Devereux Beneto
Pre-doctoral Internship |
The Eagleview program of Devereux's Brandywine Center is a residential treatment center that provides comprehensive treatment of boys age 7 to 13 with serious behavior difficulties in the following areas:
- Acting out in school, aggression, running away, stealing, poor conflict resolution skills, poor peer relationships, and low frustration tolerance.
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| Client Population |
Children admitted to the program typically carry diagnoses such as:
- Oppositional Defiant Disorder
- Intermittent Explosive Disorder
- Conduct Disorder
- PTSD
- Rule Out Mood or Anxiety Disorders
- Children with Thought Disorders and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (Asperger's Disorder)
Clients are screened for cognitive abilities and not admitted if they have documented Mental Retardation. However, many children fall within the Borderline range of cognitive functioning, with some skills in the MR range. |
| Typical Week |
A Typical Week for the intern at Brandywine involves:
- Five to seven hours per week are spent in individual therapy with clients with an additional 4 to 5 hours devoted to case management (consulting with agencies, families, staff, and teachers), and 5-7 hours to family therapy.
- Attend an hour long clinical team meeting 3 times per week in which the team reviews program wide concerns, incidents with clients, general milieu issues, and issues/developments in client's treatment.
- The intern is responsible for facilitating treatment review meetings (2 to 3 per week) with clients, families, agencies, and the team, generating and updating the treatment plan, and conducting planning meetings for aftercare services.
- Five to six hours per week documenting clinical activities relevant to clients.
The intern also completes admissions in conjunction with the psychiatrist and conducts evaluations with potential clients to determine their suitability for the program. |
| Training Supervision |
The primary supervisor provides 3 hours of supervision per week reviewing clinical materials, including individual and family therapy, any issues with consultation, and overall internship issues. The primary supervisor also reviews assessment issues, exposure to new assessment tools, assists with editing reports, and oversees clinical conceptualization of assessment client.
The secondary supervisor provides at least one hour of supervision per week reviewing clinical issues with clients and program issues. The secondary supervisor is available for additional supervision as needed. |
| Caseload |
| A typical caseload is approximately 7 to 8 clients, for which the intern is responsible for individual psychotherapy, family therapy, case-management, and consultation with staff and teachers. In addition, the intern conducts monthly treatment planning/review meetings for each client as well as consulting with the psychiatrist. The clinical approach varies according to the needs of the child, but cognitive behavioral modalities are most widely used. |
| Psychological Assessments |
| The intern completes a minimum of 3 psychological assessments over the course of the year. More assessments can be conducted if the intern is interested. Referrals are generated from school as well as clinicians and range from assessing level of cognitive functioning to comprehensive batteries that include observations, interviews, educational, and projective testing. Previous experience with the Rorschach is an asset. Clinicians are very open to making referrals, especially if you let them know you are looking to do additional evaluations. |
| Group Therapy |
The Brandywine Intern leads group clinical session targeting peer relationships, conflict resolution, and anger management, which is frequently co-facilitated with staff person. There is the potential to be involved with Family Connections, a parent psychoeducational group that meets weekly. Program is flexible enough to allow for specific group interventions according to the intern's interests, skills, and the needs of the clients.
Depending on the level of family involvement in treatment, the intern is involved with family therapy in both traditional and nontraditional interventions. Families are expected to participate in face-face family therapy twice a month, with adjustments made on a case by case basis. Much of the intern's focus can be on conducting family consultations, phone contact, and sessions via teleconference if families have transportation difficulties or other conflicts. The intern is most successful at obtaining family participation if creative solutions to problems can be found. |
| Outcome Study |
| An internship requirement is to complete an outcome study targeting a clinical aspect of the Brandywine program. In the past, interns have focussed on programmatic, client, and staffing variables that contribute to therapeutic holds. The most recent project focused on prosocial behaviors and how they relate to negative behaviors such as physical aggression and property destruction. |
| Additional Activities |
As a primary therapist, the intern consults with staff regarding particular behavioral modification techniques for clients as well as gaining their observations of client and family. The intern also consults with teachers and teachers' aides to provide a continuum of care for the client in the school. A list of assessments available on campus follows. Additional assessments are available from other campuses or can be provided by the intern if he or she has a particular interest or preferred assessment instrument:
- K-ABC (Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children)
- TONI-3 (Test of Nonverbal Intelligence-3)
- WASI, WISC-III, WISC-IV
- ABI (Adaptive Behavior Inventory)
- K-ABC (Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children)
- TOMA-2 (Test of Mathematical Abilities - 2)
- WJ-III (Woodcock Johnson - III)
- WRAT-3, Bender-Gestalt
- VMI (BEERY)
- Adolescent apperception cards
- CAT (Children's apperception test)
- HTP (House-Tree-Person)
- Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale
- Reynold's Adolescent Depression Scale
- Reynold's Child Depression Scale
- Robert's Apperception Test for Children
- Rorschach
- TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)
- BASC (Behavior Assessment System for Children)
- CRS-R (Conner's - Teacher, Parent, & Self-Report)
- DSMD (Devereux Scale of Mental Disorders
- SAED (Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance)
- SPSI (Scales for Predicting Successful Inclusion)
The intern is also able to attend conferences and workshops throughout the year. Workshops that were particularly helpful or interesting were the Ross Green presentation on treating the explosive child and the Dian Williams presentation on assessment of fire-setting behavior in children and adolescents. The primary supervisor also provides texts that are helpful including Treating the Tough Adolescent by Sells (1998) and The Explosive Child by Green (2001). |
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