The Internship at Madison Park Psychological Services in New York City

The Practice at Madison Park Psychological Services:

MPPS is a thriving group practice that provides high-quality of care to high-functioning patients who present with a wide range of issues such as anxiety, depression, adjustment, trauma, and relationship issues. We offer a unique opportunity for clinicians to work in a private practice setting while receiving tailored supervision and training in Western and Eastern psychological perspectives.

MPPS offers a family-like, collegial, and intellectually stimulating environment where clinicians and patients can grow. Our team is very diverse, as our clinicians come from various cultural backgrounds and specialize in different modalities of therapy. Our goal is to ensure that our patients receive the best treatments and that our clinicians get the best training to provide high-quality of care in a supportive and culturally rich environment.

MPPS specializes in tailoring treatment to the patients’ needs and personality. We believe that the success of any therapy stems not only from tailoring the treatment approach to the patient but also from matching the patient and the therapist’s personalities. We are therefore looking for clinicians with diverse cultural and clinical backgrounds, who are insightful, warm, and flexible to tailor their treatments to their patients.

Clinical Training:

Dr. Yasmine Saad and Dr. Ali Khadivi, head clinicians and the two main supervisors at Madison Park Psychological Services, are recognized nationally and internationally by patients for their therapeutic and assessment skills, and by students for supervision and teaching. With more than 50 years of combined experience, Dr. Saad and Dr. Khadivi are passionate about teaching the therapeutic skills that have made them successful. 

 Clinicians will conduct individual therapy, and if desired, couple, family, and group therapy with adults and adolescents.  Clinicians will learn to effectively use and integrate various therapeutic modalities of treatment (psychodynamic, CBT, DBT, ACT, EFT) to achieve the best therapeutic results. Clinicians will also further their training in psychological assessment and therapeutic feedback. 

A unique component of the position at MPPS is the integration of Eastern philosophy to treatment conceptualization. Clinicians will learn about integrative medicine and eastern approaches to well-being and their application to psychotherapeutic treatment. Dr. Saad will introduce you to principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine and will show you how they can inform your diagnostic and therapeutic approach to treatment so that patients can achieve deeper and faster therapeutic progress. You will also experience the power of Qigong (energy movements for self-care). Eastern healing philosophy is a unique and major contribution to the well-being of patients and clinicians in this group practice.

Supervision:

Interns will receive weekly:

● Two to three hours of individual supervision
● Training and supervision in CBT, DBT and psychodynamic therapy. Optional training and supervision in couples therapy
● Two hours of group supervision/case conferences
● One hour and a half of didactics

Supervision is tailored to the supervisees’ needs with the goal of empowering them to find their own voice and identity as clinicians. Our supervisory approach focuses on interns’ strengths and helping them become well-rounded clinicians. We help our trainees develop nuanced case formulations and translate them into practical interventions. Supervisors encourage trainees to work actively in the “here and now”, focus on experience-near interventions, and be creative and flexible. Supervision provides a place for safe exploration of transference and countertransference issues. Interns will feel recognized and supported with the aim of providing individual growth.

In addition to Drs. Saad and Khadivi, the following clinical psychologists will provide regular supervision to interns:

Kate Foley, PhD, Director of Psychodynamic Services & The Short Term Psychotherapy Program (STPP)
Dr. Foley provides a yearlong weekly seminar on advanced psychodynamic concepts and intervention, as well as biweekly individual supervision through a psychodynamic lens. She provides psychodynamic supervision for long term therapy cases as well as short term cases through the STPP, which is a time limited, low fee therapy option available to clients.

Adella Nikitiades, PhD, Director of DBT Services
Dr. Nikitiades provides a yearlong weekly seminar on DBT concepts and application. While the intern co-leads various modules of DBT group with Dr. Nikitiades, she provides individual supervision of the DBT work.

Jasmine Dayan, PsyD, Director of CBT Services
Dr. Dayan provides a yearlong weekly seminar in advanced CBT concepts and therapeutic application. She provides yearlong biweekly individual supervision of CBT specific cases for interns.

Jerry Finkelstein, PhD
Dr. Finkelstein is a senior clinical psychologist and supervisor at MPPS. He provides a yearlong weekly group supervision in couples therapy for those interested in couples work. Group supervision focuses on the exploration of the couple dynamic and clinician countertransference, as well as the application of psychological intervention with couples using specific cases from the interns’ caseloads.

*Interns have the ability to receive ad hoc supervision with other clinicians in the practice should they want additional perspective and advising in a specific area of expertise (e.g., trauma, ACT, perinatal issues, etc.).

Private Practice Business and Administration:

In addition to expanding on one’s own therapeutic skills, candidates will learn how to run a private practice. This includes instruction on managing business finances, fees, billing logs,  health insurance issues, and other administrative skills necessary for running a successful private practice. 

Benefits:

The benefits package at Madison Park Psychological Services is outstanding. Our mission is to have all our clinicians live a balanced life and that is only possible with good benefits and flexible, enjoyable work schedules. We offer health insurance at no cost to you with nationwide coverage and we pay for your deductible. Other major benefits include dental and vision health benefits, 4 weeks of paid vacation, sick days, 401k with matching contributions from the practice so that you can start saving for retirement. The annual salary is $30,000.00 for 15 patients seen (20 scheduled).

Your schedule is tailored to your needs while complying with the 2000 required annual working hours and patients’ needs.

Remote and In-Person Work:

As of September 2022, MPPS has been providing psychotherapy virtually and assessments in person. Beginning in the spring of 2024 we will resume some in-person psychotherapy work; therefore, we ask our interns to be flexible and comfortable with both virtual and in-person therapy as we adapt to a hybrid model.