Doctoral Internship in Psychology
University of Denver Health & Counseling Services is a part of the University Of Denver Graduate School Of Professional Psychology’s Internship Consortium which is accredited by the American Psychological Association. Thus, we only accept applicants from candidates who are students of GSPP. We offer a one year intensive psychology internship and accept 4 interns per year.
The HCC offers unique training experiences. In addition to the traditional services offered by a university counseling center, all interns training at DU will have opportunities to work with clients in the Employee Assistance Program, the College of Law, and the Women's College. Core activities include: individual, couples, and group counseling; crisis intervention/emergency services; prevention/consultation/outreach/ organizational development; assessment/psychological testing; training/supervision; applied research/quality assurance; and psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
Additionally, the Health & Counseling Center is an integrated health center so interns participate in regularly scheduled integrated health meetings with staff medical providers to discuss & coordinate the overall care and wellbeing of our clients. The counseling staff includes various disciplines including psychiatry & Licensed Clinical Social Workers which help to broaden & foster holistic perspectives towards provision of services.
The goal of the HCC is to provide interns with a strong generalist training, with a range of experiences that contribute to the development of a repertoire of well integrated skills applicable to a variety of professional contexts. All interns have requirements in psychotherapy, psychological assessment, crisis intervention, outreach/prevention/consultation, and supervision. In addition, interns, with guidance from their supervisor, may select one minor emphasis area to focus on during the internship year. Example emphasis areas include, but are not limited to: substance abuse, eating disorders, behavioral health, couple’s therapy, psychological assessment, outreach and consultation, suicide prevention, and multiculturalism.
Supervision
Interns receive 2 hours of individual supervision weekly by a Licensed staff Psychologist, 1.5 hours group supervision weekly for Assessment cases, 1.5 hours each week group supervision of supervision, and meet bi-weekly for clinical group supervision of cases with the training director. Additionally, they receive weekly supervision from their group therapy senior staff co-leader.
Our staff is committed to and highly value training future Psychologists and although we have a variety of clinical theoretical perspectives an over arching value of our training is rooted in interpersonal process and development of each intern. We respect the limits that supervisee’s set with regard to exploration of how interpersonal processes may impact therapy but we highly value when interns choose to explore and reflect on what interpersonal factors & history may be impacting their work with clients and clinical issues.
Professional Staff
Scott Cypers, PhD, Assistant Director, Outreach and Community. Interests: Group methods, anxiety and depression, multi-cultural and men’s issues, career development, athletics, identity, trauma, grief and loss, substance use and abuse, and anger management.
Kirsten Ging, PsyD, Behavioral Health Consultant. Interests: GLBTIQ identity development, multiculturalism and diversity, family of origin and relationship issues, couples therapy, cognitive and personality assessment, grief and loss.
Tawny Hiatt, PhD, Training Director. Interests: Complex trauma, supervision and training, interpersonal process and emotion focused therapy, LGBTQ identity/issues/couples, multicultural and social justice issues, family of origin problems, adjustment & identity concerns, sexual concerns/problems, emotion regulation problems, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).
Alan Kent, Ph.D., ABPP, Executive Director Healthy & Counseling Center. Interests: tbd
Marjorie Lavin, MD, Psychiatrist. Interests: Teaching, training, supervision, crisis work, short-term therapies, group therapies, psychotropic medication evaluation and treatment.
Jacaranda Palmateer, PsyD, Director of Counseling Services. Interests: trauma/sexual assault, women’s issues, assessment-personality and ADHD/learning disabilities, grief counseling, couples therapy, adjustment, GLBT issues, training/supervision, multicultural issues, feminist psychology, environmental/outdoor psychology
Elizabeth Sutphin, LCSW, Substance Abuse Specialist. Interests: drug and alcohol treatment, ACOA and family of origin issues, couple’s counseling, women’s issues, group therapy, trauma recovery, grief and loss, training and supervision
Sarah Wilson, PhD, Practicum Coordinator. Interests: mindfulness and emotion-focused treatment, women’s issues, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), group therapy, trauma, family of origin issues, relationship and interpersonal effectiveness, empowerment, couples and family therapy, training and supervision.
Application
Application for internship at our site is handled through the APPIC National Match. Please follow this link for application process & instructions.
Internship Specifics (i.e.; Clinical load, seminars and duties) can be accessed by clicking on the following link: University of Denver Graduate School of Professional Psychology’s Internship Consortium
QUESTIONS: Please contact Tawny Hiatt, Ph.D., Training Director, if you have additional questions about our training program at tawny.hiatt@hcc.du.edu.
