LSA Mental Health Services Internship
Internship opportunity with Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service
This paid internship is funded by the Serving the City Internships program and is only available to students at Fordham College at Lincoln Center and Fordham College at Rose Hill.
Mental Health Services (MHS) Program
Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service, founded in 1958, is a nonprofit community-based organization that works in East Harlem to address the physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual dimensions of family health.
The Mental Health Services program supports women of childbearing age and their families located throughout New York City. LSA Mental Health Services provide the community with free, bilingual, and holistic trauma-informed care programs through a combination of Creative Arts Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Psychodynamics. Our services include individual and group therapy. In addition, we are offering parent-child art therapy sessions and we are beginning to have Youth Art Therapy support groups.
Start date: flexible but tentatively First week June
End date: flexible, bit tentatively first week of August
Internship is in person, 200 hours in total, approximately 20 hours/week.
Internship description:
The intern will be exposed to a vulnerable population living mainly in East Harlem. Some of the reasons clients inquire about mental health services at LSA are depression, postpartum depression, anxiety, complex trauma, PTSD, domestic violence /intimate partner violence, grief and loss and the reunification process.
The intern will be exposed to clinical experience in how to integrate art materials in individual and group therapies to support individuals with sustained trauma.
Mental Health Services works with all other LSA departments. The intern will learn and support different departments as needed.
Special Skills:
- Strong written, oral and interpersonal abilities
- Ability to work independently, with initiative, as a part of the MHS team
- Flexibility, adaptability and reliability; accepts directions
- Great organizational skills
Main duties include, but are not limited to:
- Prepare art materials for sessions and clean up after the sessions.
- Assist program director with group sessions by carefully following instructions.
- Provide art activities for children while program director is in a session with parents or guardians.
- Attend meetings to debrief and process each group session.
- Assist program director with research.
- Train on EVOLV to do data entry.
- Take training assigned by the program director.
- Assist program director when she is visiting and / or training at other organizations.
- Hands-on on preparing areas to work such as snack prep, room setup, and clean up.
Requirement for intern
- need to be vaccinated and wear a mask when with clients.
- need to follow LSA protocols.
- cannot be on their phone when working.
- need to dress appropriately, business casual, for the environment and their role.
Absences should be notified at least 24 hours in advance to have time to change workflow, unless in an emergency.
Interns will not be able to use any images or any information about LSA clients during or after the internship before having signed consent. Interns will always ensure to keep client’s confidentiality when doing case presentations.
If you have any questions please contact program director, Mónica Sánchez a msanchez@lsafhs.org. Thank you for your interest in doing your internship with LSA Family Health Service.
Applications due March 30, 2022.