Our interns come from graduate programs across the United States, often with an emphasis on pediatric, child clinical, or acute care experience.

In the last five years, 100 percent of our interns have been from PhD or PsyD psychology graduate programs accredited by the American Psychological Association. Also, all of our students have had some experience working in a medical or child diagnostic setting prior to joining our program. Internship success is optimized when dissertations are completed prior to starting internship.

Our interns report that good clinical training in child and family interventions, experience conducting child and youth assessments, and training within a medical facility prepared them for quick acclimation to our program.

Admissions Criteria

We value comprehensive and diverse training experiences with children, adolescents and families including delivery of empirically-based treatment, assessment, work with diverse patient populations, application of research methods to clinically-relevant topics, DEI-related training, community engagement, and leadership activities. We also value personal characteristics that demonstrate professionalism, self-awareness, adaptability, intellectual curiosity, resilience, collaboration, empathy, ethical decision making, and cultural humility.

For the behavioral medicine track, experience in medical settings including multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary medical environments is beneficial. Clinical child interns typically have experience with ADHD, and often have experience with collaborative clinical work in schools or clinics. Acute care interns often have experience with trauma-informed care and typically have worked in intensive outpatient, partial and / or psychiatric inpatient settings.

Other Required Criteria

• APA or CPA-accredited graduate program
• Must have completed the equivalent of three years of practicum or work experience (minimum of 800 hours including hours required above)
• Assessment and intervention hours outlined above need to have been work with children, adolescents, and their families (0-18 years)
• Must have written at least 10 child / adolescent integrated psychological testing reports
• Must have completed all major coursework requirements and qualifying examinations for their degrees prior to beginning internship
• Must only have the dissertation requirement to meet during the internship year
• If NOT a U.S. Citizen, authorization to work or to engage in practical training (CPT or OPT) in the U.S. is required.

Additional Criteria

• Aspire to a scientist-practitioner model of care delivery
• Have a good working knowledge of child and adolescent development and the biopsychosocial model of care
• Have supervised experience providing individual and group therapy utilizing evidence-based treatment approaches
• Have a good working knowledge of test administration, scoring and interpretation with cognitive instruments such as the WISC-V and behavioral/emotional checklists (CBCL, BASC, CDI, MASC)
• Have experience with, or an interest in, working in a medical setting with children or adolescents

All matched applicants must successfully complete a credentialing process that includes a careful review of transcripts, health screening and a reference check. In addition, accepted applicants must undergo tuberculosis (TB) testing and provide verification of up-to-date immunizations.

Cincinnati Children’s is a drug-free and smoke-free environment. All new employees are required to submit to a drug urine screen prior to hiring. Cincinnati Children’s also conducts a criminal records check on all final candidates for employment, as required by Ohio law. Please see Cincinnati Children's policies and procedures for details.

• Drug-Free Workplace
• Criminal Records Check
• Immunizations for Healthcare Workers

We ask that you submit all application materials online through the APPIC portal. Application due date is Friday, November 1, 2024. A complete application package consists of:

Behavioral Medicine Track (four positions)

• Cover letter stating:
• Reasons for applying to our program, including areas of clinical and research interest
• Career interests
• Advocacy or leadership experience
• Experience with evidence-based treatments
• Experience working with medical populations
• Multi-disciplinary team consultation experience
• Evidence of commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
• Completed electronic APPIC application form (available at the APPIC web site). Our APPIC program code, for the APPIC match, is 150311 (Behavioral Medicine track)
• Current curriculum vitae that lists practicum work, academic and professional experience and research
• Three letters of recommendation from graduate faculty or supervisors who are familiar with your work in psychology and your personal qualifications. At least one of these letters must be from someone who has supervised your clinical work during graduate school
• Official transcripts of all graduate work

Child Clinical Track (one position)

• Cover letter stating:
• Reasons for applying to our program, including areas of clinical and research interest
• Career interests
• Advocacy or leadership experience
• Experience with evidence-based treatments
• Assessment experience
• ADHD related experience, including any school consultation experience
• Evidence of commitment to diversity, equity and inclusions initiatives
• Completed electronic APPIC application form (available at the APPIC website). Our APPIC program code, for the APPIC match, is 150312 (Clinical Child track)
• Current curriculum vitae that lists practicum work, academic and professional experience and research
• Three letters of recommendation from graduate faculty or supervisors who are familiar with your work in psychology and your personal qualifications. At least one of these letters must be from someone who has supervised your clinical work during graduate school
• Official transcripts of all graduate work

Acute Care Track (two positions)

• Cover letter stating:
• Reasons for applying to our program, including areas of clinical and research interest
• Career interests
• Advocacy or leadership experience
• Experience with evidence-based treatments
• Experience with trauma-informed care
• Experience working in acute care settings (e.g., inpatient, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient
• Multi-disciplinary team experience
• Evidence of commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
• Completed electronic APPIC application form (available at the APPIC web site). Our APPIC program code, for the APPIC match, is 150313 (Acute Care track)
• Current curriculum vitae that lists practicum work, academic and professional experience and research
• Three letters of recommendation from graduate faculty or supervisors who are familiar with your work in psychology and your personal qualifications. At least one of these letters must be from someone who has supervised your clinical work during graduate school
• Official transcripts of all graduate work

Interviews will be conducted virtually this year. The training director will call invited applicants by December 1, 2024. We want to have an interview day that is as personal and informative as possible. Detailed information will be provided prior to and during the interview.

This year's interview dates are:

Behavioral Medicine Track

• Wednesday, December 11, 2024
• Thursday, December 12, 2024
• Friday, December 13, 2024

Clinical Child Track

• Monday, December 16, 2024

Acute Care Track

• Monday, December 9, 2024
• Tuesday, December 10, 2024

We will offer an optional in-person tour on January 27, 2025, for any applicants who interviewed and feel it would be helpful for them in their decision-making process to see our facilities and / or the city. We understand that not all applicants will be able to or will choose to attend this tour. In order to remove bias from the selection process, we will submit our rankings after the interviews, but before the in-person tour so that not attending the tour does not impact an applicant's evaluation.

Typical Interview Schedule

Interns are selected according to APPIC procedures. By the beginning of January, applicants will be ranked and a list will be submitted to the Internship Match Program. 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.

Following receipt of computerized match results, candidates will be contacted by telephone by the training director. Interns will be asked to submit to the required credentialing process (see credentialing section above) prior to the start of the internship.