Psychology Internship Training Program - FAQ - New York City - Montefiore Medical Center

Who is eligible to apply to your internship?

This internship is only available to students enrolled in doctoral programs in Health Service Psychology and/or Professional Psychology, in the areas of (a) clinical, (b) counseling, (c) school, (d) other developed practice areas, or (e) combinations of two or three of the above areas, consistent with the standards of an Eligible Accrediting Organization (one that accredits doctoral programs in Health Service Psychology and/or Professional Psychology and is either recognized by an Approved Government Agency or the Canadian Psychological Association). An Approved Government Agency is a United States governmental department, agency, or body that (a) formally reviews and/or recognizes doctoral psychology accrediting organizations or (b) has explicitly recognized a doctoral psychology accrediting organization in its hiring qualifications; and (c) has been approved by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). Approved Government Agencies currently include the United States Department of Education and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Respecialization programs in Professional Psychology for which internship is an essential and required component of the doctoral training are also eligible.

How many applications do you receive?

Over the past five years, our site has averaged 408 applications for our 9 positions. In addition, we have received the most applications of any site participating in the match in 7 of the last 10 years!

May I apply to more than one track?

No. You may only apply to one of our tracks: adult, child and adolescent, combined, or neuropsychology.

How many applicants do you interview and how do you decide?

We typically interview 18 applicants for the child and adolescent, combined, and neuropsychology tracks, and 24 applicants for the adult track. Selections are made based on a review of the entire AAPI Online. We recognize and apologize in advance that there will be many excellent applicants each year who are not invited for interviews. We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity and make all employment decisions based on the ability and qualifications of the individual applicant to perform the job and, as such, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national or ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, alienage, citizenship status, or any other legally protected category. Members of under-represented groups are especially encouraged to apply.

Where are you located?

The core training sites for the Psychology Internship Training Program are located in or around Montefiore’s Moses Campus in the Norwood section of the Bronx (Adult, Child and Adolescent, and Neuropsychology Specializations) and Wakefield Campus in the Wakefield section of the Bronx  (Combined Specialization). Contrary to the Bronx's reputation in movies, our neighborhoods are beautiful, historic, and very safe. In fact, the Moses Campus is adjacent to Van Cortlandt Park, the fourth largest park in New York City! Both campuses are easily accessible by car (parking is available at a cost on the Moses Campus and is free to interns in the Combined Specialization on the Wakefield Campus), subway (just a 30-minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan), and express bus.

How would you characterize the culture at Montefiore Medical Center?

There is definitely a culture to the Northeast, as well as NYC, and The Bronx! We are a big healthcare system, servicing half of the population of The Bronx. We do not turn patients away. High demand and fast-paced. We work hard, but also have fun. We are pluralistic, collaborative, and very supportive – within the Division of Psychology, the Department, and the health system.

How diverse is the Bronx?

The Bronx is one of the most diverse areas in the nation! In 2020, there were an estimated 1,427,656 people living in The Bronx, of which 3.7% of the population identified as Asian, 29.0% identified as Black, 56.4% identified as Hispanic, and 8.8% identified as white. In addition, over 31% of the population was born in another country, over 55% of the population speaks a language other than English at home (over 45% speak Spanish), and only about 44.3% of the population speaks English at home. Also of importance is that nearly 30% of the population is under age 18 and about 30.7% of the total population residing in the Bronx lives below the federal poverty line.

Could you describe the diversity of your faculty?

Our goal is to have a faculty that is as diverse as the community we serve. We think of diversity in its broadest sense, including race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, ableness, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and gender expression. In addition, our faculty are equally diverse in their theoretical orientations and areas of expertise.

Are faculty involved in research and other scholarly activities?

Yes! All the faculty have salaried time each week that is allocated for scholarly activities and are therefore involved to varying degrees in research, presenting, publishing, governance, etc. As research is one of the nine APA profession-wide competencies, interns are required to complete a scholarly project with a supervisor/mentor of their choice, who provides 1 hour of supervision per week.

Do you provide telehealth or are services onsite?

It depends! During the COVID-19 pandemic we pivoted to provide almost all outpatient mental health services remotely (through nearly all our inpatient services remained in-person, with appropriate PPE and social distancing). Currently, most outpatient sites have adopted a “hybrid” blend of remote and in-person visits, though some have returned to being full time in-person. These policies will likely continue to be revised in response to the pandemic and always with the safety of our trainees in mind.

What job benefits are offered?

In addition to the current stipend of $47,752.80, interns receive full medical and dental benefits with a range of choices, as well as 20 vacation days, 12 sick days, 9 hospital holidays, and up to 5 conference days. Interns also receive up to $2000 in conference support (requires approval from Director of Psychology Training), and a $500 educational allowance that can be used toward textbooks, membership dues, software, PDAs, iPads, e-readers, etc. Interns may also apply to our subsidized housing, but please note that it is highly competitive and therefore cannot be guaranteed.

Do you accept half-time interns for a two-year program?

No. The internship is a one-year, full-time (approximately 45 hours per week) training program.

Are the current interns satisfied with the program?

When you are invited for an interview, you will have an opportunity to speak with our current interns about their experiences here, and to follow up with them at a later time. You may also want to contact any of our program graduates and ask them about their experiences here. We ask our interns to formally evaluate the program at the end of the year across all areas (supervision, rotations, didactics, etc.) and our interns uniformly rate our training program as excellent and report being very satisfied. They frequently comment on being particularly impressed by the intensity and quality of supervision, the breadth of clinical training opportunities and the flexibility of the training program to meet their specific professional development needs. In addition, when we surveyed all of our interns from the past decade for our last self-study for re-accreditation, 100% stated that they would recommend our internship.

Are child and adolescent track and combined track interns allowed to treat adult patients, and are adult track interns allowed to treat children and adolescent patients?

Yes. Interns essentially create their own roster of patients from among the various outpatient clinics.

Are child and adolescent, combined, and neuropsychology track interns allowed to do a psychiatric consultation service, transplant psychology, or psychiatric emergency room elective?

Yes. However, since these are all considered “inpatient” rotations, the intern will need to be onsite, at a minimum of one day per week. In addition, as these electives are typically planned well in advance so that the units can ensure adequate coverage (and space!) throughout the year, once a commitment is made to one of these electives, it cannot typically be altered.

Do interns in the adult track treat outpatients during their psychiatric emergency room and psychiatric consultation service rotations?

Yes. Interns typically carry two outpatients during these rotations as part of the requirement to treat at least two outpatients throughout the year, in order to gain experience in long-term outpatient care.

Can interns continue to treat patients who they have been seeing during their graduate training?

It is possible; however, these patients would need to be registered in our outpatient clinic and be seen on-site. Our clinics accept only certain types of insurance, however, so their insurance coverage cannot be guaranteed (although, we also have a sliding scale policy for self-pay patients).

Do interns have an opportunity to participate in research?

Yes. In fact, interns in all four tracks are required to participate in research during the internship year. The psychology faculty at Montefiore are actively involved in research and willing to supervise interns in research in vast number of areas, including: anxiety and depression, personality disorders, behavioral health services utilization, psychological assessment, cognitive behavior therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, adolescent suicide, and eating disorders. Interns have historically participated in all aspects of research from study design and literature review to subject recruitment and data collection, to data analysis and dissemination of findings. Interns frequently present data at scientific conferences and have served as first authors and co-authors on numerous scholarly papers and book chapters. For a summary of the faculty publications, presentations, and workshops on which previous interns have participated, click here. For a list of research mentors and their areas of research/interest, click here. For more information about the Psychiatry Research Institute at Montefiore Einstein (PRIME), click here. For more information about PRIME’s Center for Health Equity (CHE), click here.

Do interns have access to computers and the Internet?

Yes. While on outpatient rotations, each intern is assigned their own office. Every office has a computer with high-speed internet access and all interns are assigned a hospital email address. The Department of Psychiatry uses an electronic medical record called Epic to record all progress notes and treatment plans.

Do interns succeed in finding employment after the internship year?

Yes. Although the job market is highly competitive, graduates of the Montefiore internship have an excellent track record of finding initial employment. Many graduates are recruited into clinical and research staff positions at Montefiore or its affiliated institutions. Our graduates are highly marketable upon graduation, in part, because they have developed special clinical skills (i.e., neuropsychological assessment, cognitive behavior therapy, dialectical behavior therapy) and in part because they have worked with unique populations (suicidal adolescents, AIDS patients, anxiety and depressed patients, and substance abusers). Click here for a list of our program graduates and the postdoctoral positions they have taken.