Our psychology internship program offers intensive, high-quality training under the prestigious umbrella of the University of Washington’s School of Medicine. The program spans four renowned medical centers: the University of Washington Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and Seattle Children’s Hospital, along with their affiliated programs and clinics. Administrative oversight is jointly provided by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in partnership with the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine.
Embedded within a dynamic and research-driven environment, our program is especially appealing to psychology residents who are interested in pursuing clinically relevant academic and research careers. We are proud members of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, which is affiliated with the American Psychological Society. This membership reflects our commitment to producing and applying scientific knowledge to understand, assess, and alleviate human problems. The University of Washington School of Medicine leads all public universities in federal research funding, underscoring our robust research foundation.
Our selection process for psychology residents places a strong emphasis on applicants whose training, experience, and academic achievements demonstrate potential for excellence in both clinical practice and research. While candidates from professional school programs are rarely competitive, we highly value applicants who exhibit a solid record of scientific contributions—such as publications, presentations, and active research involvement. Additionally, successful applicants will have demonstrated a high level of clinical competence and experience in assessment and therapy. We especially encourage applications from individuals who combine outstanding clinical skills with strong research interests and the interpersonal and communication abilities needed to excel in a multidisciplinary setting.
Our goal is to provide exceptional training within a supportive and stimulating academic medical center environment.
Our program follows a scientist-practitioner training model, offering a broad generalist experience with specialized tracks in adult psychology, child psychology, autism, behavioral medicine, and rehabilitation neuropsychology. You can explore these tracks in greater detail on our Track and Rotation pages: General Adult, Autism and Development Disabilities, Behavioral Medicine, General Child, and Rehabilitation Neuropsychology. Our training program offers both inpatient and outpatient setting in most tracks.
The majority of our trainees advance to clinical or research post-doctoral fellowships or faculty positions, primarily within academic medical centers. While some may choose to pursue full-time clinical practice in private settings, all of our trainees successfully establish rewarding careers in their chosen fields of clinical psychology.
Internship Program Offerings
Assessment
Training is offered in the assessment of behavioral, cognitive, social, and psycho-physiological factors related to behavioral disorders, medical and neurological illness, and normal functioning. More specialized training experiences in neuropsychological evaluation can be pursued.
Intervention
Supervised experience with a wide variety of therapeutic interventions that may involve individuals, families, or groups with an emphasis on empirically supported treatments are available.
Consultation
Opportunities exist to develop the consultative and communication skills needed for doing professional work in interdisciplinary health care settings.
Behavioral Medicine
Training opportunities are offered in rehabilitation psychology, neuropsychology, primary care, and consultation-liaison with medical-surgical inpatient and outpatient services.
Research
Research activity is very strongly encouraged. Opportunities are provided to increase sophistication in the design and performance of clinical research, usually by collaborating on ongoing faculty projects. Independent projects can be pursued with faculty support.
Grant Writing and Career Development Seminar
An interdisciplinary research training series of seminars providing didactic and experiential training in grant writing skills under the mentorship of faculty members is open to all psychology residents.
Education
A year long series of required didactic presentations and journal clubs are offered. Special seminars and tutorials may be arranged. In addition, a spectrum of scheduled courses, colloquia, grand rounds, workshops, and conferences are available throughout the University.
Diversity Training
Diversity advancement is a strong priority for the program. Diversity issues are integrated into didactic, clinical and research training, and there is a committee devoted to advancing diversity issues within the internship. Many internship rotation sites provide opportunities to work with diverse populations, with many immigrant and minority groups represented. The Behavioral Medicine Track has been funded by a Graduate Psychology Education grant aimed at improving training in behavioral medicine for underserved populations. Three rotations were added where residents work with a variety of diverse and underserved patients. As one measure of this diversity of clientele, the UW affiliated medical center interpreter services provides interpreters for over 80 languages.
Last Modified: August 13, 2024