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. Though every effort is made to limit work within the forty-hours a week (and significant progress has been made in reducing this), forensic interns may bring work home 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, as well as pre-employment and fitness for duty for the fire and police personnel. 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 have an opportunity to provide brief psychotherapy via telehealth 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.

Corrections Track – Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Interns train for 40-hours week 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.