the United States Navy.
We have learned from former interns that graduates of Navy internships typically report to a professional assignment that demands a higher level of independent responsibility and professionalism than his/her peers in civilian practice. Our faculty has identified, and continues to develop, learning experiences aimed at imparting the skills necessary for effective professional performance at the next Navy assignment. These experiences are organized into a dynamic curriculum which embodies the principles set forth in the current Standards of Accreditation of the American Psychological Association.
There are a number of ways in which the general professional skills imparted through the internship can be operationally described. The Navy Clinical Psychology Internship Program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has adopted the profession-wide competencies outlined in APA’s Standards of Accreditation (2015) to include competencies related to: research; ethical and legal standards; individual and cultural diversity, professional values, attitudes, and behaviors; communication and interpersonal skills; assessment; intervention; supervision; and consultation.
The experiential clinical activities reflect the major areas in which military clinical psychologists may provide clinical services: Adult Outpatient Behavioral Health, Health Psychology (to include integrated behavioral health services in a primary care setting), Inpatient assessment and intervention, and Psycho-diagnostic Assessment. The profession-wide and program-specific competencies can be found in Appendix B.
Operational training trips enable the intern to experience professional activities, patient populations and service environments consistent with the work of a Navy psychologist. The trans-rotation experience offers longer-term practice of psychotherapy across the entire 12 months of training.
Following the internship, graduates are assigned to Navy medical centers or medium sized hospitals where they continue to practice under supervision until they attain licensure in one of the fifty states or the District of Columbia. Once licensed, they are able to be credentialed as a Licensed Independent Provider by the commanding officer of the medical facility to which he or she is assigned. All internship graduates are expected to achieve state licensure within 18 months of internship graduation. Ultimately, we encourage our graduates to earn Board Certification from the American Boards of Professional Psychology. To reward this process of
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