Kaiser Permanente Psychology Internship: A Comprehensive Guide

Kaiser Permanente offers a range of internship programs designed to prepare students and young professionals for impactful careers in healthcare and related fields. These programs combine structured learning, mentorship, leadership exposure, and opportunities to work within an integrated health system. Among these, the Clinical Psychology Internship stands out as a flagship program for doctoral students aspiring to careers in mental health. This article delves into the requirements, structure, and benefits of the Kaiser Permanente Psychology Internship, providing a comprehensive overview for prospective applicants.

Kaiser Permanente Internship Programs Overview

Kaiser Permanente runs a wide variety of internship programs designed to prepare students and young professionals for impactful careers in healthcare and allied fields. These programs are built to combine structured learning, mentorship, leadership exposure, and opportunities to work within one of the most advanced integrated health systems in the United States. Rather than being limited to observation, interns are immersed in professional environments where they gain insights into the functioning of healthcare delivery, corporate operations, and community health improvement.

Clinical Psychology Internship

The Clinical Psychology Internship is one of Kaiser Permanente’s flagship training programs for doctoral students pursuing careers in mental health. It provides an intensive year-long structure that combines supervised clinical practice, didactic learning, and mentorship from licensed psychologists. Participants gain exposure to patient care across outpatient, inpatient, and specialty settings, while also attending training seminars on evidence-based practices, ethics, and professional development. The program is nationally recognized and fulfills the clinical hours needed for licensure, making it a critical step for those seeking a career in clinical psychology within integrated health care systems.

Comprehensive Training and Exposure

The Kaiser Permanente Psychology Internship is designed to transition interns from students to professional clinical psychologists. Conducted under the Department of Psychiatry at Los Angeles Medical Center and the Department of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine at San Diego Medical Center, the program emphasizes direct patient responsibility and exposure to a large and varied patient base. Interns benefit from the supervision of experienced faculty and staff, ensuring a well-rounded and supportive educational environment.

Program Structure and Environment

Kaiser Permanente’s Clinical Psychology Internship Training Programs are designed to facilitate the transition from student to solidly trained professional psychologist. Kaiser Permanente has decades of experience in medical education in an HMO setting. The program provides an educational environment that includes direct patient responsibility and a large and varied patient base. You will also benefit from the supervision of our experienced faculty and staff.

Training Components

The Psychology Practicum Externship typically begins with an onboarding and shadowing process and transitions into opportunities for externs to engage in direct patient care in both individual and group settings, as well as participate in weekly supervision and didactic seminars in a supportive and structured environment. Selection of clinical cases and size of the caseload are adjusted according to the extern’s readiness as determined by the training supervisor. Training is organized in a sequential, cumulative, and graded manner.

Supervision and Didactic Training

The position provides 2 hours per week of each of the following: individual supervision; group supervision; and didactic training. Interns receive four hours of individual, face-to-face supervision and one hour of group supervision per week, for a total of five hours. This includes one hour each with a treatment unit supervisor, assessment supervisor and two different individual psychotherapy supervisors. In addition, all interns spend one hour per week together in group supervision. Lastly, interns are regularly scheduled for administrative supervision with the Internship Training Director to ensure ongoing contact and support throughout the training year. Externship supervisors, who are all licensed psychologists, use a competency-based model of supervision. Each extern’s clinical and professional competencies are evaluated by the supervisor in accordance with the requirements of the extern’s graduate institution.

Application and Eligibility

Applicants to Kaiser Permanente’s Psychology Internship Program must meet specific criteria to be considered for the program. These requirements ensure that candidates are well-prepared for the rigorous demands of the internship and are likely to succeed in their training.

Basic Requirements

Internship applicants must be enrolled in a doctoral program (APA accredited strongly preferred) in clinical psychology; be recommended by their clinical program; and meet our prerequisites.

Academic and Practicum Experience

Each application is evaluated in its entirety. There are no mandatory thresholds in any individual category (e.g., assessment). While there is a state civil service requirement of 500 hours of assessment and therapy practica in clinical psychology, these do not need to be direct face-to-face hours and can include time in supervision and support activities (e.g., report writing). Pre-internship practicum placements should include experience in the administration, scoring, and interpretation of cognitive measures, intelligence tests, and personality assessment instruments. The applicant should have experience in writing integrated assessment reports. Practicum experience should also include a strong background in case conceptualization and individual psychotherapy.

Personal Characteristics

Successful trainees possess strong time management skills, self-reflection, and flexibility. The training program is very demanding and requires trainees to balance time spent in supervision, treatment activities, attending seminars, hospital-wide trainings, and the administration of psychological assessment measures and authoring the associated assessment reports. Though not a formal requirement of the program, it is very helpful (and strongly encouraged) to complete the dissertation prior to beginning internship.

APPIC Match Program

Applicants to our program should register with APPIC’s Internship Matching Program. Our program participates in the APPIC Internship Matching Program, and applicants must obtain an Applicant Agreement Package from NMS and register for the Matching Program in order to be eligible to match to our program. 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.

Diversity and Inclusion

At Kaiser Permanente, we believe in equity and inclusion for all. To make equity, inclusion, and diversity a reality for our workforce, members, and communities, we value each other equally. We adopt practices that identify and reduce avoidable barriers limiting full health and participation. Kaiser Permanente is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Application Process

All applicants must complete the online application process for our positions through the national APPA CAS system. Early submissions are recommended. As member programs of APPIC, all Kaiser Permanente Northern California postdoctoral residency programs in clinical psychology adhere to APPIC’s Common Hold Date (CHD). For specific deadline dates, we encourage you to visit the APPA CAS portal. All applicants must complete the online application process for our positions through the national APPA CAS system. Early submissions are recommended. All selected applicants must provide proof of degree conferral before the program’s designated start date.

Compensation and Benefits

Kaiser Permanente recognizes the importance of providing adequate compensation and resources to its interns. The program offers a competitive salary and a range of benefits to support interns during their training year.

Read also: Cultivating Healthcare Leaders

Salary and Funding

Salary funding for the internship and fellowship is through a California civil service appointment for Clinical Psychology Intern (CPI). The annual intern salary is estimated to be approximately $53,460 ($4,455/month, pre-tax). There are no unpaid positions.

Leave and Holidays

Interns have the same holidays as other state employees, plus accrued annual leave or sick/vacation time depending on which plan the intern selects.

Resources and Support

Nearly every week, DSH staff, U.C. Davis faculty, and/or other outside providers offer Grand Rounds presentations. Hospital-wide trainings organized by our Continuing Medical Education (CME) Committee are offered throughout the year on a range of topics. This fiscal year (2025-2026), we have plans to offer trainings focused on cultural diversity within the healthcare system; Law and Ethics (Law Day); Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Other trainings provided by our CME Committee in years past include: “Suicide Risk Assessment and Intervention,” “Creating Cultural Equity” with Dr. Telsie Davis; “Navigating Challenging Issues in Clinical Supervision” with Dr. Nadine Kaslow. Additionally, we have offered R-PAS trainings conducted by the late Dr. Phil Erdberg, trainings by the authors of the HCR-20, and a presentation on legal and ethical issues that relate to clinical practice, among others. Onsite resources not directly related to training include a newly renovated fitness center and onsite running and mountain bike trails (please note these resources may be closed at any time due to COVID-19 and/or wildfire season.).

Living Options

Interns often live in the City of Napa. More affordable options can be found in the nearby cities of American Canyon, Fairfield, and Vallejo, which each approximate a 30-minute commute to DSH-Napa. Many interns choose to live in Berkeley, which is approximately 45-50 minutes from the DSH-Napa campus.

Career Opportunities and Outcomes

The Kaiser Permanente Psychology Internship has a strong track record of preparing interns for successful careers in clinical psychology. Graduates of the program have gone on to secure competitive postdoctoral fellowships and employment opportunities in various settings.

Postdoctoral Fellowships and Employment

Our internship has a very strong track record of placing interns into competitive postdoctoral fellowships and employment settings across the country. Our former interns have also gone on to work as Staff Psychologists at DSH-Stockton; California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR); Primary Therapists at The Watershed Addiction Treatment Program in Boynton Beach, FL; and as Staff Psychologists at DSH-Napa, DSH-Atascadero, and DSH-Patton.

Opportunities at DSH-Napa

Although DSH-Napa does not offer a formal post-doctoral program, we do hire unlicensed psychologists for Staff Psychologist positions. Many DSH-Napa interns have sought and obtained these positions because they receive a regular Staff Psychologist salary while obtaining post-doctoral hours towards licensure. As an unlicensed psychologist, former interns receive up to four hours of supervision per week, as required by the California Board of Psychology. Unlicensed psychologists have three years to obtain their license. Approximately 20 percent of the 80 psychologists currently on staff at DSH-Napa are former DSH-Napa interns.

Addressing Mental Health Professional Shortages

Kaiser Permanente is committed to addressing the shortage of mental health professionals by investing in training and development programs. The breadth of our program allows trainees to obtain training for many common types of mental health care professionals. This training spans from pre-degree to post-degree programs. By offering scholarships, mentoring, and access to supervised clinical hours, we are growing the mental health workforce by nurturing a new generation of professionals.

Mental Health Workforce Accelerator

In 2023, we launched the Mental Health Workforce Accelerator in Colorado and Georgia in partnership with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, Resilient Georgia, Metro State University - Denver, and the Colorado Health Institute.

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