Program Overview
Our clinical health psychology-focused internship will provide learners with broad experiences in diagnosis, assessment, and evidence-based interventions for the problems patients are facing. The intern will gain a clear understanding of the bidirectional relationships between medical disorders and behavior. Training will focus on the skills needed to work in multidisciplinary teams within both medical and outpatient settings.
Our graduates will develop strong differential diagnostic and assessment skills that will prepare them to work with a variety of patients within the general population, not just in medical settings.
Our interns will assess and treat outpatients in our clinic. The emphasis will be on developing outstanding communication skills and professionalism so interns will be well-balanced practitioners.
During our 12-month internship, interns will complete four major and two minor rotations. Interns will receive a minimum of four hours per week of supervision. Didactics will include education on medical topics, how to integrate psychological interventions in medical settings, discussion of core principles within clinical health psychology, and exploration of issues related to ethics, culture, and serving marginalized populations. Interns will also co-train with medical residents, providing opportunities for collaboration. Five to six hours per week are dedicated to didactics.
Mercy Health – St. Rita’s Medical Center has been named by IBM Watson Health as one of the 100 Top Hospitals in the nation for 2023. St. Rita’s delivers a complete scope of services with advanced technology and experienced and compassionate caregivers.
Mercy Health is a mission-driven organization committed to making every patient’s life better – mind, body, and spirit. Mercy Health serves eight regions in Ohio and Kentucky, making us one of the largest health systems in the nation. Mercy Health is also in the top 20 percent of health systems in the nation for quality and efficiency.
Our internship’s inpatient training site is located within St. Rita’s Medical Center and is connected to our ambulatory clinics via walkways. We receive logistical and financial support from our outpatient psychology clinic and from our hospital graduate medical education programs.
Our psychology doctoral internship will provide:
- The ability to train in a licensed, 424-bed regional medical center with Level 2 trauma status
- Opportunities to co-train with medical and pharmacy residents
- The EPIC electronic medical record system
- Experienced and dedicated clinical psychologists supervising training experiences in a variety of settings
- Minor rotations in assessment (dementia, ADHD, and autism screening clinics) and health-focused groups (including cognitive-behavioral therapy groups for insomnia, pain, and healthy lifestyle changes)
Accreditation Status
St. Rita’s has submitted our self-study in May 2025 to the APA commission on Accreditation (APA-CoA) for accreditation on contingency. Please be advised that there is no assurance that we will successfully achieve accreditation.