Supervised clinical practice is a key component of the Ph.D. program, beginning in the first year and continuing through the fourth year. All of the clinical supervisors have had postgraduate training, and most are Diplomats of the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Download Clinical Training Student Handbook (PDF 384KB)
First Year
During their first year, students are assigned to the Psychological Services Clinic for one day a week. This supervised clinical experience allows them to observe and develop their clinical interviewing skills.
Second Year
Students receive intensive training through a 2-day per week externship, which is a supervised field placement where students are exposed to diverse social and clinical populations. Typically externships are situated in community mental health settings such as hospitals and outpatient clinics, but students may also be assigned to public schools or prisons. Students become involved in intakes, assessments, disposition conferences, and various treatment modalities. Those interested in continuing field placements following the second year may do so with the permission of the Training Director.
In addition, students are also assigned to the Psychological Services Clinic, where they are responsible for the diagnostic psychological assessment of patients. A faculty supervisor from the Center for Psychological Services closely supervises their diagnostic work and report writing.
In their second and third year, students participate in psychotherapy case conferences. In these small groups led by senior clinical faculty, case material is presented and discussed. During the spring semester, students may elect to begin treating one or two psychotherapy patients at the Center for Psychological Services.
Third Year
Individual Dynamic Psychotherapy
Third year students are assigned to a senior clinician of their choice who functions as both a supervisor and a mentor. One hour and a half of supervision is provided per week. Students are expected to handle a case load of five patients at the clinic.
Training in group, couple, and family psychotherapies is also available.
Fourth Year
Clinical Concentration Areas and Multiple Treatment Modalities
Fourth year students select an area of clinical concentration for intensive study. Students participate in a case conference specific to their concentration which can include child psychotherapy, group psychotherapy, intensive long-term psychotherapy, short-term dynamic psychotherapy, and psychotherapy integration.
Fifth Year
Students receive a full-time internship placement and undertake extensive clinical work. Derner has an outstanding record in placing interns. Over the past four years, 90% of students have been placed (as compared with the 80% average placement for students in the Northeast). Internships are typically subsidized by the training facility.
Derner candidates have been placed in leading hospitals and mental health institutions including:
- Creedmoor Psychiatric Center
- Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, New York Presbyterian Hospital
- Karen Horney Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
- Queens Children's Psychiatric Center
- North Shore University Hospital
- Long Island Jewish Medical Center
- Postgraduate Center
- St. Luke's Hospital
- Columbia Presbyterian
- The Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, NYU Medical Center
- Bronx Psychiatric Center
- Maimonides Medical Center
- Stony Book University Hospital
- Yale Psychiatric Institute
- Bronx VA Medical Center
- Bellevue Hospital
- Children's Village
- Cornell Medical College, Westchester Division
- South Oaks Hospital
- Beth Israel Medical Center
- Lenox Hill Hospital
- Kings County Hospital Center
- Montefiore Medical Center
- St. Mary's Hospital
- Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Cambridge.
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