Toward Practice-Oriented Theoretical Models for Internship Training

Internships accredited by the American Psychological Association are required to state a training model which guides their teaching and training of interns. Rodolfa, Kaslow, Stewart, Keilen, and Baker (2005) demonstrated that there is little correspondence between the models internships claim and their conceptualization and implementation of those models. Stedman, Hatch, Schoenfeld, and Keilen (2005) found that teaching during internship is primarily practice-oriented. Results of this study showed that the majority of internships self-identify as eclectic and offer psychotherapy training in fair correspondence to their eclectic models. These three studies suggest that more accurate training models for internships should be practitioner oriented and should reflect the eclectic nature of the majority of internships. Implications for revision of the accreditation standard and for internships' self-understanding are discussed.