Social Work Graduate Internship Program

Providence Saint John’s Health Center’s Child and Family Development Center always has maintained a deep commitment to the education of social work graduate interns and is well known for providing a varied and rich training program. This is illustrated in part by the longevity of CFDC’s social work training program, which has been training interns since the 1960s. The training program involves child and family outpatient mental health services with efforts made to ensure that trainees receive a varied caseload in terms of age, gender, culture and diagnoses. We are strongly oriented to child-centered family focused treatment. Interns can expect to receive a good experiential grounding in clinical work with children, adolescents and their parents utilizing a wide range of evidence-based brief therapy treatment modalities and treatment venues (i.e. school, community and home-based, as well as the center.)

Supervision

Each social work intern is assigned a field instructor who is a licensed clinical social worker and a preceptor. The intern receives an hour of supervision from their field instructor and a half hour to an hour from their preceptor weekly. The social work intern supervisors are a diverse group of clinicians, many of whom have been professionally recognized for outstanding contributions to the community and the social work profession. They are highly committed to providing quality supervision and assisting interns in developing as professionals. The supervisors meet bimonthly to enhance their supervision skills.

Training Opportunities

  • Weekly joint clinical trainings with psychology graduate interns provided by staff experts on such topics as crisis intervention, substance abuse treatment. Attachment: Theory and Application, Structural Family Therapy, etc.
  • Training in evidence-based practices such as crisis-oriented recovery services and managing adaptive practices.
  • Monthly staff clinical trainings on advanced clinical topics.
  • Bimonthly diagnostic teams where interns present cases and receive feedback from a multidisciplinary team.
  • Professional development meetings where interns have the opportunity to discuss their individual development as professional social workers.
  • Consultation with expert clinical teams such as the early childhood assessment and treatment team, the Therapeutic Preschool, the Youth Development Project, the Families and Schools Together Team, Partnerships for Families, the deaf and hard of hearing team and the team for developmentally disabled.
  • DMH Documentation trainings.

Clinical Experiences

  • Individual, collateral and family therapy for children ages birth to 18 and their families
  • School-based mental health services
  • School- and center-based child/adolescent therapy groups and parent groups
  • Therapeutic preschool
  • Classroom observations
  • Attending individual education planning meetings
  • Home visits

Stipend

CFDC offers a $5,000 stipend for social work interns and free parking.

Interview process

Second-year graduate students who attend universities that CFDC has a memorandum of understanding with are able to apply for this internship. Second-year students who want to apply will submit CFDC as one of their choices to their field department. The University field department will inform those students of the day and time of the open house. The interview process at CFDC requires attendance at our open house where basic information will be provided about the internship. At the open house, students sign up for interview times.

Contact Information

Sharon Greene, LCSW
Social Work Training Director
310-829-8805
1339 20th St.
Santa Monica, California 90404