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 InternshipAccess Institute's Doctoral Internship Program is accredited by the American Psychological Association's Commission on Accreditation*.
Our next review period is 2026. Internship Admissions, Support, and Initial Placement Data. Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street NE. Washington, DC 20002-4242. Telephone: 202-336-5979. www.apa.org/ed/accreditation About
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 FellowshipAccess Institute fellowship is a full-time, in-person, psychoanalytic postgraduate training program. We accept postmasters and postdoc trainees seeking to accrue hours towards one of the following degrees:
MFT, LCSW, LCPP, PsyD, PhD About
The fellows dedicate 50% of their clinical hours to working at the outpatient clinic in Hayes Valley, where they see individual adult, couples, and children. Additionally, the fellows choose one of two community-based specialties: School based program or Elder program. The other 50% of clinical work is done at the community site; SFUSD elementary school or the Adult Day Health Center at Bayview Hunter's Point. The following are descriptions of our two programs: 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 receives 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
To apply to the Access Institute Fellowship, please include the following:
Please email your materials to Dr. Halleli Toder: [email protected]. Via snail mail: Halleli Toder, Psy.D., Director of Fellowship Training Access Institute for Psychological Services 110 Gough Street, #301 San Francisco, CA 94102 Applications for fellowship for post-doctoral and post-master's clinicians are due on February 3, 2025. For questions regarding the application process, feel free to contact, Dr. Halleli Toder at [email protected]. Please refer to APPIC directory for additional information on Access Institute Post Doc Fellowship: Association of Psychological Postdoctoral and Internship Centers |
Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Training ProgramAccess Institute partners with the UCSF Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) Programs to offer a year-long clinical internship for Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners seeking training in psychiatric care and psychotherapy from a psychoanalytic perspective.
We currently accept second year masters’ applicants from UCSF only. ABOUT
Access Institute provides high-quality psychological care to people of all ages who fall through the socioeconomic cracks. We train the next generation of mental health professionals through a model that values human complexity, supports socially-conscious practice, and promotes sustained human growth. (In addition to our Nurse Practitioner training program, we have Doctoral Psychology Internship and Post-graduate Fellowship training programs.) At our outpatient clinic in Hayes Valley, we offer the full range of mental health services to people of all ages, including, adult, child, and couple’s psychotherapy, psychological assessment/testing, and psychiatric care (medication evaluation and management). Our In-School Mental Health Program clinicians provide care at seven San Francisco elementary schools; where they provide play therapy, family support, and consultation to teachers and staff. Our Elder Program clinicians provide comprehensive mental health care to seniors on site at the Bayview Hunter Point Adult Day Health Center. Access Institute utilizes an in-depth, psychoanalytically-oriented approach to mental health care. We view each patient’s experience as complex and idiosyncratic, and we utilize a long-term, relationship-based therapeutic model to explore the specific form of the individual’s psychological needs. Our treatment model recognizes that all human experiences are embedded in one’s social context and working within that context is a critical element to fostering therapeutic growth. We aim to reduce symptoms in addition to identifying and working toward long-term goals of expanding people’s capacity to live more meaningful and satisfying lives. We focus specifically on ensuring that those without adequate insurance or financial resources have access to comprehensive, high-quality care. We are currently accepting applications from qualified Nurse Practitioners (NPs) who are interested in training to become providers in Access Institute's model of mental healthcare for our 2023-2024 (September to August) training year. The clinical responsibilities of our NP trainees will include providing up to 4 hours per week of psychotherapy to patients in ongoing treatment and 4 hours per week providing medication evaluation and management services. NPs will receive weekly individual clinical supervision from a licensed clinician, and weekly supervision from our staff Psychiatrist. The training program also includes a year-long psychoanalytic psychotherapy didactic seminar, weekly grand rounds meeting, socio-cultural processes seminar, and additional optional training opportunities. NP trainees work alongside and collaborate with Doctoral Interns and Postgraduate Fellows. The total hourly commitment is 16 hours per week. Below is a tentative hour breakdown detailing the intern’s weekly activities: Medication management hours: 4 Psychotherapy hours: 4 Psychoanalytic therapy seminar: 1.5 Documentation: 2 Collateral: 1 Ind. Supervision: 1 Psychiatric consultation: 0.5 Community meeting: 1 Grand rounds: 1 Required days and times include Tuesday and Thursday HOW TO APPLY
If you would like to apply for the program, please reach out to: Prof. Shauna King Hollis, PMHNP, at [email protected] |