At Access Institute we take our fellows’ experiences seriously and build a supportive community of peers and professionals to promote their growth and education. Our Fellows are taught by contemporary thinkers who have evolved psychoanalytic practice in meaningful ways.
Doctoral InternshipAbout
Access Institute provides high-quality psychological care to people of all ages who fall through the socioeconomic cracks while training the next generation of mental health professionals through a model that values human complexity, supports socially conscious practice, and promotes sustained human growth. We serve people in the “gap” – those who are marginalized and not served by existing mental health systems. At Access Institute, we utilize a psychoanalytically-oriented model of mental health care. This model takes a depth approach to treatment and appreciates the complexity of each individual and the varied and idiosyncratic forms of mental suffering. We not only believe in reducing symptoms, but also value the long-term goals of expanding people’s capacity to live more meaningful and satisfying lives. We soundly reject the idea that lack of adequate financial resources should be a barrier to this type of treatment. Our treatment model recognizes that individual experience in all its complexity is embedded in one’s social context, and working within that context is a critical element to fostering therapeutic growth. Our full-time internship program trains four doctoral interns over a 12-month period, during which time interns provide clinical services and receive training and supervision from some of the Bay Area’s top clinicians. Our doctoral internship program provides an intellectually rigorous and emotionally immersive training in psychoanalytic psychology. At Access Institute you are taught and supervised by contemporary thinkers who have evolved psychoanalytic practice in meaningful ways. Interns provide psychotherapy (individual and couple) and conduct comprehensive psychological testing at our Hayes Valley clinic in San Francisco for 17 hours per week; participate in 3 hours of individual supervision and 1.5 hours of group supervision, plus 7.5 hours of training (didactics, case conference, and community and cohort meetings) weekly, and spend the rest of their time engaging in administrative activities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have shifted our training and clinical work to remote meetings. Charting and paperwork will be done through an electronic health record system. We have included new classes that take up the challenge of telehealth work, and make space for those discussions in supervision and case conferences. Interns are able to access the Hayes Valley clinic, should they wish to have in-person meetings, or a physical space from which to work. How to Apply
Applicants must register for the Match using the online registration system on the NMS Match System website at www.natmatch.com/psychint Please include with your online application the following supporting documents:
You can find our doctoral internship training program listing on the following site: https://membership.appic.org/directory/display/475 You can download a copy of the Doctoral Internship Brochure here. |
Postgraduate FellowshipAbout
At Access Institute, our dual mission is to provide high-quality mental health services to those who would otherwise fall through the cracks and to provide training in psychoanalytic theory and practice. The Psychoanalytic Community Mental Health Postgraduate Fellowship accepts 9 postmasters and postdoctoral clinicians to train over a 12-month period. Each fellow will work at a community setting, providing pro-bono services to underserved populations through our Elder or School-Based Programs. In addition to work in the community, all fellows provide ongoing depth-oriented psychotherapy services to adults and couples at the Hayes Valley Community Clinic. Our fellowship provides 9 hours of intensive training each week, including 3 hours of didactic trainings in contemporary psychoanalytic theories and technique and sociocultural theories of practice; 3 hours of individual supervision; 1.5 hours of program specific seminars and trainings; and 1.5 hours of in-depth case conferences. Fellows spend 25 hours per week providing direct clinical services, through the clinic and community partnerships. Fellows receive up to 2,000 supervised hours toward licensure. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have shifted our training and clinical work to remote meetings. Charting and paperwork will be done through an electronic health record system. We have included new classes that take up the challenge of telehealth work, and make space for those discussions in supervision and case conferences. Fellows are able to access the Hayes Valley clinic, should they wish to have in-person meetings, or a physical space from which to work. The following descriptions of our two programs are of the in-person experience. Elder Program: Bringing culturally sensitive, psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy to marginalized communities is the hallmark of this program. Elder Program fellows compliment their clinic hours with work in senior-service agencies in Bayview-Hunters Point where they provide individual, group, and milieu therapy to primarily African-American seniors. This population is marginalized not only by virtue of race and socioeconomic status, but also by being old in a culture that devalues and disavows aging. Fellows examine how this ethos impacts their clients as well as their own work. Fellows participate in an elder focused clinical case conference and receive group supervision and didactics on psychodynamic/person-centered elder care in addition to training on consultation and collaboration with agency staff (nurses, social workers, physical therapists, etc.). Fellows can expect to wrestle with the question of how to hold an internal frame while modifying traditional features of therapy to meet their clients’ needs. Trainees interested in cultivating an internal psychodynamic frame in tandem with creative and agile technique adapted to complex factors (culture, non-traditional setting, wide range of functional levels and capacities) are encouraged to apply to the Elder Program. School-Based Program: Fellows in the School-Based Program provide care for children at 6 San Francisco public elementary schools where they become part of the school environment. We talk to teachers, social workers, and principals. We walk the halls, visit the cafeteria, and encounter our clients’ classmates and peers. Our impact on our clients is not simply during the clinical hour, but throughout our time on campus. This requires thoughtful consideration of our multiple roles at the school, and the development of an internal frame that supports our clinical thinking. Fellows in the School-Based Program receive training focused on developing a flexible internal frame. In addition, they will receive training in consultation and collaboration, as well as in psychodynamic play therapy. How to Apply
Please send a cover letter specifying which program(s) you are interested in training in, an essay describing your theoretical orientation, an autobiographical essay, a CV, and three letters of recommendation from those familiar with your clinical work via snail mail to: Loong Kwok, Psy.D., Director of Training Access Institute for Psychological Services 110 Gough Street, #301 San Francisco, CA 94102 You can also email your materials to training@accessinst.org. You can find more information about our postgraduate training program listing on the following site: Association of Psychological Postdoctoral and Internship Centers |