OPI Tracks & Tours

Summit Psychological Associates Internship Tracks & Tours


Summit Psychological Associates is a large private agency with multiple locations in northern Ohio. Clients present with a wide range of psychological diagnoses. The agency provides a wide range of services, including individual adult and child counseling, couples counseling, court-ordered group treatment for domestic violence perpetrators, sex offenders, substance abuse, and individual counseling for clients with developmental disabilities.

Interns at Summit Psychological Associates will have the opportunity to work with forensic and non-forensic clients who present with a full range of mental health and substance abuse disorders. Interns will also participate in psychological evaluations that focus on forensic and various diagnostic referral questions.

Forensic Outpatient Services Track – Summit Psychological Associates, Inc. and Oriana House, Inc.


Interns train for 40 hours weekly at Summit Psychological Associates, Inc. in Akron, Ohio. They also have the opportunity to provide group and individual services at the Oriana House Community Corrections Program. It is common for forensic interns to work beyond the 40-hours a week to complete documentation or evaluations.

Interns have the opportunity to experience all facets of outpatient forensic services, including individual counseling for adults and adolescents, treatment for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, group counseling, jail/court services, and psychological assessment. Individual clients are referred from the mental health and substance abuse courts, and parents can be involved with Child Protective Services. Group counseling at Summit Psychological consists of the following groups: Three levels of sex offense groups, sex offense groups for clients with developmental disabilities, 10- or 26-week Conflict Solutions Groups for Domestic Violence or Assault perpetrators, 52-week Batterers Intervention Program for Domestic Violence perpetrators, 26-week New Foundation Group for clients convicted of a substance abuse charge, and New Directions group for clients convicted of prostitution.

Interns also participate in psychological evaluations that are co-led by supervising psychologists. These evaluations include NGRI evaluations, competency evaluations for adults and juveniles, pre-employment and fitness for duty for the fire and police personnel, and psychological evaluations to determine suitability for medical procedures (bariatric surgery, spinal cord stimulators, etc.). Interns may also have the opportunity to participate in pre-sentence investigations, sex offender risk assessments, federal assessments for clients leaving prison, psychological evaluations for eligibility for developmental disability services, guardianship evaluations, and diagnostic evaluations. Most evaluations do not include testing aside from the MMPI, mostly MMPI-3.

Interns also provide services at off-site forensic facilities, where they provide group and individual counseling services to clients at the male and female Oriana House Correctional Facilities. Interns also participate in the Family Intervention Court, where they assist in administering the time-out diversion program and attending court meetings and hearings. Interns may also participate in additional services within jail or community correction settings.

Adult Inpatient Psychiatric Track – Heartland Behavioral Healthcare: *unable to take interns for the 2024-25 internship year*


We regret to inform you that Heartland Behavioral Healthcare will be unable to take interns for the 2024-25 internship year.


Heartland Behavioral Healthcare is an Adult Inpatient Psychiatric Hospital where interns train full-time for the internship year. Interns work with forensic and acute care patients in group, individual, and assessment modalities. Patients include voluntary and involuntary civil status patients, and forensic patients adjudicated not guilty because of insanity, forensic patients adjudicated incompetent to stand trial -non-restorable, and forensic patients adjudicated incompetent to stand trial – restorable. Some of the interns' activities are assessing newly admitted patients, DBT groups, NGRI groups, competency restoration services, SAMI-oriented services, illness management and recovery groups, and psychological assessment.


Interns work with inpatient clients on the civil, competency restoration, and long-term forensic units at Heartland Behavioral Healthcare. They provide individual and group therapy, participate in treatment team meetings, administer psychological tests, complete psychological and forensic evaluations, and engage in violence and suicide risk assessments.

Interns are active and valued members of the multidisciplinary treatment team, meeting daily. Interns take an active role as consultant to multi-disciplines across the hospital and in community planning meetings. Interns have access Interns work in a newly refurbished state-of-the-art facility with an office outside the treatment units, equipped with computers. to didactic training offered to the hospital staff and also have the opportunity to be involved in hospital committees.

Corrections Track – Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction


Interns in the State Prison sites gain experience working with incarcerated persons at several Ohio based prisons including the Lorain Correctional Institution (LorCI) and Grafton Correctional Institution (GCI). LorCI is a male correctional reception center where incarcerated persons are evaluated and classified with respect to security level and healthcare needs prior to their placement at a parent facility. Services in this setting focus on mental health evaluations, brief therapeutic interventions, and crisis risk assessments. Grafton Correctional Complex is a medium-minimum security male facility that has multiple missions including a Residential Treatment Unit, outpatient services, and a correctional camp. Interns will spend their internship year split between both facilities, completing a 6-month rotation at each facility. Both correctional sites will provide the interns the opportunity to gain competency in completing mental health evaluations, psychological testing, crisis risk assessments, suicide prevention activities, group therapy, training opportunities, brief and long-term psychotherapy, completing assessments and treatment for individuals with a wide variety of clinical presentations while working in a multidisciplinary setting.

Take a tour of our facilities and feel what we do for your internship program, give our team a call today in Akron, OH.

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