CIP is a community mental health training facility. We offer rigorous clinical training for graduate students in psychology, social work, and counseling. Each year, we have a total of 14 to 16 students pursuing their PhD, PsyD, LMFT, LPCC or LCSW degrees. Typically, seven to eight of our trainees are through our psychology doctoral internship program. Our training and supervision provides exceptional opportunities for individuals interested in working in a community-based environment with a diverse population and a wide range of issues. Our program is psychodynamically based, incorporating training from Object Relations, Jungian, Attachment, Mastersonian, Control Mastery, Self Psychology, Kleinian, and British Middle School points of view. In addition, trainees receive training and experience with short-term treatment modalities, family systems, and mindfulness. We promote service as a means to reinforce positive values and to help build strong, resilient families, schools, and communities. We offer a flexible work environment that honors cultural differences and promotes an atmosphere of continuous learning. About 40 supervisors and 40 trainers dedicate their time to train and mentor trainees to be tomorrow's licensed therapists. We believe that a thorough grounding in theoretical and psychotherapeutic techniques beyond the basic graduate school curriculum is necessary to prepare trainees for private practice careers.
 Just as important to the development of a psychotherapist is personal development. At CIP we provide a holding space for trainees to attend to the external and intrapsychic issues that face developing therapists. Feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and eagerness to gain competence in treating individuals and families are common experiences for trainees; at CIP we make it a priority to create a warm and supportive environment where trainees can grow both intellectually and emotionally. 

Many of our past graduates and licensed therapists have expressed gratitude for the warmth, care and professionalism that core staff, supervisors and trainers provided. CIP’s program for psychology doctoral interns (referred to as interns) is geared for individuals interested in learning to conduct long-term psychodynamically informed psychotherapy. The essentials of psychotherapy will be taught through experiential and didactic learning. Individual supervision, group supervision, and seminars form the core of the program. Together these focus on deepening Interns’ theoretical understanding of case material and translating that understanding into practical, effective interventions with clients. Intensive examination of each case is utilized to facilitate in-depth understanding of the work. Self-exploration and peer feedback are highly valued. Audio taping is used in the supervision process. As less training programs provide psychodynamic training, we believe it is important to preserve the rich history of this work using evidence based psychodynamic practices to ensure providers fill a developing void in services available to clients. Additionally, emphasis is placed on professional development, providing valuable training and experience that prepares our interns for independent practice and sustaining a private practice. We require that all interns have their own individual weekly psychotherapy and provide documentation of this. Community Institute for Psychotherapy is a nonprofit corporation with a dual purpose – providing education and service. The Aims of our psychology doctoral internship are as follows: To provide a high quality, intensive internship which fulfills professional requirements for doctoral level psychology interns. To provide an internship in a nurturing environment which is supportive of the whole range of human functioning - intellectual, emotional, physical, and spiritual. Our belief is that interns in turn will attend to each of these dimensions in the lives of their clients. To contribute to the exploration and research of the best possible model for the training of psychologists. To provide interns with rich training in psychodynamically/psychoanalytically based psychotherapy (i.e., Object Relations, Jungian, Attachment, Mastersonian, Control Mastery, Self Psychology, Kleinian, British Middle School, and others). To also integrate other theories as relevant (i.e., Family Systems, Cultural and Racial Identity Models, Mindfulness and Developmental, Trauma Informed and Neurologically Informed therapies). To provide interns with support to develop skills needed for a successful private practice.

Doctoral interns carry a larger caseload of clients than practicum students. The didactic training seminars are different for practicum students and interns, including an additional advanced case conference for second year interns. Practicum students spend fewer hours at the agency. Interns have their own group supervision sessions led by our Director of Doctoral Training and also do psychological testing. We require that 40% of total hours counted be direct client hours (600 direct client hours for 1500 total hours).

CIP conducts intakes, individual, group, family, and couples therapy, through our traditional outpatient clinic with clients children and adult clients across a spectrum of mental health disorders and severity (mild, moderate, and severe). Interns receive a county waiver to see clients with moderate to severe mental illness through medi-cal. Interns are responsible for clinical documentation, use of the data-base, agency tasks. Additionally, CIP offers optional specialty programs in Couples Therapy, Eating Disorders, and Dreams. CIP collaborated with Outreach Programs (e.g., schools, juvenile probation) through which interns obtain additional experience and training. Finally, CIP’s fifth speciality program is a psychological testing clinic. Our interns receive testing training with a minimum of one testing case per year. Many interns choose to exceed the minimum testing requirement in order to get sufficient training for independent psychological testing practice. Individual, couple, family, group psychotherapy, psychodiagnostic testing, intakes. Responsible for attending all trainings and case conferences except for 4 weeks vacation per year. No didactic training in the summer. We require that 40% of total hours counted be direct client hours (600 direct client hours for 1500 total hours). We require every student to be in individual weekly psychotherapy and we ask for documentation of this.

Training/Clinical Services Offered:

Comments Regarding Theoretical Orientation of Staff