Cultural Humility

We are committed to providing in-depth and meaningful training opportunities throughout the internship year that foster growth in interns’ cultural competencies to improve patient care, enhance scientific research, and increase advocacy for social justice. To ensure that our interns have safe spaces to explore their identities and biases, our longitudinal supervisors and internship training committee faculty also engage in ongoing training. 

Training Experiences for Clinical Psychology Interns (required)

The following training opportunities are integrated into the core internship curriculum and seek to increase interns’ cultural knowledge, promote greater self-awareness of one’s own background and potential positions of privilege, and cultivate interns’ comfort with engaging in culturally aware dialogue. 

1. Interns read and discuss three articles with their longitudinal supervisor throughout the 1st quarter (September - December). Example topics include: barriers in access to care and identities and bias in clinical work. 

2. Interns participate in four immersive didactic trainings that incorporate both knowledge-based and applied/experiential learning components as well as group discussion to increase awareness, understanding, and culturally informed skill utilization. (2-5 hours/training) 

Topics are updated yearly to meet interns’ interests and needs. Examples include:

  • Cultural Genogram: To foster greater understanding of one’s own cultural identities and family history and their impact on clinical interactions. 
  • Multicultural assessment and evaluation.
  • Discrimination and bias within the therapeutic relationship.
  • LGBTQIA+ mental health disparities.
  • Discrimination, minority stress, and internalized oppression.
  • Double and triple jeopardy intersectionality.

3. Interns attend two lectures sponsored by the nationally recognized Center for Race and Social Problems (click here for prior lectures).

4. Interns discuss personal and client identities as part of their case conceptualization during the 1st and 4th quarter of the internship year.

5. All training seminars presented to the intern class include an explicit focus on how to culturally tailor the discussed treatment to marginalized populations.

Additional opportunities to gain training experiences throughout the internship year, include:  

  • A bi-monthly book club, open to faculty, interns and postdocs, focused on facilitating open discussion and increasing knowledge of ongoing issues faced by marginalized populations in the U.S. 
  • WPH Grand Rounds focused on best practices in health care to improve health equity.
  • Opportunities to work with faculty focused on health disparities in their programmatic lines of research. 

Required Trainings for Faculty on the Internship Training Committee 

Our training committee faculty must complete at least three of the following on a yearly basis.

1. Training workshops offered by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

2. Lectures sponsored by the Center for Race and Social Problems.

3. WPH internship bi-monthly book clubs.

4. WPH Grand Rounds or journal clubs on topics of health equity.

Required Trainings for Primary Longitudinal Supervisors

In addition to the requirements listed above for our training committee faculty, our primary longitudinal supervisors engage in further training as we recognize the important role they serve for the interns throughout the training year. As part of their longitudinal supervisory role, supervisors are expected to:

1. Read and discuss three articles with their supervisees (see intern training point 1). 

2. Read three articles focused on cross-cultural supervision competencies.

3. Attend two discussion groups focused on application of concepts presented in the articles and learning strategies to continually improve as culturally invested and aware supervisors. 


Diversity, Inclusivity, Cultural Humility, and Equity Committee  

The WPH Clinical Psychology Internship Diversity, Inclusivity, Cultural Humility, and Equity Committee (DICE) was established in 2019 to ensure the ongoing commitment of our clinical internship to furthering cultural humility and social justice advocacy within our faculty and trainees. We view this mission as critical to creating a better future for clinical science. The committee facilitates training in multiculturalism for interns and faculty, coordinates regular assessment of intern needs and experiences in relation to these issues, and promotes awareness of departmental/university events and resources related to training in cultural humility and social justice. In addition, each member of DICE is available to meet with interns one-on-one to confidentially discuss any experiences of discrimination. 

 

Dr. Sarah Pedersen
Sarah Pedersen, PhD
Associate Professor
pedersensl@upmc.edu
Dr. Neil Jones
Neil P. Jones, PhD
Assistant Professor
jonesnp@upmc.edu
Christina Call, PhD
Christine C. Call, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow
callcc@upmc.edu
Shabnam Houssein, PhD
Shabnam Hossein, PhD
Postdoctoral Associate
hosseins@upmc.edu
Caroline Christian, MA
Caroline Christian, MA
Clinical Psychology Intern
carolinec2@upmc.edu
Julia Feldman, MA
Julia Feldman, MA
Clinical Psychology Intern​
feldmanjs2@upmc.edu​​