Moorhead Adult Behavioral Health Clinic (MABHC)

The Moorhead Adult Behavioral Health Clinic (MABHC) is a program located within the larger Sanford Health Moorhead Campus, which is a group practice that includes providers in Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Behavioral Health, Women’s Health, and Pediatrics. The Moorhead Campus also features several on-site services including pharmacy, lab, x-ray, mammography, and ultrasound. While a number of patients reside in the local Fargo-Moorhead metro area, many others travel from rural, frontier, and tribal areas across the state to receive both routine and specialized health services. The Behavioral Health clinic offers individual and group therapy, as well as psychological assessment services. The provider team includes: seven (7) psychiatrists, seven (7) psychologists, four (4) master-level therapists, one (1) psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, and one (1) post-doctoral psychology resident. The Behavioral Health team provides additional patient support with registered nurses and social workers.

The Internship Experience:

At MABHC, interns will have the opportunity to gain experience in multiple areas of psychology which include, but are not limited to, individual and group psychotherapy, psychological testing, report writing, consultation, and supervision. Interns not only work directly with adult clients, they also have the opportunity to learn within a multi-disciplinary behavioral health team and collaborate with psychologists, master’s level therapists, social workers, nurses, psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, and mid-level psychiatry providers. Interns who complete an internship with MABHC are expected to be well-rounded in the practice of psychology and leave with the skills necessary to treat and assess diverse populations as well as those who live with various mental health conditions and stressors.

Interns will have the opportunity to provide psychotherapy among individuals and groups spanning from young adults to seniors. Our clinic regularly provides care to patients with LGBTQ+ related concerns, as well as offers specialized care for patients pursuing gender affirming care in coordination with appropriate medical professionals. Patients present from varied socioeconomic backgrounds and diverse cultures. Referral for behavioral health services is required, so patients are most often referred from primary care clinics and from our psychiatry team, but we receive referrals from specialty medical providers all over the health system.

While patients present to the clinic for a variety of reasons, common presenting problems include depression, anxiety, adjustment disorder, trauma effects, sleep issues, and relationship concerns. We also work with patients who have severe and persistent mental health conditions (e.g., bipolar disorder, schizophrenia). Many patients are referred by primary care providers and other medical specialists, so an integral part of therapeutic intervention focuses on coping with comorbid health concerns, such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, chronic pain, and gastrointestinal problems. Interns may also have additional opportunities to receive training that complements their area of clinical interest or specialization.

Interns are given the opportunity to provide a variety of treatment modalities to help patients achieve their treatment goals. These include, but are not limited to, activities that are in consultation with treatment team members, as an individual therapist, or as a treatment team member within the unit milieu:

• Psychoeducation
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Mindfulness training
• Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills
• Psychopharmacological therapy
• Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
• Written exposure therapy
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I)
• Chronic pain management
• Other physician ordered interventions, as appropriate

At MABHC, interns will develop competencies in psychological assessment and clinical interventions among a diverse panel of patients. The training provided is designed to develop competencies in psychological assessment and diagnosis, psychological interventions, and interdisciplinary consultation. While acquiring these competencies, interns will also develop sensitivity to issues of cultural diversity, awareness of professional ethics in the delivery of clinical services, and self-awareness as these relate to issues that impact professional functioning.