Children's Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado School of Medicine offer a doctoral psychology internship training program in health service psychology. The program is designed as a full-time 12-month program that begins June 2025 and ends June 2026. The internship is accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA), and the program is a member of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC).
In addition to internships in psychology, our training opportunities include externships and fellowships.
What to expect from a pediatric psychology internship
We offer internships in a number of disciplines within pediatric psychology. At the time of application for our pediatric psychology internships, candidates should state their pediatric specialty track preferences. Our track choices are:
Clinical rotations
Interns receive 20 hours of dedicated clinical rotations work per week specific to their track, with an additional 12 hours per week providing evidence-based assessment and treatment to patients and families in the Pediatric Mental Health Institute outpatient clinic.
Academic medicine rotations
Interns will provide one hour per week of supervision for a doctoral extern on 1 to 2 outpatient clinical cases. Interns will also participate in a monthly group supervision of supervision course.
Research rotation
Interns receive four hours per week of dedicated time to complete a scholarly research project and are matched with a psychology faculty member who helps guide this process. Funding may be available for interns to present their research findings at a local, regional or national conference.
Didactic seminars
We hold didactic seminars weekly on a variety of topics including diversity, health equity and inclusion, pediatric behavioral medicine, professional development, supervision of supervision and trauma-informed care.
Salary
Interns receive a salary as well as holiday, vacation, sick and professional leave. We also provide employee health, dental and vision benefits. An intern’s training institution or the intern themselves must provide proof of malpractice coverage.
Intern evaluation
Core and specialty supervisors evaluate interns’ performance three times throughout the year using our Trainee Competency Evaluation Form, and we review the results with each intern. Competency categories include:
- Research
- Ethical and legal standards
- Individual and cultural diversity
- Professional values and attitudes
- Communication and interpersonal skills
- Knowledge assessment
- Knowledge of intervention methods
- Supervision
- Consultation and interprofessional/interdisciplinary skills
Requirements for admission
We accept applications from doctoral candidates who are currently enrolled in an APA or Canadian Psychology Association accredited PhD or PsyD program in clinical, counseling or school psychology. Candidates are expected to have had sufficient training and experience in children’s clinical psychology in order to maximize the experiences we offer.
Prior to application, all candidates must meet the following requirements:
- Accepted into doctoral candidacy and completed dissertation proposal approval process
- Completed at least three years of practicum, field placement or work experience, which includes a minimum of 600 hours of direct clinical assessment and intervention hours (we give preference to applicants who have experience with youth 0 to 18 years old and their families).
- Completed at least seven child or adolescent integrated psychological testing reports
- If you have fewer than 600 hours of direct clinical assessment or intervention hours or seven integrated reports due to COVID-19 training delays, please have your Director of Clinical Training email our training director with an explanation of your circumstances and why you should be considered for our internship.
We may interview applicants for up to three of their preferred tracks, but applicants will ultimately match with only one track. We will inform all applicants of our interview decisions via email by the APPIC notification deadline.
Applications are due November 1, 2024. For more on the requirements for admission, download the 2025 to 2026 short form internship brochure. See the link below for the full length internship brochure for more information on our specialty tracks.
How to apply to our pediatric psychology internships
All applicants must use the APPIC AAPI online application portal. The application should contain the following:
- A cover letter that also includes your order of interest in pediatric specialty preferences; maximum of three tracks
- A current curriculum vitae
- Three letters of recommendation, two of which must be from persons who have directly supervised your clinical work
- One complete psychological testing report (a child or adolescent client) uploaded as supplemental materials with identifying information deleted
- Official transcripts of all graduate coursework
It is the applicant’s responsibility to make arrangements with the recommending persons and transcript offices in order to meet the application deadline.
Our training program is committed to the recruitment of culturally and ethnically diverse interns. We encourage inquiries and applications from all qualified individuals.
Helpful resources
See where our interns and fellows are now
We work hard to improve pediatric mental health care in Colorado and throughout the United States, which is why training the next generation of children’s mental health specialists is so important to us. Students who’ve completed our fellowship, and our psychology internship and externships program, are now working across the country.