2025 Clinical Summer Internship Program

Organizational Summary:

The Child Mind Institute is an independent nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders. Our teams work every day to deliver the highest standards of care, advance the science of the developing brain and provide empowering resources for parents, professionals, and policymakers. Together with our supporters, we help kids reach their full potential in school and in life. The Child Mind Institute does not accept funding from the pharmaceutical industry.

Internship Description:

Child Mind Institute is pleased to offer a 11-week, clinically oriented summer internship for up to six accomplished undergraduate juniors who will begin their senior year in August/September 2025, and undergraduate seniors who will graduate and receive their degree by the September 2025. The internship is designed for students interested in careers in child mental health, medicine, education and special education, public health, neuroscience, and other related areas. The internship provides a comprehensive experience in a thriving, innovative, and dynamic outpatient clinical practice.

The 2025 Clinical Summer Internship at Child Mind Institute begins on Monday, June 2, 2025, and ends on Friday, August 15, 2025. This internship experience is a full-time, 40-hour per week experience, and selected interns are expected to be available for the duration of the internship.

Interns work full-time at the Child Mind Institute in midtown Manhattan, easily accessible by public transportation.

Learning Opportunities:

Intern experiences are rooted in diverse supervised clinical therapeutic experiences with children and adolescents. Interns are exposed to a variety of psychiatric disorders and empirically-supported treatments for these disorders through each of our five clinical centers—ADHD and Behavior Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Autism, Mood Disorders, and Learning and Development (i.e., Neuropsychology)—as well as through interactions with our board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrists. Interns are provided with opportunities to shadow clinicians during treatment and evaluation sessions, provide direct support to clinicians during clinical treatment sessions, and receive training to becoming therapeutic counselors in our Brave Buddies program, which provides innovative intensive treatment for children with Selective Mutism.

Interns also participate in numerous didactics provided by clinical faculty, which span a variety of topics and include mentorship in preparing for graduate or medical school, as well as a career in the mental health field. The weekly didactics will also include review of assigned seminal readings in the field.

Responsibilities: 

• Interns provide support to clinicians in preparation for and during treatment sessions;
• Interns prepare individualized materials to support children in treatment sessions;
• Interns train to become counselors for the Brave Buddies program;
• Interns assist clinical faculty in ongoing clinical projects and in organizing innovative public education programs provided onsite and in the community; and
• Interns complete a literature review under the mentorship of a faculty clinician and prepare a presentation for the Child Mind Institute community at large at the end of the internship.