Clinical Experience

Interns are provided clinical activities that support the development of a “generalist.” The majority of the Interns’ clinical time is spent developing and enhancing basic psychology practice skill, including conducting diagnostic interviews, psychological evaluations, psychotherapy and consultation. These activities are similarly provided at both the Moorhead and Detroit Lakes locations.

Psychological Evaluation and Assessment

Psychological Evaluations: (minimum of 24 required in the year). Interns complete a variety of psychological assessments. Interns may have the opportunity to perform intelligence testing, cognitive testing, ADHD testing, adaptive behavior assessments, suicide risk assessments, autism evaluations and personality assessments. Interns administer, score and interpret psychological tests and develop recommendations based on the assessment results. Interns also collaborate with members involved in treatment planning to incorporate those recommendations to services provided. An “evaluation” is defined as an assessment which includes a diagnostic interview and at least two testing methods, along with a discussion regarding integrated findings and recommendations. This is considered an Integrated Report. Referrals for psychological evaluations generally come from Solutions’ Outpatient staff and are for diagnostic clarification. Frequent reasons for referral are for ADHD, autism, intellectual testing, questions about memory impairment, measurement of adaptive skills, and neuropsychological screening. Drs. Blake and Saxton supervise evaluations conducted in Detroit Lakes and Fergus Falls, respectively, and Drs. Blake and Siyaguna supervises psychological evaluations conducted in Fargo and Moorhead, respectively.

Diagnostic Assessments: (minimum of 24 required in the year). Interns receive early training in Diagnostic Assessments, i.e., how to conduct clinical interviews for the purpose of determining a diagnosis and making recommendations about medically necessary and supportive interventions and resources. Diagnostic Assessments are generally conducted for clients new to Solutions, and client referrals come from a variety of sources, including self-referral. State requirements also include annual updating of clients’ Diagnostic Assessments. Interns get some exposure to the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood for children ages 0-5; whenever possible, specific training in this model by MN DHS is facilitated. Drs. Blake and Saxton supervise assessments conducted in Detroit Lakes and Fergus Falls, respectively, and Drs. Blake and Siyaguna supervise assessments conducted in Fargo and Moorhead, respectively.

Behavioral Assessment:  (2 in the year required as available). Interns receive training in performing behavioral assessment, including defining particular maladaptive behavior, identification of its function and development of strategies to impact this function. Completion of the behavioral assessment is followed consultation with appropriate parties for follow up implementation of the recommendations. Referrals for these types of assessments generally come from county case managers and are for individuals with an identified disability who are on a Medicaid waiver and are working with multi-disciplinary teams. Some assessments come from Solutions’ autism clinic. Courtney Peterson, LPCC, BCBA, and Jarrod Erdman, BCBA, oversees Interns’ experience with behavioral assessment.

Psychological Intervention

Psychotherapy: (12-14 sessions per week). Interns conduct individual, group and/or family therapy to children, adolescents and adult clients. They assess, treatment plan, and provide evidence-based services to clients. Interns also monitor the client’s progress. Interns are trained in the Managing and Adapting Practice (MAP) model early on in the training year. This will give them tools to provide evidence-based strategies for children, identify outcome measures, and track and graph objective outcomes. Drs. Blake and Saxton supervise therapy and interventions conducted in Detroit Lakes and Fergus Falls, respectively, and Drs. Blake and Siyaguna supervises therapy and interventions conducted in Fargo and Moorhead, respectively.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy: The Intern on the DBT rotation co-leads DBT group. The intern shadows in the beginning and then takes on increasingly more of the psychoeducation components and overall group management. Dr. Siyaguna, Ph.D., L.P. supervises the interns’ experience providing DBT group during that rotation for those interns located in the Moorhead location, and Dr. Saxton, Ph.D., L.P. supervises the interns experience for those interns in the Detroit Lakes location. It should be noted again that the DBT rotation can be subject to changes, dependent on current enrollment. In the event that either office is unable to host a full DBT group, efforts will be made to ensure as similar an experience as possible. These efforts may include having the intern attend the other location’s group via telehealth or conducting individual DBT skills sessions.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA):  Interns receive training in behavior analytic interventions within their experience at the autism clinic while on the ABA rotation. They learn to provide ABA interventions such as discrete trial training, shaping, chaining, and the timing of prompts and reinforcement. Over time, they provide supervision and direction to direct care staff implementing these interventions. They learn to conduct reinforcer preference analyses and Functional Behavior Assessments, along with language and adaptive behavior assessments. Interns also provide consultation to the autism staff. Jarrod Erdmann, BCBA, oversees their experiences on the ABA rotation for the interns located in Moorhead, and Courtney Peterson, M.Ed., LPCC, BCBA, oversees their experiences on the ABA rotation for the interns located in Detroit Lakes.

Consultation 

Psychological consultation is an important aspect of the role of the psychologists at Solutions and is a valuable skill. Interns are provided experience in consultation throughout the year. This is intentionally provided in a number of ways and with a number of supervisors, so as to maximize Interns’ knowledge of the programs in the organization and provide a broad level of learning. Solutions has a number of naturally occurring program and team meetings for which psychological consultation is required.

Outpatient Case Consultation.  Interns attend outpatient case consultation meetings each week. These meetings alternate between clinic specific consultations on the first, third, and fifth Tuesdays of each month, and specialty consultations on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. Specialty consultation options include consultation for PCIT, TF-CBT, CBT, EMDR, and CPP. Each intern will work with their supervisors to determine which consultations are best suited for their attendance. A developmental approach is taken with these meetings in that at first Interns shadow and the clinical supervisor models how to provide psychological consultation. Interns also see how other Mental Health Professionals provide consultation to one another. Over the course of the year, through the supervision process, the Intern is increasingly prepared to provide consultation and feedback to other Mental Health Professionals.