The University of Washington School of Medicine Psychology Internship Program is supported by two academic departments with longstanding commitments to psychology training: the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine.
The Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences serves as the program’s central administrative home and works in close partnership with the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in the governance, clinical training, research mentorship, and educational activities of the internship. Together, the two departments provide psychology residents access to an unusually broad community of psychologists, physicians, researchers, and other health professionals across the University of Washington School of Medicine and its affiliated healthcare system.
This partnership reflects a long history of collaboration between faculty in the two departments across clinical care, research, education, and psychology training. The Chairs and leadership of both departments support the Psychology Internship Program and its mission to prepare psychologists for careers integrating evidence-based clinical practice, scientific inquiry, interdisciplinary collaboration, and leadership in healthcare and academic settings.
Two Departments, One Psychology Internship Program
Although residents match to one of five training tracks, the Psychology Internship Program functions as a single, integrated training program. Residents share program-wide didactics, professional development activities, research opportunities, and a common set of training expectations while receiving specialized clinical experiences within their tracks.
The departments have primary roles in supporting the following tracks:
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
- General Adult Psychology
- General Child Psychology
- Autism & Developmental Disabilities
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
- Behavioral Medicine
- Rehabilitation Neuropsychology
These departmental affiliations provide an organizational home for the tracks rather than boundaries around residents’ training. Faculty collaborate across departments, hospitals, clinics, research centers, and training tracks, and residents may encounter supervisors, mentors, educators, and collaborators whose appointments and professional activities span both departments.
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
The UW Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences is a large and multidisciplinary academic department whose mission integrates clinical care, education, research, and public service. More than 250 faculty members work across UW Medicine hospitals and a broad network of specialty, primary care, and community settings.
The department provides a particularly rich environment for psychology training because psychologists work alongside psychiatrists, physicians from other specialties, neuroscientists, social workers, and investigators from numerous disciplines. Faculty expertise spans adult and child mental health, autism and developmental disabilities, addictions and health-risk behaviors, trauma and PTSD, suicide prevention, psycho-oncology, behavioral medicine, integrated and collaborative care, global and population mental health, implementation science, neuroscience, mental health technology, and other areas relevant to contemporary health service psychology.
Research is deeply integrated into the department’s academic mission. Psychology residents have opportunities to connect with faculty investigators, laboratories, centers, and interdisciplinary research teams and are encouraged to build upon their doctoral research training through collaboration and mentorship during internship. Departmental research training opportunities also include seminars and career-development activities designed to support trainees interested in academic and clinical research careers.
The department’s educational mission extends across the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI region) and includes training for psychology residents, psychiatry residents, medical students, fellows, research trainees, and other healthcare professionals. This broader educational environment gives psychology residents opportunities to learn and work within a large academic medical community.
Learn more: Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences | Faculty | Research & Innovation | Education & Professional Development
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
The UW Department of Rehabilitation Medicine has been a leader in rehabilitation care, education, and research since its founding in 1957. Rehabilitation Psychology became an integral part of the department in 1959, establishing a longstanding tradition of integrating psychological science and practice into interdisciplinary medical rehabilitation.
Today, the department brings together rehabilitation psychologists and neuropsychologists, physiatrists, rehabilitation scientists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, prosthetists and orthotists, and other professionals committed to improving health, function, participation, and quality of life for people living with injury, illness, and disability.
For psychology residents, this environment provides extensive exposure to interdisciplinary healthcare and to the application of psychological and neuropsychological science within medical settings. Faculty expertise includes rehabilitation psychology, clinical neuropsychology, brain injury, spinal cord injury, burn rehabilitation, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions, cancer rehabilitation, adjustment to disability and chronic illness, health behavior change, cognitive rehabilitation, and psychosocial aspects of medical illness and injury.
Research is a major component of the department’s mission. Its investigators conduct interdisciplinary research across areas including brain injury, spinal cord injury, pain, neurological rehabilitation, disability and community participation, cancer rehabilitation, health services and policy, multiple sclerosis, and other areas affecting health and functioning. Psychology residents therefore train in an environment in which clinical care and research frequently intersect.
The department also supports a broad continuum of professional education, including the Psychology Internship Program, postdoctoral training in Rehabilitation Psychology and Neuropsychology, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation residency training, rehabilitation research training, and graduate professional and doctoral programs.
Learn more: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine | Rehabilitation Psychology & Neuropsychology Faculty | Research | Education
Last Modified: September 22, 2026