Valley City Clinic (VCC)

The Sanford Health Valley City Clinic is a multi-specialty group practice featuring three (3) family medicine physicians, as well as five (5) advanced practice providers, including one (1) internal medicine physician, one (1) psychologist, one (1) integrated health specialist, and one (1) RN care manager. Outreach services are provided to keep additional specialty services in the Valley City area, including urology, dermatology, OBGYN, podiatry, orthopedics, surgery, nephrology, oncology, and sleep medicine. Valley City Clinic staff work closely with providers in the Fargo metro and further rural Jamestown areas for both specialty consultation and for collegial activities within their own disciplines. Healthcare providers in Valley City support their small local community and other geographically remote communities across North Dakota. Behavioral health services include individual therapy, psychological assessment, crisis services, and interdisciplinary consultation to provide an exceptional integrated healthcare experience.

The Internship Experience

At VCC, 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, and consultation. Interns will have the opportunity to work directly with adolescent and adult patients, as well as work within a multidisciplinary team as many of the patients seen for behavioral health services also see medical doctors and specialists at the clinic. Interns who complete an internship with VCC are expected to be well-rounded in the practice of psychology with an emphasis on rural behavioral health care. Interns will 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 individual psychotherapy and psychological assessments among individuals ranging from 13 to 100 years old. Patients present from varied socioeconomic backgrounds and diverse cultures, including tribal communities. Patients seeking behavioral health services present with a variety of conditions, many of which include depression, anxiety, chronic pain, trauma effects, sleep issues, and relationship concerns. Interns will be trained in various assessment tests including the MoCA, RBANS, Trails A&B, KBIT-2, IVA-2, CAARS, MMPI-RF, MCMI-III, PHQ-9, GAD-7, and Columbia Suicide Screener. Additionally, Interns are expected to attend and participate in care team meetings to collaborate with medical staff, as well as consultation meetings with various professionals with mutual patients.

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
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Mindfulness training
• Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT) skills
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Motivational Interviewing
• Family Systems theory
• Chronic pain management
• Other physician ordered interventions, as appropriate

At VCC, 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.