Medical Family Therapy Internship

Our Community: The Greater East Side

Since 1850, the East Side has been a destination for immigrants and migrants seeking jobs, homes, and new communities. Three distinct waves of newcomers have arrived here, worked hard, established themselves, built institutions, and had an impact on the development of Saint Paul. Set on the hills overlooking downtown St. Paul and the Mississippi River, the East Side is home to delicious eats and deep roots, making it an explorer's destination for culture, cuisine, and history. Our clinic primarily treats patients from Hmong and Karen East Asian cultural groups and a growing East African population. Many of our patients are refugees, descendants of refugees, or immigrants.

Learn about East Saint Paul's history 

• Residency curriculum

  • Behavioral medicine rotation: one month in residents' second year
  • Training in adult psychiatry, sexual medicine, addiction medicine, patient-centered care skills, family-centered care, professionalism, mindfulness/meditation, and CBT
  • Pre-doc intern will have opportunities to assist with 1:1 teaching of family-centered care, CBT, mindfulness/meditation, and topics of their choice
• Longitudinal curriculum
  • Video reviews and live shadowing of residents to address patient-centered care skills, communication, bedside manner, behavior change conversations, working with the medical team, both in clinic and in the hospital
  • Resident wellbeing and resilience activities
  • Precepting (on-the-spot teaching of family medicine residents when they "check out" their patients to the physician faculty during clinical time) and consultation with resident and faculty physicians
  • Didactics: twice monthly, three-hour educational blocks that cover all areas of medicine. There is a set curriculum and approximately two to four of these specifically focus on behavioral health and child development topics annually
  • Noon conferences: twice weekly, 30-minute lunch talks. Behavioral health topic monthly.
• Clinical care
  • Conventional psychotherapy: We provide care for individuals, couples, and families. We primarily see adults or patients old enough to engage in talk therapy. There are not pre-existing resources for play therapy or to work with very young children. If this is your specialty, we have been able to accommodate, but the intern will need to provide supplies. The majority of care we provide is for mental health and trauma. The Health Behavior Assessment and Intervention billing codes recently became available to LMFTs in Minnesota, so we are working on processes to also provide billable care for healthy lifestyle and chronic disease management. About 40 percent of clinic visits are interpreted, primarily Hmong and Karen languages. There is ample opportunity to learn new ways of providing culturally responsive psychotherapy and working with interpreters.
  • Integrated care: This occurs within precepting time and includes scheduled and on-the-fly medical/behavioral health co-visits, warm hand-offs, and consults through the electronic medical record or hallway consults. Topics often include management of crises, depression, anxiety or stress, sleep hygiene, patient education on mental health and trauma conditions, child behavior concerns, chronic disease management, and new disease diagnosis adjustment.

View the University of Minnesota's COVID-19 response and policies

• Trainees per year: One
• Length of commitment: 13 months (August 2024 - August 2025)
• Stipend: $41,932.80 (additional with full Minnesota license) for 2023-24 academic year
  • Vacation days and federal holidays
  • Full health benefits (medical, dental, paid sick leave)
  • Optional retirement plans
  • Conference stipend of $1,000
  • Minnesota license reimbursement
  • Up to $1,000 reimbursement moving expenses if clinic is 50+ miles from current location
  • One day (equivalent of 8 hours) per week for scholarly work/dissertation writing
    • There are ample opportunities to engage in scholarly work and support for dissertation writing, both at the residency and the medical school. Be prepared to discuss these during interview day so we can determine how to best support your needs.
  • See OHR Fact Sheet or this page for additional information

• Currently enrolled in a doctoral program for marriage/couple and family therapy.
• Completion of all doctoral-level coursework strongly preferred. May make exceptions for applicants further along in online programs.  
• Strongly encourage advancement to doctoral candidacy prior to position commencement.
• Passed National Licensing Exam for Marriage and Family Therapists and applied for licensure prior to position commencement.
• Candidates must be authorized to work in the US. The Department of Family Medicine and Community Health is unable to support visas for predoctoral behavioral health interns at this time.

Fellows are informed at the beginning of their fellowship about due process and grievance procedures. They are given printed copies as well as digital access related to all of their training activities.