Education Services
Holcomb provides formal educational opportunities for graduate level students to obtain clinical field placements and provides formal prevention interventions to the community to assist individuals to become more resilient with the goal to avoid the need for future behavioral health treatment.
Predoctoral Psychology Internship Program Holcomb’s predoctoral psychology internship program is an APPIC-member program. It is designed to provide students with the clinical opportunities that allow for a comprehensive training experience so that interns can assume the role of a professional psychologist. Each rotation, didactic and other trainings requirements are designed to expand on the interns’ existing knowledge and experience. The internship program utilizes multiple sites and services to accomplish this goal. Interns will be provided the exposure to diverse clinical issues, ages and cultural issues. Interns will be expected to work from an integrated theoretical approach. Schedules will be approximately 45 hours each week. It is expected that each intern will achieve increasing levels of responsibility and autonomy as the year progresses. In the end, the internship year is seen as the culmination of the student’s opportunities to practice the art of psychology, based on prior exposure to the science of psychology. For more information, please see the APPIC site description of Holcomb's program at Holcomb's APPIC Program Description. Holcomb's most recent Internship Handbook is available for review: Intern_Handbook_11_12.doc
Holcomb’s predoctoral program involves three 4-month, fixed rotations out of a choice of four rotation offerings. These include: Child/Adolescence, Substance Abuse, Special Populations and Crisis Services.
Child/Adolescence During this rotation, interns will spend their time working out of Holcomb’s Kennett Square office in Chester County PA. The Kennett Square office is the base for the Clinical Home of Southern Chester County. The focus of this program is to provide integrated clinical and support services to children and families in need from the Southern Chester County region. Clinical teams are comprised of outpatient counselors, Behavioral Health Rehabilitation Services (BHRS) staff, Family Based Mental Heath Services (FBHMS) staff, targeted case managers, nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists. The interns will function as a member of a Family Based Mental Health team. Interns will provide both individually-led and team-based interventions for cases in which they are assigned. Each intern will be lead on two cases but will be part of four cases at any point in time during the course of the rotation. Each intern should conduct, on average, 12 hours of direct service per week.
Substance Abuse During this rotation, interns will spend their time in the Newark Delaware office of Open Door, Inc., which is an affiliate of Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems. The focus of this rotation is to give interns the exposure to the provision of formal substance abuse treatment. Clients being seen out of this office may be attending outpatient counseling on an elective basis or may be court mandated, in particular as a result of a DUI conviction. Interns will provide individual and group therapy as clinically indicated. Substance Abuse assessments are another clinical service that will be provided by interns. Each intern will conduct 3 hours of group therapy, approximately 7 hours of individual therapy and two 2-hour assessments per week.
Special Populations The special population rotation provides interns with the opportunity to work with older adults, brain injured clients and the forensic population. During this rotation, interns will provide services out of the Exton office, local geriatric facilities through which Holcomb provides services and the Chester County Prison. For the older adults, interns will provide clinical assessment, neuropsychological screenings and individual and group counseling. Family counseling may be provided for some clients based on clinical need. For the brain injured clients, interns will conduct neuropsychological assessment and limited cognitive rehabilitation. The forensic population allows interns the opportunity to conduct clinical assessments for individuals with legal infractions to determine treatment recommendations that will be use in the clients’ court proceedings.
Crisis Services The crisis services rotation provides interns with the opportunity to work with clients that are experiencing significant psychological or psychosocial crisis. During this rotation, interns will have the opportunity to provide telephone, walk-in and mobile crisis interventions to residents of Chester County in the effort to support the client’s ability to remain in the community and to better access community mental health resources for follow-up care. Additional opportunities may be available for interns to provide group and individual counseling services to clients in Holcomb’s crisis residential program. This availability is based on the need of the interns in the intervention part of the program. Each intern will have hours dedicated weekly to crisis intervention that may include a varied mix of walk-in, telephone counseling and outreach services.
This internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.
Psychotherapy Practicum Placements Holcomb offers therapy practicum placements for psychology, social work and psychiatric nursing graduate students throughout the organization and its affiliate, Open Door in Delaware. The goal of the practicum placement is to provide graduate students with the field placement opportunities in order to develop and/or enhance their treatment skills. Each agency office has varying clinical populations served and can handle a different number of students placed at any given time. Holcomb strives to find a convenient placement based on both location and clinical opportunities sought. Holcomb requires a minimum placement of two semesters,, including a significant portion of the intersemester break. The agency frequently receive applications and extend offers as much as a year in advance. Subsequently, applications are processed on a first come, first served basis. Holcomb's practicum student application can be obtained here: Holcomb_Practicum_Application.doc
Prevention / Education Programming Holcomb provides a comprehensive array of prevention and education services to children, adolescents and adults in the effort to support individuals before mental health or substance abuse problems develop. Additional information can be obtained from: Holcomb Prevention Web Site. These services include, but are not limited to:
Beginning Alcohol and Addiction Basic Education Studies (BABES) is a primary prevention program for children, grades K-2nd. BABES provides factual information on alcohol and other drugs, introduces decision making and coping skills, and works to increase each child's self-awareness. The goal of BABES is to help children enjoy happy, healthy, drug-free lives.
Delaware County Tobacco-Free Coalition is a community group of concerned individuals working together to promote tobacco prevention activities for youth to improve the health and quality of life of all citizens by reducing, preventing or eliminating tobacco use.
The Delaware County Youth Connection (DCYC) - The mission of DCYC is to educate high school students on healthy lifestyle choices. Students are provided with prevention information and alternative activities that are educational, interactive and focus upon the basic components of wellness.
Parenting Wisely is an interactive CD or video-based program designed to help parents of youth ages 10 to 18 build skills for improving communication, supervision, monitoring and discipline. This program is for individual use, and can be completed at home or at your local Delaware County Library. This CD program is free to Delaware County residents who wish to use it.
Committee on Prevention Education (COPE) is a community action group that promotes healthy lifestyles within their respective communities by sponsoring and encouraging AOTD-free (alcohol and other drug) activities and programs.
BUSTED! is Pennsylvania's official youth anti-tobacco movement made up of teens from across the state who want to tell the tobacco industry that if they think they can keep targeting PA's teens, they will be BUSTED! Created in 2001, BUSTED! began with 400 high school students, aged 14-17, who shared a common goal: the elimination of manipulation by Big Tobacco.
For more information regarding Chester County Prevention Services, see: http://chescoprevention.holcomb-bhs.org/
For more information regarding Delaware County Prevention Services, see: http://delcoprevention.holcomb-bhs.org/
