Required Minor Rotations

An internship with Sanford Health prepares interns for doctoral-level independent practice in clinical psychology by providing interns exposure to various professional roles, treatment settings, and clinical acuities. All interns are required to participate in minor rotations during their internship year to gain training experience related to inpatient behavioral health, hospital consultation, rural behavioral health, and other specialized services offered in a robust integrated healthcare organization. Rotation schedules and placement details are pre-determined based on the intern’s Primary Site placement, as well as staff resources available during the training year.

Each rotation provides a unique learning experience that enhances the intern’s clinical, diagnostic, and assessment skills and knowledge. For each rotation, interns participate in treatment team meetings, site-specific didactic trainings, supplemental supervision, as well as other tasks that are delegated by the supervising psychologist. The following are brief descriptions of the rotation opportunities:

Traumatic Stress Treatment Center (TSTC)

Located in Fargo, ND, the Traumatic Stress Treatment Center (TSTC) provides specialized trauma services, including clinical psychotherapy, psychological assessment, psychiatric management, case management, and social support services to children, adolescents, young adults, and families. There is significant collaboration with many multidisciplinary partners, including child protective services, law enforcement, and prosecutors. Patients present at TSTC from a variety of backgrounds for a range of behavioral health concerns. Some patients travel from geographically remote regions as child behavioral health specialty services are scarce in this region. Presenting problems for children and families include child abuse, sexual assault, medical trauma, motor vehicle accidents, traumatic grief, involvement in the foster care system, caregiver substance use disorders, and homelessness. Interns will conduct initial intake assessments and provide individual, family, and group therapy interventions. Interns are trained in a variety of modalities, including but not limited to, but are not limited to, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Child Parent Psychotherapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression and Anxiety, and Exposure Therapy.

Virtual Care Clinic

Sanford Health’s Virtual Behavioral Health Center Program integrates technology-driven care with evidence-based therapies. This program is intended to provide comprehensive mental health services including measurement-based care (MBC), virtual reality therapy (VR) and testing, individual and group therapy, peer support and care management to improve patient outcomes. This minor rotation will expose the pre-doctoral intern to understanding and providing virtual psychological services under supervision, and being part of a staffing model to include psychiatry, psychology, social work, peer support personnel, health guides, and care managers. Interns will learn about CMS rules and compliance for this treatment modality, reimbursement strategies for using telehealth, documentation specific to telehealth, and will become familiar with HIPAA-compliant software. Interns on this minor rotation will be providing clinical services virtually from a designated office space in the Moorhead Adult Behavioral Health Clinic to allow access to supervisors and other colleagues during service delivery.

Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (CABH)

Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health (CABH) is in Sanford’s Southpointe multi‑specialty clinic. For their minor rotation, the intern joins an interdisciplinary team (psychiatrists, psychologists, NP, social worker, PCP/pediatrics) to assess and treat diverse children and adolescents (birth–17) and their families—many from rural/remote, economically disadvantaged, foster/kinship care, Indigenous, racial/ethnic minority, and LGBTQIA+ backgrounds—presenting with concerns such as anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, adjustment/conduct issues, and tic disorders. Training emphasizes evidence‑based, developmentally attuned interventions (e.g., CBT, TF‑CBT, DBT skills, ACT, PCIT, CPP, CBIT, SPACE, AF‑CBT, ERP, play therapy, psychoeducation, culturally adapted TF‑CBT) delivered in both office-based and telehealth formats; interns conduct intakes, individual/family/group therapy, and collaborate closely with the Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program and hospital-based child psychologists. Competency goals include diagnostic assessment, intervention, and interdisciplinary consultation, alongside growth in cultural humility, ethical practice, and reflective professional self‑awareness.