Introduction & Background

Training Overview

The Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is Georgia’s leading pediatric healthcare provider with three hospitals and multiple neighborhood locations. For more than 100 years, our purpose has been the same: making kids better today and healthier tomorrow.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta offers you the chance to build a stellar career with unmatched opportunities for collaboration among some of the best clinical and academic centers in the nation. We work with the following neighboring institutions to develop cutting-edge treatments and technologies to answer the most perplexing childhood medical questions:

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Emory University School of Medicine
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Morehouse School of Medicine

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Doctoral Internship in Health Service Psychology at Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics offers a tailored curriculum providing didactic and clinical training designed to meet the skill level and learning objectives of each intern. The internship offers the opportunity to match in one of seven tracks to provide interns to gain a significant level of clinical expertise in a particular area. Although the tracks emphasize distinct areas of practice, all tracks endeavor to (A) train providers with the core skills required to provide clinical assessment and treatment services, to children and families, (B) create a learning environment where people effect treatment, research, and teaching characterized by respect, openness, and compassion toward others, and (C) foster skills, values, and awareness that promote the application of research science to innovate clinical practice within a pediatric medical clinic.

Clinical Experiences

All interns participate in at least one major and minor rotation throughout the year. Depending on the track, interns receive more training in assessment, outpatient treatment, and intensive outpatient day treat. The Internship's philosophy of education holds that one best learns by studying and doing. Based on each intern’s level of professional development, training proceeds in a progressive manner. Interns initially observe clinical cases with comment from the licensed psychologist supervisor, read select articles/chapters, and receive other forms of instruction to familiarize the intern with the particular issues involved with patients/families. The interns rapidly proceed to conducting sessions independently with frequent supervision and feedback, and they then progress to become more independent while increasing the number and types of cases with more complexity. Interns complete at least 500 direct patient hours. Tracks and numbers of positions continue to be finalized and budgeted for through September. Please check the APPIC website for the most up-to-date listings of Tracks and Positions.

Research

The Internship faculty has an internationally renowned research program and a consistent record of research productivity. Whenever possible, interns are supported fully to participate in ongoing research projects encountered through clinical services. Interns may elect to participate in ongoing studies directed by faculty and/or to initiate independent research compatible with the Internship’s mission. Each intern is required to complete at least one research project, separate from the dissertation, that results in a professional product (poster, paper, manuscript), usually as first author. A list of representative faculty publications is available here. Historically, trainees have been active in research activities as evidenced by the number of publications that have included trainees.

Supervision and Mentoring

At least one licensed psychologist is responsible for providing close supervision of the intern's performance on each clinical case. Interns consult daily with a faculty case manager to review case responsibilities, selection and implementation of measurement and treatment procedures, data interpretation, and treatment planning. In addition, there are opportunities for direct observations with feedback both in vivo and by video recording, as well as co-therapy with faculty members. Throughout the Marcus Autism Center there are rooms equipped with two-way mirrors and/or video recording equipment that feed live or recorded video to any computer in the building—including in faculty offices. The program strictly adheres to the APA guidelines of two hours of individual and group supervision.

In addition to supervision, each intern participates in our Mentorship Program and is matched with a faculty mentor that serves in a non-evaluative role. The Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Doctoral Internship Mentorship Program exists to encourage interns’ professional growth and provide support for all interns as future health service psychologists, particularly in the context of diversity and inclusion factors.

The mentor-mentee relationship may include discussions of topics such as:

• Professional growth opportunities (e.g., clinical, research, service);
• Specific skills (e.g., grant writing, implementation science, program development)
• Professional networking;
• Work-life balance and burnout prevention;
• Aspects of identity (e.g., racial, sexual, gender, religious identity); and
• Ethical considerations within professional work.

Resources and Environment

The Internship maintains a supply all materials needed for assessment or treatment sessions, and it has software programs specifically designed for collecting, analyzing, summarizing, and graphing direct-observation data. The data from treatment sessions are collected on computers, saved to a shared computer server and reviewed daily in supervision sessions. Each intern has a workstation and computer capable of analyzing and graphing treatment or assessment data. In addition, interns have access to all the library and related research resources afforded by Emory University School of Medicine.

Interns receive training across several locations in the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Network, specifically the Marcus Autism Center, the Center for Advanced Pediatrics, the Behavioral and Mental Health Center, Arthur M. Blank Hospital, Hughes Spalding Hospital, and Scottish Rite Hospital.

The Center for Advanced Pediatrics (CAP) at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Children's) is a 260,000 square foot outpatient clinic facility that utilizes a multidisciplinary, coordinated care approach to provide treatment to children and teens with chronic diseases and complex care needs by enabling access to multiple specialized health services in one place. Servicing thousands of families across Georgia, the center brings together over 20 pediatric specialties under one roof, harnessing the expertise and skills of more than 450 physicians and staff. The center’s multidisciplinary framework merges both clinical and research services to provide patients with optimal treatment options and state of the art care. CAP is the first building of its kind for pediatrics in Georgia, conducting state of the art research and providing more than 100,000 patient visits per year. CAP’s pediatric specialists provide treatment to a significant number of children with medically complex conditions who require multidisciplinary, coordinated care to optimize their outcomes. Providing “patient-centered” care, the center allows access to specialized programs and services, improved appointment availability, and a “child-friendly” design and setup. 

The Behavioral and Mental Health Outpatient Clinic is a centralized clinic that serves as a resource for internal teams to refer children and adolescent when they require longer term mental and behavioral healthcare that what can be offered elsewhere in our healthcare system. Located in 4,800 square feet of clinical space, newly renovated with this population in mind, this clinic includes 12 individual therapy rooms, as well as capacity for group therapy and in-vivo observation.

The Marcus Autism Center (MAC) is a National Institutes of Health Autism Center of Excellence and it comprises the Division of Autism and Related Disorders in the Emory University School of Medicine’s Department of Pediatrics. One of the nation’s largest centers for clinical care of autism and related disorders that annually serves over 5000 patients, the Center provides clinical assessment and treatment services for several pediatric populations; conducts translational research in the lab, in the session room, and in the community; and offers training for multiple disciplines at several educational levels. More than 25 treatment rooms and 9 assessment rooms are equipped with one-way mirrors in connected observation rooms and video recording systems that allow for live viewing or review of recorded videos. There is a Social Neuroscience Laboratory equipped with numerous eye tracking devices for infants, toddlers, and school-age children; a Spoken Communication Laboratory with a motion capture system, high speed camera, and audiovisual speech perception; an EEG Laboratory; a phlebotomy room, and a 4-D research ultrasound system. There are 3 indoor play rooms, 2 multipurpose rooms, a childcare/family room, and 2 outdoor play areas. Interns provide services throughout these facilities.

The Arthur M. Blank Hospital (AMBH) at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta will open on September 29, 2024 at the site of the expanded North Druid Hills campus that also includes the Center for Advanced Pediatrics (CAP). This state of the art, 19-story, 2-million-square-foot facility includes 446 patient beds and clinical specialties including the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Heart Center, transplant services, Infusion Center, Emergency Department, outpatient lab and radiology, Special Care Unit for the treatment of patients with highly infectious diseases like COVID-19, and an inpatient dialysis unit. The comprehensive services offered at AMBH provide specialized care for children from all over the state of Georgia, as well as the southeast region of the United States.  It will also welcome 600 fellows and residents, with access to innovative technological enhancements for research and training.

Children’s Hughes Spalding Hospital is a freestanding, 24-bed, pediatric acute care and outpatient children's hospital located in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The primary care clinic serves as a medical home for children ages 0-18 years. Our team consists of MDs, nurse practitioners, nurses and medical assistants, nutritionists, lactation specialists, interpretive services, social workers, respiratory therapists, nurse navigators, and psychologists.

Scottish Rite Hospital at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta was founded in 1915 as the Scottish Rite Convalescent Home for Crippled Children in two rented cottages with 20 patient beds.  It is one of the only pediatric institutions in the nation that has existed for more than a century. From our focus on family support and treating the whole child to our specialized equipment and techniques, we are tireless in our pursuit of providing the best possible care for children.  At its current location in Sandy Springs on the north side of Atlanta, Children’s Scottish Rite Hospital offers many services, including emergency care, neurosciences, orthopedics, and intensive rehabilitation.  Furthermore, there specialized and innovative services available at Scottish Rite that are not available anywhere else in the southeast of the United States including the Comprehensive Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit (CIRU), the Day Rehabilitation Program, and the Center for Advanced Technology and Robotic Rehabilitation.