The full-time APA-accredited Doctoral internship in Health Service Psychology is designed to facilitate the professional growth of students who are in the process of becoming practicing Psychologists. The goals of the internship year include assisting the intern to become more skilled in the breadth and techniques of assessment and intervention with children, adolescents and families. During the training year, emphasis is also placed on giving the intern exposure to the varied roles a psychologist plays in a large community-based mental health agency including consultation, supervision, administration, program development and research in outcome evaluation.
The Help Group serves an incredibly diverse range of clients with respect to ethnicity, culture, SES, age, diagnosis and cognitive ability. We serve children/adolescents/families with special needs related to child maltreatment/trauma, emotional disturbance, autism spectrum disorder, and learning disabilities.
Clients are served in an outpatient community mental health setting; in nine different on-site, non-public, school-based milieu settings; in two day-treatment programs; and in residential treatment.
Clinical supervision focuses on case conceptualization, treatment planning, treatment interventions, and the treatment process, including the nature of the therapeutic relationship and the ability of the therapist to use the self as a therapeutic tool. Supervisors also focus on uncovering the many layers of meaning in a therapeutic encounter, on identifying transference/countertransference, and on learning how to turn countertransference experiences into techniques. EBPs such as behavioral and cognitive-behavioral techniques are utilized regularly, as are art and play therapy techniques. A multidisciplinary treatment team approach is a crucial component of our orientation and our training.
The Help Group’s staff mirrors the rich cultural diversity of Los Angeles, and we pride ourselves on our ability to meet the needs of families from diverse ethnic, religious, social-economic and linguistic backgrounds. Interns attend a monthly Cultural Complexity Seminar with training staff, and intertwine the topic of culture into all their roles.
The Help Group’s Doctoral Internship Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association. Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation.
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1St Street, NE
Washington, D.C., 20002
Email: apaaccred@apa.org Web: www.apa.org/ed/accreditation
Telephone: (202) 336-5979
TDD/TTY: (202) 336-6123
2024-2025 Internship Brochure
You can download a copy of the 2024-2025 Help Group Internship Brochure, which offers a comprehensive description of the internship program.
The Doctoral internship program utilizes the online APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI). The AAPI is available on the APPIC website. Applicants must be attending an APA-accredited graduate school in Clinical, Counseling or School Psychology.
The Help Group requires three letters of recommendation to be sent through the reference portal of the online AAPI.
All application materials must be received by November 10, 2023, at 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time and will only be accepted via the online AAPI.
When all application materials have been received, selected applicants will be contacted for interviews. Notifications of interviews will be completed on or before December 15, 2023. Although The Help Group has historically hosted interviews and open houses in person, all interviews and open houses this past recruiting season were virtual. The program will wait for APPIC’s recommendation and guidance from state and federal officials to determine the format of interviews and open houses that will likely occur in January of 2024. Interns will be selected based upon matching the applicant’s training needs and interests with the needs, interests and mission of the agency and the internship program. For further information, Robert Kretz, the Director of Psychology Training, can be reached by e-mail at: rkretz@thehelpgroup.org
Interview Process
All applicants who are invited for an interview are highly encouraged to attend one of our open houses. Our open houses give applicants the opportunity to meet with our faculty, as well as with current and past interns, to hear more about The Help Group itself and our internship program in particular and ask specific questions to assure that our program is a good fit for them. This internship site agrees to abide by the APPIC policy that no person at this training facility will solicit, accept or use any ranking-related information from any intern applicant.
Doctoral Internship Class 2022-2023
From Left to Right: Stephanie Lord, PhD (Director of Clinical Training), Jordan Sasiela, PhD (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), Caitlyn Francis, PhD, (University of Arizona), Danny Feinberg, PhD (University of California, Santa Barbara), Dylan Morris, PsyD (Wright Institute), Debra Christy, PsyD, (Wright Institute), Anacary Ramirez, PhD (University of California, Riverside)
Doctoral Internship Class 2021-2022
From left to right: Lynette Lively Cookson, PsyD (California School of Professional Psychology), Lauren Grenier, PhD (Suffolk University), Jennifer Arias, PsyD (Azusa Pacific University), Elina Veytsman, PhD (University of California, Riverside), Katherine Alvarez, PsyD (Pace University)
Doctoral Internship Class 2019-2020
From left to right: Andrea Wierzchowski, PhD (Texas Women’s University), Amanda Gerber, PsyD (Adler University), Sthefany Alviar, PsyD (The Wright Institute), Priscilla Barajas, PhD (Senior Director of Psychology Training), Susan Lok, PsyD (Adler University), Samantha April (Chicago School of Professional Psychology)
Doctoral Internship Class 2018-2019
From left to right: Angela Youngs, PsyD (Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago), Rachel Heimberg, PsyD (George Washington University), Priscilla Barajas, Phd (Senior Director of Psychology Training), Ariel Goldstein, PhD (University of California, Santa Barbara), Taylor Seaholm (Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Irvine), Anna Grigorian-Routon, MS, LMFT, Doctoral candidate (Pepperdine University)
Doctoral Internship Class of 2017-2018
From left to right: Jennifer Bob, PsyD (John F Kennedy University), Erica Stephens, PhD (Fuller Seminary), Priscilla Barajas, PhD (Senior Director of Psychology Training), Munnyuan Saechao, PsyD (The Wright Institute), Mercedes Fernández Oromendia, PhD (University of California, Santa Barbara), Allison Jamtaas, PsyD (The Wright Institute)
Doctoral Internship Class 2016-2017
From left to right: Caroline Harvey, PsyD (Yeshiva University), Rachel Kavanaugh, PsyD (Yeshiva University), Jose Arauz, PhD (Suffolk University), Elizabeth Coe (Baylor University), Alex Friedman, PsyD (Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago