Psychology Internship Program Newark, New Jersey

APA-accredited doctoral internship providing supervised clinical training across five psychology specialty tracks.

Welcome to the Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care Doctoral Psychology Internship Program. We appreciate your interest in our APA-accredited internship program. Below you will find important documents and resources to learn more about our training experiences, application process, and program policies. We encourage you to review these materials as you explore whether our program is the right fit for your professional and clinical training goals.

Two people speaking with a behavioral health professional during a counseling session.

Adult – Outpatient Track

The adult track intern meets core requirements in both the Adult Acute Partial Hospital Program and the Adult Outpatient Services units of Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) in Newark. The adult track intern is expected to have some experience with the entire adult age range during the course of the program. The adult intern may participate in elective rotations of an adult or child focus, at UBHC, UCHC, or at University Hospital.

Within the Adult Track, there is a heavy emphasis on working with seriously and persistently mentally ill adults, as well as clients who have histories of trauma. Interns learn about the multiple psychological, medical, and social needs of this population, and work with clients across the continuum of care.

The adult track intern participates in the full didactic program, along with interns from the other tracks.

Three young adults smiling and talking together while walking indoors.

Child Track

Child track interns focus on work with children, adolescents, and families. The child track interns are expected to have clinical experiences across the child and adolescent age span in the course of the program. Core requirements are met in Child and Adolescent Outpatient Services of Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) at Newark. Elective rotations may be taken in adult and child programs at UBHC, UCHC, or at University Hospital.

Within the child track, there is a heavy emphasis on working with the multiple systems that affect the lives of children in our community. Interns learn to work with the school system, the legal system, the child protective system, and the public child behavioral health system.

The child track intern shares year-long didactic experiences with interns from the other tracks and participates in a monthly child seminar.

Counselor taking notes while one person comforts another during a counseling session.

Integrated Primary Care Track

The six positions within this track are funded by a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant. Interns within this track will complete their major rotations at the New Jersey Medical School (NJMS) Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) which offers primary care services to the community of Newark, New Jersey or Student Health Services at Doctors Office Center in Newark, New Jersey. Trainees interested in working with a multidisciplinary team of healthcare providers in primary care medical settings, who also have interest in pediatric care, or substance use disorder treatment, will be a good match for this track. The Interns on the IPC track will provide behavioral medicine interventions for patients in primary care. Consults will include care for depression, anxiety, trauma, sleep disorders, substance use, chronic health conditions such as diabetes, and lifestyle management (e.g., changes to health behaviors such as nutrition and physical exercise). Interns on this track will train in settings with other disciplines including physicians, nurses and advance practice nurses, physician assistants, social workers and psychiatrists.

Students in a classroom raising their hands while a teacher leads a lesson at the front of the room.

Child/Adolescent School-Based Track

This program is a unique collaboration between Rutgers UBHC and Dover School District, a small, suburban community in a culturally diverse school district in northern New Jersey. The program is funded through a collaboration between Department of Children and Families grant money and the school district, which allows for the students to receive mental health services within the school at no cost to them. This allows individuals who would otherwise not seek services to receive quality mental health therapy.

This opportunity allows the intern to see students in the setting where they spend the majority of their day and provides them access to a number of individuals that play a significant role in the child’s life – teachers, counselors and child study team. This position is not a typical school counseling internship in that the intern is not on the child study team. It is a highly clinical role where the intern will work with the most at-risk students within the school, providing individual, group and family counseling, as well as participating in crisis assessments for individuals presenting as suicidal, homicidal or actively psychotic.

Additional Services provided by interns include: evaluation and assessment; multidisciplinary team participation; faculty and parent training, consultation with other mental health staff; and participation in school and community advocacy groups. The intern will be predominantly located within the Dover High School. Every effort is made to provide the intern with a culturally, clinically and socioeconomically diverse caseload.

A large correctional facility with a central domed building surrounded by high perimeter walls and security fencing.

Correctional Track

Correctional track interns meet their core requirements at Rutgers University Correctional Health Care (UCHC), a subsidiary of UBHC. Rutgers UCHC operates all mental health services in the state prison system. Settings for the correctional track internship (or for correctional electives) include Northern State Prison (NSP, for men) in Newark, Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton (EMCFW), the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center (ADTC, for sex offenders) in Avenel, and New Jersey State Prison (NJSP) in Trenton. If ADTC is a selected rotation, it is typically for a half-year, and the other six months would be completed at NSP or EMCFW.

The four correctional track positions are reserved for interns with a particular interest in working with clients within the correctional system and offers opportunities to work with the full range of behavioral difficulties in both male and female populations. Interns develop a first-hand appreciation of the interface of psychology and correctional/forensic issues, and how these impinge on both clients and staff in this setting. Working in the prisons for 3 days per week, correctional/forensic track interns complete a half-year outpatient experience, and a half-year partial hospital/inpatient experience, which includes a sub-rotation at acute crisis/stabilization unit, where there are frequent opportunities to assess for suicide. Intake assessments are conducted at inpatient rotations.

APA Accredited Internship in Health Service Psychology

Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care, the mental health service delivery component of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, sponsors an APA-approved full-time paid doctoral internship program in clinical psychology on its Newark campus. This program works collaboratively with the Department of Psychiatry at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.