Careers Category: Internships

Each year Lorenz Clinic offers a small number of clinical extern positions for doctoral students in Family Social Science and related programs who want to remain clinically active alongside their academic program. The workload is intentionally modest — scheduled around your coursework, not competing with it. This is a paid position.

This is not a typical practicum placement. It is an opportunity to do real clinical work inside an institution that thinks carefully about what clinical work is for.

• Job Title: Clinical Extern
• Direct Supervisor: Associate Training Director
• Compensation: Competitive, commensurate with credentials and experience
• Location: All locations

The Position

Externs provide direct therapy with couples and families, with a caseload defined by the clinic and the student’s availability. The position is scheduled around your class schedule, enabling you to focus on your academic program while maintaining meaningful clinical activity. Candidates with interest in working with young children and their families are especially encouraged to apply.

What Kind of Place You’d Be Entering

Lorenz Clinic is a private outpatient clinic serving children, families, and adults across six locations in the southwest Minneapolis metro. We are a training clinic in the fullest sense — not as a credential or a marketing line, but as an organizing commitment. The way we train is an expression of how we think about development, formation, and what it means to become a clinician rather than simply accumulate hours.

Our training architecture includes master’s-level practicum placements, a Post-Master’s Fellowship, and a postdoctoral psychology fellowship. These aren’t parallel programs running independently. They are rungs in a deliberately designed formation ladder — an environment in which clinicians at every level are shaped by the architecture, not just by the instruction they receive within it.

We think about what supervision is actually for. We think about how environments shape development — at the level of the family in the room, the clinical team, and the institution itself. If those questions interest you as a doctoral student, you will find people here who are asking them seriously.

We serve a predominantly suburban and rural population, many without insurance. Reduced-fee services are not a footnote to our mission. They are part of it.

Training Program

The externship sits within a training program that includes master’s-level practicum placements, a Post-Master’s Fellowship, and a postdoctoral psychology fellowship supervised by licensed psychologists and family therapists. Externs participate in individual and group supervision, monthly agency-wide case consultation, grand rounds, and periodic didactic trainings.

Recent invited speakers have included Drs. Froma Walsh, Mac Baird, Irvin Yalom, Bruce Perry, Pauline Boss, Sue Johnson, Mary Catherine Bateson, Harry Aponte, and Carol Falender.

Requirements

Candidates must hold a master’s or doctoral degree in psychology, clinical counseling, Marriage & Family Therapy, Social Work, or a similar field from a regionally accredited program — or be currently enrolled in a doctoral program in a bona fide field placement or internship leading to licensure as a mental health professional. Candidates must comply with all applicable requirements for licensure or board certification, including supervised practice in the delivery of mental health services.

Benefits

Externs are part of a training ecology with a rich schedule of learning activities. Most required licensure supervision hours can be obtained through the program. Full-time externs are eligible for employee benefits.

To Apply

To apply, submit your CV and a cover letter to Dr. Jessica Simpson, Associate Training Director, via the online job portal here. Cover letters are required and should broadly outline your professional goals, commitment to the common good, and a brief narrative of your experience providing psychotherapy. Applicants invited to interview may be asked to provide writing samples and a letter of recommendation from a past clinical supervisor.

Dr. Simpson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Family Social Science and welcomes questions from current students about the program and the clinic.

Current Clinical Externs & Alumni

• Jessica Simpson, PhD – University of Minnesota (2025)
• Ari Schoenholtz, MA – The Wright Institute (2024-2025)
• Janette Driscoll, PhD – University of Minnesota (2022-present)
• Connor Callahan, PhD – University of Minnesota (2020-22)
• Erin Guyette, PhD – University of Minnesota (2020-22)
• Kimberly Stewart, PhD – University of Oklahoma (2019-20)
• Eugene Hall, PhD – University of Minnesota (2018-20)

Download our Internship Brochure

Lorenz offers a Doctoral Internship in Health Service Psychology. The placement starts in late August each year and requires a full-time, year-long commitment. Interns function in an applied, clinical role and receive structured training in the provision of direct client contact with contextually-informed psychotherapy, psychological assessment, and supervision. Interns present at the clinic’s grand rounds and provide a limited number of didactics in the larger training program.

The internship features a rich invited speaker series, monthly grand rounds, and regular case consultation in addition to professional development, assessment, and clinical supervision.

The internship is in the spirit of a practitioner-scholar model and requires enrollment in a doctoral degree from an APA/CPA-accredited graduate program in counseling, clinical, or school psychology or enrollment in a doctoral program eligible for participation in APPIC Post-Vacancy Match Service. Applications must be completed through APPIC’s AAPI portal with the appropriate letters of recommendation and integrated report. The internship includes a competitive annual stipend. Admission is competitive, as we select from a national pool of those with additional training in delivering services to children, families, and/or couples. The placement is designed to meet the predoctoral requirements for licensure as a psychologist in Minnesota. Consultation with graduate school programs will occur throughout the internship to ensure that the intern is making progress toward graduation upon completion of the internship.

Who is Eligible?

This position is open to graduate student clinicians in their final year of study seeking their doctoral internship within a structured and vibrant clinical training program. The internship is a unique position that involves a graduate-level clinical intern functioning in an applied clinical role as a clinical trainee within the clinic’s training program. The position is designed to be a one-year, 1900-hour, temporary, full-time training placement for trainees enrolled in a doctoral degree program in psychology in their final year of study.

Interns are required to train in the following competencies throughout the Internship. The American Psychological Association’s profession-wide competencies are in the following areas:

• Research
• Ethical and Legal Standards
• Individual and Cultural Diversity
• Professional Values and Attitudes
• Communication and Interpersonal Skills
• Assessment
• Intervention
• Supervision
• Consultation and Interprofessional/Interdisciplinary Skills

Job Duties

Job duties include but are not limited to:

• Carrying psychotherapy and assessment caseload as defined by clinic
• Ability and availability to meet clients during times that work for them (typically at least 2 later evenings per week)
• Ability to work a 5-day workweek and offer appointment times that work for clients
• Ability to provide clinical services to a wide variety of populations (i.e., ages, populations, diagnoses, etc.) under clinical supervision
• Ability to conduct supervised practice with children of all ages and their families
• The provision of clinical services including conducting diagnostic assessments, psychological evaluations, treatment planning, psychotherapy, and discharge planning for patients of the clinic
• Attending and participating in individual supervision, monthly case consultation, Grand Rounds, business meetings, and other meetings as required by Clinic
• Providing intermittent didactics within clinic’s training program as assigned
• Compliance with clinic documentation standards
• Compliance with licensing board rules, APA Code of Ethics, and DHS regulations and guidelines
• Maintain professionalism in all interactions with staff, patients, and business associates of clinic
• Keeping abreast of billing issues and discussing same with patients when necessary
• Assisting in intermittent peer-reviews of patient files
• Adherence to directives by applicable direct clinical and administrative supervisors
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Completion of the academic requirements from an APA/CPA-accredited doctoral degree in counseling, clinical, or school psychology prior to start date.
• Compliance with respective board rule related to pursuit of licensure
• Ability and willingness to service patients primarily on an outpatient basis (with some services done in-home or in the community as cases demand)
• Flexibility to meet when patients are available to meet (usually requires some evenings)
• Evidence of a high level of professionalism within the field
• Strong clinical acumen
• An expressed interest in working with children and families
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary treatment team
• Excellent interpersonal and written/verbal communication skills
• Ability and willingness to provide services to children, adolescents, and families
• Ability to respect diversity and integrate issues of culture into case conceptualizations
• Ability to engage with patients who may be ambivalent about treatment
• Ability to adapt interventions to patients’ strengths, skills, and developmental levels
• Commitment to empowering patients to solve their own problems when necessary
• Ability to intervene decisively, when necessary, to protect patient safety
• Ability to set appropriate boundaries and limits for best practice
• Ability to comply with clinic documentation standards
• Ability to maintain a full caseload as defined by clinic

Benefits

Interns receive three weeks of paid time off, access to employer-sponsored group medical and dental insurance, short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, life insurance, 401K with company match, and paid holidays.

To Apply

Admission to our training program is competitive. To apply for a training placement, please submit your application via APPIC’s AAPI portal. The clinic’s selection policies are modeled on the APPIC selection guidelines. If you have questions about how to apply, please contact Dr. Jared Spencer, Assistant Training Director, at employment@lorenzclinic.com.

Note: All offers are contingent upon successful completion of reference checks, I9, and background checks including Minnesota Statute 148.01 “Minnesota Sexual Exploitation Act.” This statute requires Lorenz Clinic contact employers from at least the last five years to determine whether any sexual exploitation of clients has occurred.  Applicants who do not successfully pass these background checks will be dismissed from the placement.